Media Center
Change the First Five Years and
You Change Everything
How would the lives of at-risk children be different if we invested in high-quality early learning programs, starting at birth?
Watch this video from the First Five Years Fund and see-through the voices of the children themselves-just how powerful the change can be.
Brain Builders
Dr. Jack Shonkoff, Director of Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child introduces the science behind healthy development in the earliest years. This brief video explains the fundamentals of brain architecture, and how that brain architecture can be damaged by toxic stress. Dr. Shonkoff states that cognitive development cannot be separated from social emotional development. The video emphasizes that greater investment is needed in programs that engage, support, and build the skills of parents. Every child-adult interaction matters for young children. All caregivers must be connected, engaged and responsive with their young charges.
Home Visitation Yields Big Returns for Families, Taxpayers
Prepared by the Pew Home Visiting Campaign, this three minute video promotes how high-quality home visiting services can lead to improved family self-sufficiency and substantial savings for taxpayers. Former Procter & Gamble CEO John Pepper, Senior V.P.; Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Art Rolnick; The Honorable Texas State Representative Jerry Madden (R); Sumter, SC Police Chief Patty Patterson; and Pew’s Libby Doggett explain why they support voluntary home visitation
Invest Early, Invest Smart: Expanding access to
high-quality early learning
On April 19, over 100 people attending a Wilder Research forum learned:
More than one-third of Minnesota’s children age 5 and under – 156,000 children — live in low-income households. At best, about half of these high-need children have access to quality early learning. Highlighting these facts and more, Richard Chase, Senior Research Manager, Wilder Research, who specializes in early learning research, advocated to change QRIS (Quality Rating Improvement System) to ERIAS (Effectiveness rating, improvement, and access system).