The Initiative Foundation believes that communities that choose to dedicate significant time, energy and resources to the care of their youngest children, will be communities that thrive!

Recent studies indicate that:

• There are worrisome gaps in school readiness levels among children entering kindergarten.  According to the Minnesota Department of Education less than 50% of the children entering kindergarten were shown to be proficient in personal/social development, language/literacy and mathematical thinking. 
  
  
• Between the ages of 0-5, the human brain is developing at a greater rate than any other period in our lives; and the wiring of a child’s brain is in direct response to the environmental input a child receives after he or she is born. 
  
  
• Investing financially in children during their earliest years provides a higher rate of return than most any other economic development investment a community, state or nation can make.  In fact, for every $1 invested in quality early care and education, $7-$16 can be saved in costs like juvenile incarceration, out-of-home placement, special education and other remedial expenses.  

We believe that communities need to come alongside parents, families and caregivers in order to give children the very highest quality of care and age-appropriate education during their earliest years in order to help them succeed later in life.