WHAT WE’RE DOING

Working collaboratively with its community partners, Early Connections aspires to impact the lives of every pre-school child ages zero to six in the Houston area.

Started in Houston in the fall of 2002, Early Connections is raising awareness of a loving, nurturing, safe and stimulating environment for young children. It is doing this by distributing educational messages and materials that recommend specific actions adults can take to stimulate the positive development of young children. These messages are being delivered to the general public through the media, to targeted neighborhoods, to public policy makers and to parents and caregivers. Early Connections will work through 2006 and beyond toward its goals on behalf of Houston’s youngest children.

Early Connections has begun its neighborhood engagement effort by working in partnership with key neighborhood leaders, elected officials, the medical community, the faith based community and educational leaders to deliver important information on early childhood development to the parents of young children. In addition, Early Connections plans to partner with these leaders to encourage the neighborhood as a whole to embrace the critical importance of the early childhood years and to work together to strengthen the existing early care and education system in the neighborhood.

The goals of EARLY CONNECTIONS are:

• To engage the public in the importance of the early childhood years
  
• To engage the community, including parents and caregivers
  
• To engage civic leaders and elected officials