Think Babies Op-Ed
At Smart Start of Transylvania County, we seek to advocate for young children and support families by providing them with the tools and resources needed to reach key developmental milestones. The earliest years of a child’s development are the most crucial, as a child’s brain grows the fastest between the ages of 0 to 3 than at any other stage of development, with babies’ brains forming over one million new neural connections every second. Given how incredibly important those first few years of brain development are, it is vital that we back programs and initiatives that support a more nurturing environment for babies and toddlers and propel young children towards happiness and success.
Smart Start is a supporter of Zero to Three’s Think Babies campaign, a program that works to support infant and toddler development through national and state-level legislative action. By offering a large number of resources for caregivers and providers, including voters’ guides, ready-to-use social media campaigns, sample letters to congress, and policy fact sheets, the organization empowers citizens to take action in their own communities and advocate for policy changes that positively impact the future of babies.
Think Babies focuses on six policy areas that play a key role in infant and toddler development: paid leave, child care, Early Head Start, infant and early childhood mental health, family support, and economic security. Paid family leave allows parents and babies the time needed to form a close bond and establish a healthy and nurturing relationship. Access to high-quality and affordable child care provides young children with a positive early learning environment where they can grow their brains while parents are able to work and provide economic stability for their families. Early Head Start is a national program that promotes healthy early child development, beginning at the prenatal stage, for families living below the poverty line, while helping those families to achieve financial security. Infant and early childhood mental health encompasses all of early childhood social and emotional development including properly addressing mental disorders, fostering healthy parent-child relationships, and building resilience in the face of trauma and adversity. Focus on family support within the Think Babies organization specifically targets babies growing up within the child welfare system, by attempting to address the gaps in the system and provide all babies with a loving and supportive environment where needs stemming from family trauma can be appropriately met. Finally, achieving economic security for working-class families means that babies have all of their fundamental physical needs met, including a safe home environment, proper nutrition, and diapers. When families are secure financially it alleviates a tremendous amount of stress and provides an environment where babies are able to grow and thrive.
Smart Start partners with and supports a wide variety of programs and organizations that seek to address some of these key focus areas. We are working to end the current child care drought in Transylvania County and address capacity limits in formal care centers by supporting alternative early care options like licensed family child care homes and family, friend, and neighbor care. We also help to connect local families to state-funded child care subsidies that make quality child care more affordable for lower income families and help to alleviate economic stress. Our regional partnerships with Sesame Street in Communities, GetSet WNC, and Raising Resilience WNC work to promote healthy emotional and social development and help families to address tough topics in order to foster resilience in the face of trauma. We encourage local caregivers and providers to learn more about our efforts in all of these areas and reach out if interested in supporting or utilizing any of the resources we offer for families and young children.
In addition to supporting local community efforts focused on early childhood learning and development, those wishing to make a difference in the lives of babies and young children can do so by advocating for legislative changes and urging congress and local representatives to support policies that improve the quality of families’ lives. Think Babies offers a toolkit that provides templates for addressing elected officials, creating advocacy posts on social media, and engaging with people within the community. The organization’s State of Babies website provides state-specific data on the welfare of babies, for those wishing to see how North Carolina compares to other states.
As a community we can work together to support babies and our collective future. Time and money invested in early childhood programs reaps great results for our country, in the form of healthy, emotionally well- adjusted adults with greater education and employment rates. When babies are given the tools and environment to grow and thrive and reach their full potential, we all benefit.
