We're Celebrating!
First 5 Alameda County would like to say THANK YOU as we celebrate our 15th anniversary of investing in young children!
November 2013 marks the 15th anniversary of the voters' approval of Proposition 10 (passed in 1998), the California Children and Families First Act, which established the First 5 program statewide. Conceived and championed by Hollywood producer/director Rob Reiner, Prop 10 created a guaranteed revenue stream to support children's health, school readiness and community support for their families.
A Deep Commitment to Children
Proposition 10 was a visionary piece of legislation that inspired voters to formally adopt the following principles for our state:
The people find and declare as follows:
(a) There is a compelling need in California to create and implement a comprehensive, collaborative, and integrated system of information and services to promote, support, and optimize early childhood development from the prenatal stage to five years of age.
(b) There is a further compelling need in California to ensure that early childhood development programs and services are universally and continuously available for children until the beginning of kindergarten. Proper parenting, nurturing, and health care during these early years will provide the means for California's children to enter school in good health, ready and able to learn, and emotionally well developed.
(c) It has been determined that a child's first three years are the most critical in brain development, yet these crucial years have inadvertently been neglected. Experiences that fill the child's first three years have a direct and substantial impact not only on brain development but on subsequent intellectual, social, emotional, and physical growth.
First 5 Alameda County would like to thank all of our colleagues, community partners and allied organizations who have worked with us to improve the lives of the infants, toddlers and preschoolers over these past 15 years! We look forward to continuing to build the "comprehensive, collaborative, and integrated system of care" envisioned by the architects of the California Children and Families First Act. While we have done much over the last 15 years to seed, develop and evaluate new programs, there is still much more to be done to serve all children and move the needle on children's outcomes.
For more information about the anniversary, please visit www.first5association.org/15years.
