Early Childhood Hub chosen to create blueprint for improving outcomes for children
Local education and health leaders meet with OHEC representatives at a meeting in January 2024, Top (L to R) Holly Mar Conte, Debi Farr, Dr. Patrick Luedtke, Rhonda Busek, Chelsea King, Noreen J. Dunnells, Dr. Pilar Bradshaw, Jordan Bradshaw. Front (L to R): Michelle Sheng-Palmisano, former Governor John Kitzhaber, Kellie DeVore.
If anything were possible, what would it take to ensure that every child, family, and community has an equitable opportunity to succeed? What might it look like to have a system of support that doesn’t need to be “navigated”?
These are a few key questions United Way’s Early Childhood Hub of Lane County is hoping to propose answers to, through a partnership with Oregon Health and Education Collaborative (OHEC)’s new Upstream Initiative.
As a strong convener of local early childhood work locally, the Early Childhood Hub of Lane County was selected as one of five organizations from across the state to design a Child Success Models blueprint, part of OHEC’s Upstream Initiative. The blueprints will propose ways of improving the success of children in the first 1000 days of life – from conception to about age two. Research and data strongly demonstrate that these early years are a key time in which communities can make the most impact to influence lasting change.
Each organization chosen will design their own local model; later this summer, each community’s model will be integrated to inform policy recommendations for the 2025 legislature, to scale a blueprint that can be replicated statewide.
Gov. John Kitzhaber, chair of the OHEC board, visited the Early Childhood Hub on January 12, 2024 with OHEC’s Executive Director Chelsea King to talk with local early learning and healthcare providers involved in this effort.
Gov. Kitzhaber, speaking at the January 12, 2024 OHEC & Early Childhood Hub meeting.
“Ensuring that every child, family, and community has an equitable opportunity to succeed means striking at the conditions of injustice that exist before conception, during pregnancy, and during the first few years of life. This demands a holistic approach that recognizes children exist in an ecosystem that includes their family and their community—and that the earlier we can intervene, the more successful we will be.”
creating a local blueprint
Over the next eight months, the Early Childhood Hub of Lane County will work directly with local partners and community members to create a blueprint for a Child Success Model specific to Lane County.
The blueprint will ensure services, supports, interventions, and protective factors reach each child during the first 1000 days of life, prepare children and families to successfully enter the education system, and then provide community support to ensure educational and health needs are met. Ideally, these efforts would be coordinated through a community-based entity that can reach far upstream, identify the factors that threaten the success of a child, and prevent them before they begin.
“Instead of trying to help folks navigate the current system,” proposed Gov. Kitzhaber, “step back and try to imagine a system that doesn’t have to be navigated because it’s intentionally built and designed to address a suite of challenges and barriers that are keeping them from better well-being and being successful.”
“We were also excited about [this project] because of the idea of getting to the root causes to the extent possible... How do we fund prevention? How do we get at this sooner? We’re partnering here with the hope of changing some policies and access issues… whatever it is has to be fluid, it has to be flexible, it has to be easy to access. And that’s no small order, because our systems are so siloed and dependent on eligibility. …We really need to figure out ways to change that. And so, I like to think about it as instead of changing the system, it’s building a system. Because there really is not a system at this level.”
Judy Newman sharing about the Upstream Initiative at the January 12, 2024 OHEC & Early Childhood Hub meeting.
The other four Design Pilots are the Blue Mountain Early Learning Hub, the Marion & Polk Early Learning Hub, Yamhill Community Care and KairosPDX in Multnomah County. Each will receive $65,000 grant to support their work.
“When we think about a public entity that most people support... it’s public education, K-12; every kid gets to go there. It’s normalized, whether you have a disability, whether you’re a citizen, whether you are living in this neighborhood. And somehow we have to do the same for our early learning kids. And I’m not exactly sure what pathway that’s going to take, but I’m excited about jumping in, I’m excited about the partners we’re working with, and the hope that we can get the attention of some funders and policymakers to make it happen.”
Healthcare providers, educators, and those serving families, as well as families themselves, are invited to weigh in and help shape on this community blueprint. For more information, contact Michelle Sheng-Palmisano, Co-Director of the Early Childhood Hub, at msheng@unitedwaylane.org.
For more information about the Oregon Health and Education Collaborative or the First 1000 Days Upstream Initiative, visit oregoncollaborative.org.