Every baby is born with unlimited potential. Every family wants to help their child reach this potential and needs support from their village—family, friends, caregivers, educators. But some families experience barriers to raising their children — community violence, racism, trauma, or health issues—challenging their ability to provide safety and stability.
We all have a shared responsibility to nurture and protect each child’s potential. ZERO TO THREE works to advance federal, state, and local policy and systems change to strengthen families. Through a coordinated system of formal and informal supports, communities can buffer the effects of trauma and stress on families before a crisis occurs.
Experiencing toxic stress early in life, without support, can have long-term negative effects like disrupting healthy brain development.
Providing support to strengthen families who have experienced extreme hardships or traumatic events makes resilience not just possible, but probable. When families thrive, babies thrive.
Intervention in the first three years can make a world of difference in the lives of children. Connecting babies and their families with the support and services they need to ensure healthy development and lasting permanency.
Every seven minutes, an infant or toddler in the U.S. is removed from their family.
Currently, very young children make up the largest age groups of children entering foster care —33 percent of children entering foster care are under age 3.
We support communities and families to create the safe, stable, nurturing environment children need to reach their potential.
For families that interact with the child welfare system, ZERO TO THREE’s team-based Safe Babies approach ignites collective action across states and communities by using the science of early childhood development to meet the urgent needs of infants and toddlers who are under court jurisdiction and/or in foster care.
American families are facing an unprecedented confluence of challenges – a health crisis, a financial crisis, and a racial equity reckoning. There could be no more compelling time than this moment for transformational change in child welfare.
Hon. Bobbe J. Bridge
Retired, Associate Justice, Washington Supreme Court
By supporting states and local communities, we can work to get ahead of the overwhelming stressors on families, setting each baby up for living a life of promise. For families that experience overwhelming stressors and hardships, the support should be even more accessible and purposeful.
Join us in telling policymakers that reducing poverty, improving access to essential services, and strengthening our communities buffers families so babies can thrive. We envision a society where the conditions in which families live, learn, work and play, cultivate well-being, ultimately eliminating the need for any baby to be removed from their family.
