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Early care and education (ECE) professionals are early influencers on a child’s food and play habits. Along with families, they play a crucial role in nurturing a child’s well-being and overall development. By investing in early childhood, we can improve health now and in the future. 

For more than a decade, ¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾«Æ· Children’s has leveraged federal, state and private foundation funding to promote healthy eating and physical activity in child care programs across the country. ¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾«Æ· staff provide training, coaching and materials to state departments of health, early childhood organizations and child care providers. 

In partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), our Healthy Kids, Healthy Future Technical Assistance Program (HKHF TAP) engaged 4,696 ECE programs serving more than 210,000 children across 12 states in 2022. HKHF TAP state partners more than doubled engagement of ECE programs (from 2,246 to 4,696) and almost tripled the number of children engaged (71,387 to 212,086) from year 1 to year 4 of the work.

As part of HKHF TAP, ¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾«Æ· also trains and coaches state health and early childhood staff on best practices for physical activity in ECE. In collaboration with the CDC, ¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾«Æ· developed training materials to promote physical activity best practices. Known as Physical Activity Learning Sessions (PALS), ¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾«Æ· has trained more than 800 trainers across 22 states. 

Our Better Together Project in Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana and Mississippi improved healthy eating and physical activity policies and practices within state systems and ECE programs. Over three years, Better Together reached 1,079 ECE programs serving more than 53,000 children. More than 1,800 hours of individualized technical assistance were provided to ECE programs through Better Together activities, and more than 1,000 ECE program staff were trained on nutrition and physical activity best practices through the learning collaborative sessions.

Building on efforts first launched in Florida, ¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾«Æ· Children’s Wellness Workbook for Early Care & Education helps ECE providers, families and community partners work together to raise fit, happy children. ECE professionals can use this online workbook to assess, develop and monitor their program’s wellness policies and practices. This free tool is available for ECE program staff or trainers who support them in making quality improvements. 

In Indiana, ¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾«Æ· partners with Jump IN for Healthy Kids and SPARK Learning Lab to pilot a series of Farm to ECE Learning Collaboratives. ¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾«Æ· creates content and supports coaches as they implement learning sessions and provide technical assistance to ECE programs. Through these Learning Collaboratives, ECE program learning environments are enhanced through gardening, food and farming education activities and local food procurement.

In New York, ¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾«Æ· partners with JSI Research and Training Institute, Inc to provide training and technical assistance to community partners. Through the Physical Activity and Nutrition Center of Excellence (PANCE), ¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾Ã¾«Æ· directly supports organizations across the state working with child care providers to improve nutrition and physical activity in their programs.

We have also developed high-quality resources that ECE providers can use to support children and families to develop healthy habits. Our Nourishing Healthy Eaters materials include training materials and videos for families that focus on Picky Eaters, Healthy Snacks and Healthy Celebrations. The Better Together Family Cafés are a collection of five guided conversations to engage families in meaningful discussions on nutrition and physical activity topics. 

Research has shown that the foundation for literacy starts early. If children aren’t reading at grade level by the end of first grade, they only have about a 10% chance of catching up by fourth grade.

The (NCRBS!) program is an early literacy program that promotes foundational early literacy skills. The program includes:

• Unique and highly effective instructional curricula for infants through first grade
• Professional development for educators and training on all our curricula
• A family literacy website to assist families in building a strong literacy foundation for children, from birth through age 5.

Early literacy results

To date, we have reached more than 287,000 children in 38 states. NCRBS! has proven results. Using the curriculum has led to:

• Early literacy gains of more than 110% for at-risk kindergarteners
  
• Two-thirds of at-risk kindergarteners closing the literacy gap with their peers
• Many children continuing on a successful path and passing their third-grade state reading assessment

Learn more about or complete the preschool reading readiness screener.

Contact us for more information about curricula and teacher training to build reading readiness and reading skills for children from infancy to age five.

Early care and education providers are uniquely positioned to improve children’s health and support families to develop healthy habits. When you help improve children’s health, you’re helping to create a better future. Find more tools for helping children have a healthy start at .