Governor Warner Announces Early Childhood Foundation

Governor Warner Announces Early Childhood Foundation

— Will award matching grants to help Virginia's youngest children get a healthy start —

Governor Mark R. Warner today announced establishment of the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation to help communities, public, and private organizations build and improve early childhood programs. The Governor also announced that a new Internet site, SmartBeginnings.org, will be established to help parents and others access information on early childhood programs that help provide a healthy and successful start to life for children from birth to age five. Governor Warner also announced he will propose additional state funding to expand access to the New Parent Tool Kit, which provides a wealth of information on resources available to parents.

"Research shows that nearly 85 percent of the core structure of a child's brain develops in the first three years of life," said Governor Warner. "Virginia needs to have a more comprehensive approach to addressing child care, education, and health services for our youngest children. Our neighbors in North Carolina have had tremendous success with similar early childhood programs started by my friend, former Governor Jim Hunt. Governor-elect Tim Kaine has advocated expansion of our pre-K programs to every child. Today, Virginia steps up our commitment to our kids in a significant way."

The Virginia Early Childhood Foundation will replicate the successful model of the Virginia Health Care Foundation, which Governor Warner helped co-found, for early childhood. This new public-private partnership will provide grants, training, and technical assistance to local communities working to build their capacity to provide their families and children with high quality early childhood services and programs.

The Governor will propose $8.6 million over the biennium for an early childhood grant program administered by the Foundation. This state funding, combined with contributions from the private sector, will be used for competitive grants to foster local public-private efforts that leverage and expand successful early childhood services and identify and fill gaps in current programs. The Foundation's goal is to generate at least a dollar-for-dollar private match for every public dollar invested in the program. Virginia Natural Gas is the first private sector partner to have pledged corporate support. The Foundation's grant program grew out of a pilot program, the Early Childhood Partnership Grants, that was part of Governor Warner's Education for a Lifetime Pre-K program, and provided $1.5 million to three local community coalitions in Fairfax, Williamsburg, and South Hampton Roads.

The SmartBeginnings.org Web site will be modeled after SeniorNavigator.com, begun by the Governor prior to his term, and provide a Web resource for families, early childhood professionals, businesses, and communities. It will be maintained by the new Foundation and will provide a forum to evaluate care and services.

The Governor will also propose an additional $300,000 in state funding to expand the successful New Parent Kit acclaimed by the American Academy of Pediatricians. The program, launched by Governor Warner and First Lady Lisa Collis in 2003, provides an easy-access briefcase of information about health, education, parenting, child safety, and growth to new parents across the Commonwealth. The kit, which is available in Spanish, includes everything from referral information, to parenting tips, to a copy of Goodnight Moon. The kits are now being distributed to about 70 percent of new parents in Virginia.

Today's initiatives follow previous efforts including turning around one of the lowest performing children's health insurance programs in the nation. As a result of reforms made by the Governor and General Assembly, the FAMIS program is now serving more than 138,000 additional children, or 98 percent of the estimated eligible population.

The Virginia Preschool Initiative, which serves at-risk four year olds not served by Head Start, was serving about 6,000 children, and Virginia was investing less than $19 million in the program when the Governor took office. This fiscal year, the investment in the program has been doubled, and 11,237 children - or almost double the number of children - are currently enrolled.

http://www.governor.virginia.gov/Press_Policy/Releases/2005/Dec05/1212.htm