Ready for School, Set for Life:

First Things First Launches Effort to Raise Public Awareness of Importance of Early Childhood

PHOENIX – In their homes, in their cars, and at the movies, Arizonans will now be reminded that kids who are ready for school are set for life.

First Things First was approved by Arizona voters in 2006 and is required, by law, to expand and enhance early education and health services for kids five and younger, including increasing public information on the critical importance of early childhood.

“The better start children get in life, the more likely they are to succeed in school, less likely to receive failing grades or be held back, more likely to advance into college and successful careers. They also tend to be healthier and require less from the public service system,” said Steven Lynn, chair of the First Things First Board. “As a community, we share the responsibility of giving children the tools they need to arrive at kindergarten healthy and ready to succeed.”

FTF has launched a series of materials – from fliers, posters and other educational materials aimed at parents to advertising aimed at more general audiences. The goal: to raise awareness of the importance of the early years and encourage all adults to find out more about what they can do to give Arizona kids a solid start in life and a foundation upon which they can build.

The materials point to a Web site – ReadyAZKids.com – which includes information for parents, early education and health providers, business leaders and interested Arizonans.

The site also gives readers information about the First Things First-funded services in their communities and how to get involved with their local First Things First Regional Partnership Council.

To date, First Things First has approved more than $208 million statewide in grants to community-based organizations to provide early education and health services to thousands of young kids and their families throughout Arizona. Those programs address a wide range of early childhood issues, including: building stronger parent-child relationships, promoting early literacy and language development, improving the quality of early education settings, early detection of developmental delays, increasing access to preventive oral health care, and the prevention of child abuse or childhood obesity.

The $3.8 million educational effort (which includes $251,000 to design the materials, $731,000 for distribution from Fiscal Year 2010 funds and $2.8 million for distribution from Fiscal Year 2011 funds) is funded almost entirely by 23 of the 31 First Things First Regional Partnership Councils. Under the voter-approved measure that created First Things First, the Regional Councils are local groups of volunteers charged with determining the needs of children five and younger in their communities and approving strategies to meet those needs.

 “As we researched the needs of kids in our area, we realized that not all parents and communities have the same knowledge, resources and support,” said Stuart Turgel, chair of the Northeast Maricopa Regional Partnership Council. “The strategies approved by our Council begin to address many of those needs, but we supported the educational effort to have a broader impact; to give parents and communities information so that they could make the best choices for their kids.”

 Lynn said that raising awareness of early childhood development was included in the law that created First Things First for a reason. 

 “The citizens who created this initiative and the voters who approved it recognized that it’s going to take the collective efforts of all Arizonans to help our children succeed; in order to do that, we all need to be aware that the first five years of life are critical for brain development and foundational learning.  We need all parents and care givers to know what they can do to help children get a great start in life,” Lynn said. “Our public information efforts fulfill the voter mandate to provide Arizonans with public information about the critical importance of those early years.”

 For additional early childhood information, visit ReadyAZKids.com; parent materials may be viewed at:

 http://www.azftf.gov/WhatWeDo/Impacting/Pages/default.aspx  

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 First Things First was created in 2006, when Arizona voters – through the Proposition 203 ballot initiative – decided to set aside 80 cents from each pack of cigarettes sold in order to fund the expansion of education and health programs for children from birth through age five. Under the terms of the proposition, decisions about how to best use the funds are made on a per‐region basis by 31 councils made up of local leaders. The statewide board – which has final approval of the councils’ recommendations – is responsible for ensuring that the funds are used on programs proven to work at improving outcomes for children.