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November 2009 (English and Spanish)

December 2009 (English and Spanish)

Location:
Delta First 5 Center / El Centro De Primeros 5 de Delta (Brentwood/Oakley)
760 First Street, Brentwood, CA 94513

Main contact:
Mandy Snyder, Program Director
(925) 516-3880
msnyder@mdrymca.org

About First Five Contra Costa:
Research shows that a child’s brain develops most dramatically during the first five years of life. During this time, a window of opportunity exists to shape how a child’s brain develops. A child’s relationships with her parents and the kind of experiences
she grows up with profoundly affect how her brain develops.

Based on this research, California voters passed Proposition 10 (the Children and Families First Act) in 1998, adding a 50 centsper-pack tax on tobacco products to fund health, early childhood education, and parent education programs for expectant parents and children from birth to age five. Numerous studies confirm that early childhood initiatives like Proposition 10 can reduce the need for more expensive
taxpayer-funded services later such as special education, foster care, and welfare programs.

Proposition 10:
Approximately $600 million is collected statewide from Proposition 10 each year. Commissions at the state and in each of California’s 58 counties were formed to distribute funds. In 2002, the State and most County Commissions adopted the name “First 5” to reflect the program’s focus on a child’s first five years of life.

A Current Snapshot:
More than one million people call Contra Costa County home, including approximately 80,000 children under six years old. Over 13,000 children are born in the county each year, accounting for approximately 2.25% of all California births (California Department of Finance 2007).

In recent years, foreign immigration, primarily from Latin America and Asia, has been a major influence on the County’s population. Most immigrants arrive as young adults, get married, and have children, thereby not only increasing the population size but also changing the age structure and ethnic mix (Craft, 2003).

Why Invest in Children?
After more than two decades of research on early brain and child
development, the results are in: investing in young children is good social
policy. Furthermore, results from several long-term, well-respected
evaluations of early childhood development programs support a growing
consensus among leading economists, sociologists, and policymakers
that high-quality programs for early childhood development are a sound
financial investment as well.

First Five Accomplishments:
To date, we have invested $75 million in local programs and activities designed to help children grow up healthy, nurtured, and ready for school. Our investments have:
• Improved the quality of child care for young children by helping thousands of child care providers to advance their education and training.
• Doubled the number of licensed child care programs that meet national accreditation standards – the country’s highest mark of quality.
• Established five First 5 Centers that provide free parenting classes and early learning programs to over 1,800 low-income families each year.
• Created school readiness preschools that have boosted developmental skills for lowincome children who otherwise might start kindergarten behind.
• Provided high-quality home visiting programs to at-risk expectant and new parents to help them bond with their babies, enroll in health insurance, and locate needed services.
• Helped children with emotional, social, behavioral, or developmental problems to remain in their child care settings and/or locate services to improve their development.
• Ensured that parents are aware of resources in their community and know how to access them.
• Provided extensive trainings to local service providers to make sure that parents and children receive high-quality services.
• Formed strategic partnerships to address issues such as universal preschool, family economic security, child obesity, and the effects of domestic violence on young children.

For more information about the organization, visit www.firstfiveccc.org.