The next convening is currently in the planning stage and should take place in the spring.
Watch this page for updates.
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Tuesday, January 22, 2013: The previous Convening, The First 1000 Days: "Communities Make A Difference for Children," was held on Tuesday, January 22, 2013, Time: 8:15 to 12:30 at the Legislative Office Building-2C, Hartford, CT.
This was the third convening of the First 1000 Days: Getting it Right from the Start Series. 782 days and counting... Hosted by the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund and United Way of Connecticut. Featuring: John Kania, Keynote on Collective Impact, Managing Director of FSG, and co-author of "Collective Impact," Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2011. Community Leaders: Panels of community leaders discussing local efforts to ensure that all of Connecticut's children are ready for school by age five and successful learners by age nine.
What was shared and discussed at the January 22, 2013 convening:
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Friday, October 19, 2012: A second Convening on October 19, entitled: The First 1000 Days: Off to a Healthy Start….877 Days and Counting, focuses attention on the most pressing early child health issues in Connecticut. No child should arrive at kindergarten with unidentified and unaddressed health or developmental concerns. Research has clearly documented the importance of health in the first three years of life as the grounding for lifelong well-being including academic success. Health is defined broadly, encompassing physical, social, emotional and oral health. Health promotion, disease prevention and early identification and treatment during these earliest years lay the foundation for healthy development and decrease the need for costly and ineffective interventions later in life.
To achieve this outcome, Connecticut needs a coordinated early childhood education and child development system with a strong and fully integrated health component that begins to meet the needs of children from birth, if not before.
The October 19 Convening provides top state officials, health professionals, community leaders, and early child educators the opportunity to delve deeper into children’s health – a key aspect of child development and the early childhood system.
The keynote speaker, Neal Halfon, MD, (Director of UCLA's Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities) highlights "Off to a Healthy Start: What it Takes." Judith Meyers, CHDI President, provides an overview of “The Health of Young Children in Connecticut.” Two panel discussions bring together health professionals, parent advocates, community leaders and state policy makers, including Senator Gerratana, DCF Commissioner Katz, DPH Commissioner Mullen, DSS Commissioner Bremby and Connecticut's Early Childhood Planning Director Myra Jones Taylor. It is hosted by the Child Health and Development Institute of Connecticut, DCF and DPH's Family Health Section.
What was shared and discussed at the October 19, 2012 convening:
- CHDI's Framework for Child Health Services report report is written to benefit advocates, providers and policymakers by offering a Framework as a basis for action to improve delivery of child health services for infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers.
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Connecticut’s Children: Off to a Healthy Start, by Judith Meyers, President and CEO, Child Health and Development Institute of Connecticut, includes an overview of how Connecticut’s children are doing on key health indicators, what the State is currently doing, and what still needs to be done.
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June 18, 2012: Launch Event. The First 1000 Days: Getting it Right from the Start - Connecticut’s First 1000 Days initiative is a collaborative public-private venture, began by Deputy Commissioner Janice Gruendel, to focus attention on improving the development and school readiness outcomes of young children in the State of Connecticut.
The First 1000 Days refers not only to the first three years of life, but what can be done in Connecticut over the next three years to improve the likelihood that all children will achieve optimal development leading to success in school and thriving in life. It is a period of public and private action to support Connecticut's most vulnerable children, prenatal through age 3, served by multiple agencies. Activities over the next three years include forums, specific topic-focused webinars, a public gateway website and public-private sector engagement at both the state and local level.
The First 1000 Days: Getting it Right From the Start initiative launched (Day 1 one of 1000), on June 18, 2012 with an event at the Legislature to focus attention on the health safety and economic factors of Connecticut’s most vulnerable children from birth through their infancy and toddler years. Zero to Three Executive Director Matt Melmed presented the keynote address highlighting the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACES) and the intersect of family engagement, the emerging literature on trauma and the neuroscience of child development.
The morning and afternoon sessions included a Commissioner's Conversation. During this conversation, the Commissioners and high-level agency staff discussed what state agencies can do now to address the needs of Connecticut's most vulnerable young children, and their families? How can we best create a system of care and support when services are provided across multiple agencies?
State sponsors included: Connecticut State Departments of Children and Families, Public Health, Social Services, Developmental Disabilities, Education, Mental Health and Addiction Services, the Connecticut General Assembly's Select Committee on Children, and the Connecticut Judicial System, Family and Juvenile Divisions. Many additional organizations signed on as supporters.
What was shared and discussed at the June 18, 2012 convening:
