Advocacy Efforts For Early Care, Education Get Boost In LA County

LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CA – First 5 LA announced the creation Thursday of its five-year, $15 million Early Care and Education Policy and Advocacy Fund, intended to strengthen existing advocacy efforts.

The fund will also be used help create new opportunities for collaboration among groups and organizations seeking policy and systems change with a goal of improving access to quality early care and education in Los Angeles County, according to Kim Belshe, executive director of First 5 LA.

"The challenges parents face accessing quality early care and education is greater than any one organization alone can address," Belshe said.

"The First 5 LA Policy and Advocacy Fund is representative of our strategic shift focusing on changing policies and systems. We are leading with partnership to address these challenges. Our goal is to make a greater impact for all of L.A. County's 650,000 young children and their families."

Initial grantees from the fund are Advancement Project California, a partnership of the Child Care Alliance of Los Angeles and its two largest members, Crystal Stairs and the Child Care Resource Center, Children Now, Early Edge, LAUP and Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce Foundation, Belshe said.

"Los Angeles is ground zero for both the achievement gap and the opportunity gap," said Kim Pattillo Brownson, First 5 LA's vice president of policy & strategy.

"Together with this diverse group of grantees -- from the early learning and child care, civil rights and business sectors -- we can build the policies and platform to ensure that LA's kids get a fair shot at success."

First 5 LA was created in 1998 to manage Los Angeles County's share of the funds from the tobacco tax created under Proposition 10.

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--City News Service/Image courtesy of First 5 LA