Project: MARYLAND BIRTH THROUGH THREE BUSINESS PLAN

Sponsor: Friends of the Family, Inc.
Status: In process
IPS Staff: Marsha R.B. Schachtel, Irene Hechler, Marion Pines, Michael Schaeffer, Karen Garrido, Jamie Holcomb, Battle Pincus, and Liz Umbro

Purpose and Approach
Brain science and economic experts agree that two-generation, i.e. child and primary caregiver, investments in the lives of pregnant women, infants and toddlers, and their parents have the largest payoff in individual, community, fiscal, and economic benefits of any human development or economic development intervention. Despite the fact that over 80 percent of brain growth (affecting not only cognitive but also physical, social, and emotional outcomes) takes place between the time of conception and age three, 80 percent of public investment is concentrated on children aged five
or six through higher education. IPS is providing project management, including meeting facilitation, for a planning process that will produce a written, executable business plan for achieving optimal development of Maryland’s birththrough three-year-olds. The plan will be research- and practice-based, developed and approved by key stakeholders, and will include a step-by-step development and mplementation plan to guide policies and programs statewide over the next decade.

Results
Work groups focused on what to do (programs/services), how to do it (structure), and how to pay for it (finance) have been assembled for more than a dozen highly structured meetings to define objectives and indicators of success, reach consensus on optimal environments, gather intelligence from expert guests and background research, and develop recommendations to the project’s Leadership Council that will in turn be presented to the Governor and State Board of Education. Ten elements of the recommended plan have been approved, a set of delivery networks is being defined, and costs estimated. Sources and uses of funds are being identified. A parallel effort is underway to identify state and federal policy decisions that would favorably affect outcomes for infants and toddlers and their parents.

Publications
Forthcoming.