Today, the Center for Law and Social Policy in partnership with ZERO TO THREE is releasing the Pathways to Prosperity: Promoting Economic Security for Families with Infants and Toddlers report. The report was derived from the October 2021 Building Strong Foundations for Families project Economic Security Convening.

Building Strong Foundations for Families is a joint project between the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) and ZERO TO THREE (ZTT). The two organizations collectively developed the Building Strong Foundations Framework to promote federal and state policies that comprehensively address the needs of infants, toddlers, and their families. The Framework builds on and connects to the policy and advocacy efforts of both organizations and focuses on four core areas:

• Strong parents — parent support services and developmentally appropriate child welfare systems
• High-quality child care and early education opportunities — child care across a range of settings and early intervention
• Healthy bodies, healthy minds, healthy parents — health insurance, health and mental health care, and nutrition support
• Economically stable families — cash assistance, paid family and medical leave, housing, and education and training.

The document includes emergent themes from the convening, session details, and resources to provide additional guidance to early childhood stakeholders on supporting the economic security of families. Those themes are: 

1. The importance of focusing on both the “whole child” and “whole family” for addressing the economic security of families; 
2. The need to understand our past and create the future so that the next generation of policies and practices are anti-racist and promote equity; and 
3. Acknowledgement that the field of early childhood can play an important role in creating pathways to prosperity by building relationships and working in collaboration with those focused more directly on economic justice opportunities for families. 

For more information on the convening or the document's contents, please contact CLASP's Tiffany Ferrette [email protected].