A Strong Start

To close the education achievement gap, and to encourage a lifelong love of learning, we need to make sure young children and their families have the support they need to succeed in school.

The Hartford Foundation will seek to help coordinate existing services, develop new partnerships that address this goal, and build on established initiatives, including:

The Brighter Futures Initiative was designed in response to conditions of poverty in Hartford’s neighborhoods, and the promise of early intervention. The initiative focuses on strengthening the service system for young children and their families in four key areas: health care, child care, education and family support.

Responsive grantmaking will continue to be a core Hartford Foundation role.
from the Hartford Foundation’s 2012-2016 Strategic Plan

The Hartford Area Child Care Collaborative is an initiative of the Hartford Foundation that seeks to ensure that every child has access to high-quality early childhood programs.

A Strong Start (Education Goal 1)

Strengthen comprehensive supports for young children and families, from birth to grade three, assuring learning readiness and early academic success.

Objectives:

• Continue to support and enhance the development of community leadership infrastructure for a shared vision of early childhood, in partnership with municipal and community-based organizations.
• Align early childhood work locally with state and federal levels for a comprehensive early childhood education system in Connecticut.
• Create a replicable model of Brighter Futures and implement it in one additional municipality, with local partners.