An initiative of First 5 LA, Best Start is working to create the best possible community for young children and their families. Best Start brings together parents, community organizations, institutions, and others to improve policies and resources to better support parents and create a community where children and families can thrive. Best Start also provides skill-building and leadership training to help community members achieve their Community Change Priority goals and ensure that children are safe.
Best Start also provides skill-building and leadership training to help community members achieve their Community Change Priority goals and ensure that children are safe, healthy, and ready to learn. The communities of Central Long Beach and Wilmington make up Best Start Region 4 – Port Cities.
The State of the Child Report seeks to understand the conditions of children and families within this current moment and not shy away from talking about COVID-19 impacts, rampant police misconduct, or racism.
The report takes a hard look at how children are faring against the backdrop of the twin crises that have swept the nation over the past year. It identifies conditions we should celebrate and those we should advocate improving. It also shows how public systems affect conditions in the community and arms community members with data needed to affect change. The report sets a baseline for measurement that can guide future investments and policy decisions. Data, derived from many disparate sources, are consolidated in the data section of this site.
The State of the Child Report aims to strengthen the advocacy efforts of these organizations leading the work in Region 4 in the public education, health, criminal justice, and economic systems and systems governing the built environment. This report creates a shared picture of what children and families face and elevates the visibility of these issues. It can help strengthen coordination of advocacy and movement-building efforts across the Central Long Beach and Wilmington communities and support opportunities for fundraising to ensure advocates have the resources they need to help children and families thrive.
With a community-led, place-based focus, First 5 LA identified Central Long Beach and Wilmington for targeted birth-to-five outcome investments in what is known as Best Start Region 4.
The Best Start initiative is regionally managed by The Nonprofit Partnership, with local community efforts facilitated in Wilmington by Providence Little Company of Mary and in Central Long Beach by Long Beach Forward. These organizations and others have spent years organizing, power-building, and winning campaigns to change systems to improve the lives of children and families.
First 5 LA is an independent public agency working to strengthen systems, parents and communities so that by 2028, all children in L.A. County will enter kindergarten ready to succeed in school and life.
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