Investing in young children is investing in our collective future. Robust evidence shows that key investments in the early years of a child’s life pay off over the course of a lifetime, but this cycle must start with stable, nurturing care to ensure that children from prenatal to age three reach their full potential.
The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s Early Childhood initiative takes a holistic, “two-generation” approach to provide caregivers and their young children with the support they need in this critical phase of life. We combine support for key services with efforts to ensure policies and resources are being used effectively and prioritizing young children and families around the world.
Children’s earliest years are the most critical for brain development. By age three, a child’s brain is 80 percent of its adult size, and the connections formed in this early period provide either a strong or weak foundation for the rest of a child’s life.
However, more than 40 percent of young children in low- and middle-income countries are at risk of not developing to their full potential. Worldwide, critical services for supporting families and young children are often not available, and in the United States, nearly half of all young children live in a child care desert—an area where demand for care far outpaces the number of available licensed slots.
Our work in communities with high need and high potential for impact in the United States—including Los Angeles County and New Mexico—and East and Southern Africa—including Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique—focuses on investing in services for children and caregivers, and in strengthening the workforce, financing and policies that sustain them.
Between 2021 and 2025, our early childhood strategy focused on a two-generation approach that prioritized the prosperity and social cohesion of families and communities. The result was a locally driven, systems-strengthening strategy with strong initial outcomes:
Our goal: By 2031, 350,000 young children are physically and emotionally healthy and learning.
