Connecting Data to Action
Lead: New Mexico Voices for Children
Key Partners: New Mexico Community Data Collaborative; St. Joseph Community Health, Invest in Kids Now! coalition, The W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Project Location: New Mexico
Contact: Christine Hollis, New Mexico KIDS COUNT Director, New Mexico Voices for Children, chollis@nmvoices.org, 505-244-9505 Ext.34
Project Description:
Research has shown that high-quality early childhood education (ECE) greatly improves a child’s future academic performance and professional attainment. High-quality ECE also provides immediate and long-term health benefits, including lower rates of child injuries, child abuse, depression, delinquency and arrests, and teen pregnancy, as well as improved eating habits and more regular use of health services.
New Mexico ranks 49th among the states in the percentage of 4th graders who read at a proficient level and has the fifth worst rate in the nation of on-time high school graduation (67 percent). The goal of this project is to prepare all New Mexico children equally for academic, health, and economic success by educating the public and stakeholders about ECE and advocating for policies that create, fund, and sustain a high-quality, universally accessible continuum of early childhood care, health, and education services that strengthens the link with K-3rd grade education.
In collaboration with the Invest in Kids Now! coalition and the New Mexico Community Data Collaborative network, New Mexico Voices for Children will use its grant funding to help communities and decision-makers understand and support public policies and practices that promote both early education and health. The agency will also advocate for an increased distribution of the state’s Land Grant Permanent Fund to early childhood care and education, while considering other potential sustainable sources of funding, and create an expanded network for sharing data and analysis to support relevant policy proposals.
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation is providing a match to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant.
