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Why is early learning a central element of neighborhood revitalization?

Moving the Field Series  •  Education Starts at Age 0

Most of the resources and formal interventions dedicated to preparing children for school don’t start until age four. And while pre-kindergarten is critical, the science is clear: that’s too late, because a child’s experiences from birth onward are intrinsically linked to life outcomes.

A variety of accessible, high-quality choices available to families across income levels

Support educators and programs with a specific focus on language development and school readiness

A shared philosophical value system that encourages collaboration between early learning providers and other education providers

High-quality, neighborhood-serving continuum for student growth, learning, and achievement at every level starting at birth and through college and beyond is just one aspect of our coordinated holistic approach.

Click to learn more about our approach

Lessons Learned
Variety & Accessibility = Stability

Families can become more resilient when they have high-quality options.

Language Development and School Readiness Lead to Success

Efforts must include training and support for educators so they can help close the reading gap.

Fostering Shared Values & Collaboration Benefits the Pipeline

Effective early learning that leads to long-term success for children and families reinforces shared community values.

“You can be anything you want to be when you grow up.”

While we might all want this well-meaning childhood refrain to be true, it just isn’t. Widely accepted standards of calculating poverty indicate that there are nearly 5.2 million children under the age of 6 – and approximately 41 percent are born into low-income families. Our country’s overall poverty rate has been stubbornly stuck at 10-15 percent since the mid-1960s. That means that a large segment of our population – around 40 million Americans today – has been unable to consistently earn an income that provides for a basic standard of living.

Distressed neighborhoods are the product of decades of disinvestment, the effects of mal-intended public policy and private actions that were explicitly designed to segregate our cities and concentrate poverty and regularly expose children to toxic stress. And it is largely the sources of toxic stress to which children are exposed to in their neighborhood that is the driver of educational (and all other) outcomes.

The Science Behind How a Child’s Surroundings Influence His or Her Development in Profound, Life Changing Ways
Dr. Jack Shonkoff, Harvard Center on the Developing ChildWatch Video

There is no single intervention that can ‘solve’ poverty.

Early Childhood Education, the “Difference Maker”

There is no intervention that can single-handedly ‘solve’ poverty. Yet since 2009, Purpose Built Communities has worked with committed leaders who are relentlessly pursuing disruptive strategies. Bold ideas, big gains and hard-learned lessons informed and measured by respected researchers and on-the-ground practitioners, in partnership with the families impacted, have led to the development of a suite of solutions that, when implemented in tandem, are yielding promising results.

An essential component of the Purpose Built approach to ending intergenerational poverty is a focus on early childhood education. Most of the resources and formal interventions dedicated to preparing children for school don’t start until age four. And while pre-kindergarten is critical, the science is clear: that’s too late, because a child’s experiences from birth onward are intrinsically linked to life outcomes.

For example, the neural circuits most closely associated with language development are wired in the first year of life. From the National Association for the Education of Young Children, “By 3 years of age, there is a 30-million-word gap between children from the wealthiest and poorest families.” According to research from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, 86 percent of third graders living in high poverty neighborhoods do not read proficiently.  And that reality has consequences for individuals and the communities where they live. High school dropouts are 3.5 times more likely to be arrested than high school graduates. Nationally, 68 percent of all males in prison do not have a high school diploma.

Great Outcomes Start with Early Learning – A View from the Network
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Early Learning Benefits the Whole Community

Childhood is a window when core skills develop. Neighborhood-serving investments in children’s early learning is an important strategy to impact a child’s future performance in school.

Early learning programs in the neighborhoods supported by Purpose Built Communities share key attributes based on our experience across many communities. Those include:

  • A variety of accessible, high-quality choices for families across income levels
  • Support for educators and programs with a specific focus on language development and school readiness
  • A shared philosophical value system that encourages collaboration between early learning providers and other education providers
Ins & Outs of Building a High Quality Early Learning Center
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Spotlight on Early Childhood Education

Spotlight on New Orleans:
Educare New Orleans

In the redeveloping and revitalizing neighborhood Gentilly in New Orleans’ Bayou District Purpose Built Communities Network Partner Bayou District Foundation has initiated a “cradle to college education pipeline.” Educare New Orleans at Columbia Parc opened in October of 2013 in a new $8.9 million, 27,000 square foot state of the art facility, and currently serves 168 children ages 6 weeks to 5 years. Over the last 7 years, graduating classes of 5 year olds from Educare New Orleans have proven to meet or exceed national standards of kindergarten readiness at a rate of over 90%.

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Spotlight on Spartanburg:
The Franklin School

In Spartanburg, South Carolina Purpose Built Communities Network Member Northside Development Group is focused on an area of town once home to the sprawling Spartan Mills. In January 2019 the community opened The Franklin School with 135 students enrolled in a full-day, full-year early learning center. The Franklin school focuses on children ages 6 weeks to 5 years old through a holistic child development and learning program, using an evidence based curriculum with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) inspired classrooms. The mixed-income learning center enrolls both Head Start and private-pay students, with children from Northside given priority.

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From the Network

Putting Our Future in the Bank (Literally and Figuratively)

It’s ironic that the James Rushton Early Learning and Family Success Center in Birmingham, Alabama’s Woodlawn neighborhood is inside of a bank building that has been vacant for more than 20 years – because the children who crawl, toddle and walk down these bright hallways are now on a path designed to guide them from here to college, and to build wealth and fulfillment throughout their lifetimes.

, , |May 23, 2017

Jill Biden visits Woodlawn in Birmingham, Alabama

On April 9, 2021, Dr. Jill Biden visited the James Rushton Early Learning Center and a YWCA in Birmingham, hosted by Purpose Built Network Member Woodlawn Foundation. Biden spoke about how the administration’s $1.9 trillion stimulus law can help address child poverty. Both centers she visited run Head Start programs that benefit from the law. “This pandemic will not break us,” Biden said in her remarks. “I know that you would do anything for your child. You want to give them the world. Every parent does.”

, |April 16, 2021
Purpose Built Communities