Governor Dayton’s Children’s Cabinet, the Science Museum of Minnesota, and the University of Minnesota joined together for Building Power for Babies, an event held at the Science Museum of Minnesota on June 3, 2013. This event explored the importance of the first 1,000 days of life and the critical relationships between experience, environment, families and communities and how those relationships affect the life-long health and optimal achievement of Minnesota’s youngest children. The event was part of Governor Mark Dayton’s Children’s Cabinet’s strategy for improving outcomes for Minnesota’s babies and toddlers.
The event kicked off the Cabinet’s second phase of strategic planning, which is focused on working with partners and parents to create safe, stable nurturing relationships and environments for infants and toddlers. This event was presented by the Science Museum of Minnesota with funding from the National Science Foundation, in association with Governor Dayton’s Children’s Cabinet and the University of Minnesota. The Science Museum’s Wonder Years focuses on important research about optimal brain development and shows the importance of using scientific insights about children to inform public policy decisions.
The Center for Early Education and Development’s (CEED) involvement includes Project for Babies‘ prenatal-to-three state planning group, headed by Jane Kretzmann, and a partnership between CEED and the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare (CASCW). The CEED/CASCW partnership, coordinated by CEED’s Nikki Kovan and CASCW’s Tracy Crudo, works to translate development science for child welfare audiences and include their voices in the ongoing prenatal-to-three work happening in Minnesota.