I Am Your Child Foundation Receives $1 Million Grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- The I Am Your Child Foundation (IAYC) received a $1 million gift from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support a national public awareness and engagement campaign to make early childhood development a top priority in the U.S.

The IAYC Foundation is a national communications and policy research organization dedicated to raising public awareness and promoting innovative strategies to improve conditions for families and young children from the prenatal period through school entry. Working with renowned early childhood development leaders, key policymakers, and media partners, IAYC provides parents, teachers, health professionals and other caregivers with information, technical assistance, and support to ensure that every child gets a healthy start in life and enters school ready to learn. The foundation also conducts independent policy research examining public attitudes about necessary investments in young children's well being and gauging the impact of effective early childhood prevention programs on later educational, health and social outcomes.

"Research shows that the early years are exceptionally important ones in laying a firm foundation for long-term success. Parents are hungry for quality information related to children's healthy development," said Rob Reiner, co-founder of the IAYC Foundation. "This grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation ensures that millions of additional parents will receive the critical information needed to be the best parents they can be—particularly in the earliest years of their child's life."

With support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, IAYC will expand its national program of dissemination and will form alliances with several states, including Washington, Florida, Illinois, Colorado and New Jersey, to make research-based information available to new parents on a voluntary basis. Local and state policymakers, business groups, early childhood professionals, faith and community leaders will form partnerships to ensure that all new and prospective parents have access to critical information that will help them nurture and support their children's development. Media organizations will also cooperate in the creation and distribution of print and electronic public service announcements that will be used in other communities nationwide.

The state and national public engagement work will be facilitated by the leadership of a bi-partisan group of policymakers who have committed to the expansion and improvement of early learning, parenting, and preventive child health programs. The state campaigns will utilize IAYC's unique educational video series and accompanying print materials as a centerpiece. The IAYC series, which includes a dozen half hour videotapes that synthesize available research and best practices, covers issues such as prenatal care, brain development, early literacy, discipline, child care, health & nutrition, safety, and bonding and attachment. In addition to this series, IAYC will develop a series of locally tailored public service announcements, establish strategic media partnerships (with campaign partners such as Time Warner's Parenting Group) and convene public forums and events designed to create national press coverage on issues of importance to families and their youngest children. Video hosts include Gloria Estefan, Maria Shriver, Andy Garcia, Phylicia Rashad, Rob Reiner, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, Edward James Olmos, Christina Saralegui, and LeVar Burton.

"The grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will serve as an important catalyst for pioneering states that are already promoting child development and school readiness as essential goals. The grant will also help IAYC to leverage additional resources from the private sector to further disseminate highly credible, well-produced and action-oriented materials to reach all of our nation's families with young children," said Dr. Michael H. Levine, IAYC's executive director.

This is the second grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support early childhood development. Earlier this year, the Foundation donated $10 million to the Early Learning Foundation—the fundraising arm of the Governor's Commission on Early Learning in Washington state, of which Melinda Gates is co-chair.