THE GRANT WILL HELP US BUILD AND SHARE THE EVIDENCE BASE FOR SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE MATERNAL HEALTH DISPARITIES AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF EARLY CHILDHOOD SERVICES.
Press Contact: Molly Kramer, 615-343-8948, molly.m.kramer@vanderbilt.edu
The Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center is thrilled to announce a generous multi-year grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. The grant will fund a national study on state governance of early childhood programs—and has already helped us host a deep and collaborative learning opportunity on community-based doulas for legislative staff from over two dozen states.
“With this support, we can make progress on two incredibly impactful prenatal-to-3 issues,” said Dr. Cynthia Osborne, director of the Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center and Professor of Early Childhood Education and Policy at Vanderbilt University. “The Hilton Foundation’s focus on improving the lives of individuals living in poverty and experiencing disadvantage makes them the ideal partner to make sure evidence-based perinatal care and early childhood services get to the people who need them the most.”
In 2023, the Center launched our policy academies, which are intimate, nonpartisan gatherings of advocates, state leaders, and policymakers from across the country to learn from experts and each other about crafting effective and equitable policy on a particular issue. The Hilton Foundation’s grant supported our most recent policy academy, the Community-Based Doula Policy Learning Symposium.
Evidence shows that community-based doulas positively impact parental wellness, child-parent relationships, and child health and development and may also decrease health disparities for mothers and infants. At the policy academy, learned what the research says about these impacts, particular when these providers serve as part of a broader system of care. States enthusiastically shared successes and struggles in developing policy to support community-based doulas, all while immersing themselves in presentations on maternal health trends, policy levers, and effective messaging for a variety of political contexts.
The Hilton Foundation’s grant will also support the Center’s upcoming analysis of early childhood governance across states. Over recent years, states have increasingly examined, and in some cases reorganized, the governance of all their early childhood programs. We will launch the study with a national landscape scan of early childhood program and policy administration. This initial phase will allow us to identify patterns and describe recent evolution. We will then select several states for in-depth case studies to inform best practices for states to serve families with young children.
