Realising the potential of the First 2000 Days: Lessons from community-led systems approaches in the United States

Practice Foundations: August 2024

There is increasing recognition that investing in the early years is the most effective way to get upstream of our most pressing social challenges. But how do we approach the ‘first 2000 days’ as a policy issue? What can we learn from other countries about what it takes to unleash the power of locally-led solutions?

In this session, Aimee Hadrup (Manager, Tamariki Wellbeing at The Southern Initiative) reported back on her Harkness Fellowship, where she engaged with a range of innovative early years focussed place-based initiatives across the US, as well as visited teams at leading academic institutions including the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, the Stanford University Centre on Early Childhood and the UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities.

Based on her Fellowship findings, and experience leading whānau-centred and cross-sectoral innovation in the early years system, Aimee offered important insights for our context in Aotearoa and discussed the infrastructure needed for communities to drive intergenerational wellbeing.