Realising the potential of the first 2000 days: A social investment opportunity

In 2023, Aimee Hadrup (Manager, Tamariki Wellbeing at The Southern Initiative) was awarded a Harkness Fellowship. Harkness Fellowships are awarded to outstanding mid-career public servants to undertake research in their chosen area of study in the USA for between 3-6 months. The Fellowships seek to reinforce New Zealand-United States’ links by enabling leaders and opinion formers in New Zealand to benefit from new ideas, practices and new contacts in the US.

Aimee’s fellowship supported her to to engage with a range of innovative early years focussed place-based initiatives across the US, as well as visit with 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.

Aimee has recently published an article in the Spring 2024 edition of the Public Sector Journal that draws on her Fellowship findings to outline key shifts needed for social investment to realise the social and economic benefits of intervening upstream to ensure all children have a good start in life.

Click the button below to read Aimee’s article or to access the full Spring 2024 edition of the Public Sector Journal click here: https://ipanz.org.nz/Article?Action=View&Article_id=150489