To help understand how Los Angeles County residents are reacting to the volatile events of 2020, the LA Partnership for Early Childhood Investment and UNITE-LA commissioned an August poll of more than 800 likely voters. The findings demonstrate that both child care and early education are very important issues to voters, especially as they think about how Los Angeles County will rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic and recover from the deep economic depression it caused. Voters further see access to child care as one of the key ways society can address long-standing problems with racial injustice. For voters in LA County, early childhood programs and child care are necessities and they support elected officials who prioritize these investments and policies. Read more >

With 800,000 children under the age of 5 years in Los Angeles County, early childhood funders and advocates have been testing models and strategies that respond to the vast diversity of languages, cultural perspectives, and experiences families face as they navigate the labyrinth of local systems and services. As part of stakeholder discussions sparked by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the LA Partnership for Early Childhood Investment in 2015, local advocates developed a shared definition for family engagement as well as five guiding principles. These principles build upon the work of national advocates and stress the need to embed practices across the systems and settings that serve families with young children. Read more >