Creating models of care so all children thrive

When Dr. Greg Blaschke and I sat down a couple weeks ago to discuss Heckman's Curve and how it is related to The Collaborative's Upstream Initiative, I knew I would learn something. Dr. Blaschke definitely delivered thought provoking content. Check it out here:

"When we think about kids, approximately 50% will be on Medicaid at some point during their childhood. And if we look at Doernbecher Children's, it's right around 55% of kids cared for at Doernbecher have Medicaid funding paying for their care. And so all of these things combined basically lead to a statement that you could think about: Sometimes children are born into suffering, and that can continue for a lifetime. Or the flip side, if we're investing upstream and reducing that suffering and helping children to succeed, essentially there will be increasing return on investments." Dr. Greg Blaschke

We want to be on that flip side! Even if a child is born into the suffering of a system that perpetuates racism or the chronic stress of poverty, we know that we can co-imagine a system that will provide the opportunities that child needs to fulfill their potential. That is exactly what the Upstream Initiative is about.

Your donation will go directly to building a strategy for Child Success Models will include a new governance or coordinating structure to ensure that the services, supports, interventions and protective factors needed for a child to succeed reach upstream to the first 1000 days of life, follow the child and their family across the community and over time in a culturally responsive way, and prepare a child and their family to successfully enter the education system.