Starting Early

👋 Welcome to Starting Early. Every other week, we spotlight new reports, useful news, engaging interviews with people doing important work in the field, and interesting takes on issues that matter.

For this week’s issue, we welcome guest editor Isabelle Hau, who curated our content on the power of play. Play is crucial to children’s learning and development. When kids engage in play, they learn to communicate, build motor skills, and increase their socioemotional wellbeing. Simply put, play builds happy and healthy bodies, minds, and hearts in children. ❤️

As a thought leader in education and a mother of two, Isabelle is well acquainted with the importance of play.

👋 Happy New Year and welcome back to Starting Early. Every other week, we spotlight new reports, useful news, engaging interviews with people doing important work in the field, and interesting takes on issues that matter.

This week’s issue celebrates and elevates the role of fathers. A growing body of evidence confirms the vital role a father can play in a child’s life. Whether supporting mothers in prenatal care or providing children with a sense of security, fathers can and do make a difference.

And who better to explain the power of involved fathers than fathers themselves? We share fatherhood stories of experts and advocates and how their experiences shape their work.

👋 Welcome to Starting Early. Every other week, we spotlight new reports, useful news, engaging interviews with people doing important work in the field, and interesting takes on issues that matter.

As 2021 wraps up, we’re excited to recognize 4 special champions defined by their creativity, resilience, and optimism in serving their communities this year. Our honorees are creative problem solvers:

• Bringing high-quality early childhood education and wraparound services to families struggling during the pandemic
• Offering first-time dental care to families
• Training bilingual doulas to provide comprehensive support to new moms
• Transforming healthcare systems to be more patient-centered and responsive to pregnant women

Additionally, we say goodbye to our philanthropic peer, The Nicholson Foundation, as they close operations after 20 years and $150 million in grantmaking toward addressing systemic shortcomings in social services, healthcare, early childhood programs, and more.

👋 Welcome to Starting Early. Every other week, we spotlight new reports, useful news, engaging interviews with people doing important work in the field, and interesting takes on issues that matter.

For this issue, we’re pleased to welcome our first guest editor, Ira Hillman, who curated the fantastic Early Relational Health content in this issue. Ira works at Einhorn Collaborative, where he leads their Bonding strategy. He is a powerful voice in the philanthropic sector for helping parents and their babies establish and maintain emotional connection from birth. At Einhorn, Ira championed the creation of Pediatrics Supporting Parents, a unique funder collaborative that leverages pediatric well-visits to support children’s social and emotional development and nurturing parent-child relationships.

👋 Welcome to Starting Early. Every other week, we spotlight new reports, useful news, engaging interviews with people doing important work in the field, and interesting takes on issues that matter.

Last spring, Burke staff read about a class taught by Professor Heather Howard at Princeton that empowers undergraduates to explore inequities in New Jersey’s healthcare system and propose policy solutions. Turquoise Brewington, a brilliant junior in the class, was evaluating how to improve outcomes for Black mothers by expanding Medicaid coverage for home births and midwives. Now we welcome Turquoise as our maternal infant health intern.

We’re also pleased to report that a crucial policy recommendation was realized last week when New Jersey became only the second state to expand Medicaid coverage for 365 days postpartum.

👋Welcome to Starting Early. Every other week, we spotlight new reports, useful news, engaging interviews with people doing important work in the field, and interesting takes on issues that matter.

Reflecting on the significance of #WorldMentalHealthDay, we believe mental health is health. 💚 Most behavioral health challenges begin in childhood. In fact, 50% of all behavioral health problems appear by age 14. Many go untreated — and the cost to society is staggering, from health and productivity to frayed human connections.

In our upstream work with partners, we think deeply about trauma and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in our communities and building protective factors that buffer and heal from their impact.

👋Welcome to Starting Early. Every other week, we spotlight new reports, useful news, engaging interviews with people doing important work in the field, and interesting takes on issues that matter.

Over the past 3 years, we’ve worked very closely with the New Jersey Department of Children and Families (DCF) to prevent childhood trauma and heal those affected by it. Our partner, Commissioner Christine Beyer, is a leader in upstream work to address adverse outcomes.

This week we take you behind the scenes of DCF to learn more about the Commissioner’s aspirations for the future of child welfare.

And we’re proud to announce that our executive director, Atiya Weiss, will be a 2021 Aspen Institute Ascend Fellow, joining a group of visionary leaders committed to reinventing systems and advancing two-generation solutions that create pathways to economic mobility for families and children.

👋 Welcome to Starting Early. Every other week, we spotlight new reports, useful news, engaging interviews with people doing important work in the field, and interesting takes on issues that matter.

We are honored to sit down this week with Dr. Damali Campbell. She is a physician in OB/GYN and Addiction Medicine at University Hospital in Newark – and a champion for Black women’s health. She filled us in on her team’s work at one of the largest safety net hospitals in the state, and talked about expanding CenteringPregnancy, a transformative health care model that aims to reach 50 new clinical sites in the next 5 years.

👋Welcome to Starting Early. Every other week, we spotlight new reports, useful news, and engaging interviews with people doing important work in the field, and interesting takes on issues that matter.

At the Burke Foundation, we are deeply concerned about America’s maternal mortality crisis. Women of color are two to three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women. To address these racial disparities, we are exploring expanding the community-birthing workforce — doulas, peer breastfeeding counselors, and community health workers, for example — to deliver enhanced perinatal care to women and families and create new employment opportunities.

👋Welcome to Starting Early. Every other week, we spotlight new reports, useful news, and engaging interviews with people doing important work in the field, and interesting takes on issues that matter.

Through our work over the past four years, we at the Burke Foundation have learned about and researched how some of society’s greatest challenges — including addiction, homelessness, and poor mental health — have their roots in the earliest years of a person’s life.

This knowledge inspires our grantmaking. In this edition of Starting Early, we highlight several of Burke’s grantee partners and their far-reaching impacts on children and families in New Jersey and across the country.