This is the 51st National Week of the Young Child, April 2-8, a time to recognize the importance of early learning and nurturing care, and to celebrate the educators, leaders, and policies that bring early childhood education to young children.

One of the great lessons of COVID-19 is the stark realization that child care is not an only issue for families — it’s everyone’s issue.

The dominos started falling early in the pandemic and kept falling: loss of child care led to loss of work and income, then business closures, housing evictions, and increased food insecurity, leading to the failing health of our families and economy. In response, a new affinity group of visionary leaders from key sectors (housing, food, transportation, broadband, healthcare and economic and community development) formed.

Now, the Maine Alliance for Health and Prosperity (MAHP) is working to leverage the crises produced by the pandemic to advance positive, “upstream” policy changes to improve the health and economic well-being of all Maine people and communities.

Recognizing the powerful and pivotal role that child care plays, the Alliance for Health and Prosperity is joining with other advocates across the state, including the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, Gov. Janet Mills and members of the Maine Legislature, to urge the adoption of policies that position child care as the center of an inclusive and resilient economy.

This week, the Maine Alliance for Health and Prosperity is asking people and communities across the state to come together in honoring young children and all those who make a difference in their lives. All children need and deserve nurturing care and effective early learning experiences to help them get a great start in life. Their working parents depend on a stable and strong system of care and education, and Maine’s employers rely on their employees’ access to childcare.

Let’s use the Week of the Young Child to lift up the importance of child care and early learning alongside the many other parts of children’s lives that are important to their well-being, from housing, to food, to healthcare and more.

Young children need us, the adults in their lives, and leaders across the state, to recognize all aspects of health that influence their development. These are often called Social Determinants of Health, the conditions in environments where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks.

These powerful determinants include economic stability, education access and quality, health care access and quality, safe neighborhoods and the built environment, and supportive policies — all things that can positively or negatively impact children and families.

As nonprofit leaders in the sectors of health care, economic development, food security and philanthropy who are actively involved with MAHP, we recognize that many efforts to support children and families are siloed, due to imaginary and real boundaries. Our society’s mindset is often that childcare is a standalone issue. Envisioning the whole child, the whole family, and the whole community as being interconnected to housing, health care, transportation, racism and discrimination, income, nutritious food, and clean air and water will move more Mainers toward healthy and prosperous lives.

Federal, state, and local policies impact every community, family, and child and we must come together to lift up the importance of aligning, connecting, and implementing programs and  policies that mutually work to achieve our common goals. Maine children cannot wait.

Let’s celebrate the Week of the Young Child by focusing on serving the full needs of our youngest and most vulnerable residents. They need us to work together. They need us to see them in all their potential, and we need to see our own collective potential to better serve Maine’s young children, and likewise, the health and prosperity of all Maine people.

Keith Bisson is president of Coastal Enterprises, Inc. Barbara Crowley, M.D., is a pediatrician. Morgan Hynd is director of The Bingham Program. Kristen Miale is president of the Good Shepherd Food Bank. Tara Williams is executive director of the Maine Association for the Education of Young Children. Shawn Yardley is CEO of Community Concepts.

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