Stacy

Gwinnett's Early Learning Initiative

As we know, and as Bill Gates, Sr. so eloquently stated: “The first five years have so much to do with how the next 80 turn out.” We know that 80% of a child’s brain is developed by age 3 and 90% by age 5. And, with a baby’s brain growing at a phenomenal rate of 1 million neural connection per second, it is critical to capitalize on the early years to build a foundation for lifelong health, learning, and success before they enter Kindergarten.

Since 2019, Gwinnett’s Early Learning Working Group which led to the Gwinnett Building Babies' Brains initiative has stayed laser-focused on our collective future and coming together to tackle the problem that less than 50% of Gwinnett’s children are entering Kindergarten ready to thrive. Gwinnett Building Babies' Brains continues exploring how diverse organizations and individuals across the county can successfully come together to strategically, sustainably, effectively, and efficiently move the needle on Kindergarten readiness. Through community connection and continued efforts to bring awareness to the importance of early learning and provide high quality resources and programming, the need for this to be a collective approach continues to grow.

Our strategic goal is for all children in Gwinnett to be ready to thrive in kindergarten. While the ultimate goal is the same for every child, we recognize that children and families will want and need different amounts and types of support. Some families need access to information while others need access to programs and resources and some will need both. Through a robust awareness campaign and providing high quality resources and programs, we are committed to meeting the needs of all Gwinnett families.
Success can be achieved if all children have access to high quality early learning which can be in the home or in an early learning center, receive abundant, language-rich adult-child interactions, have access to books and manipulatives in the home or learning environment, and parents have the information and tools they need to be their child’s first highly effective teacher.