We are proud to have joined together with 25 early childhood funders from across Western New York to help form Liftoff, a strategic alliance that works to ensure children ages five-years-old and under are meeting critical milestones and are ready to achieve their fullest potential by the time they start elementary school. Liftoff, which will work through existing community organizations and networks to achieve its goals, has identified five high-level opportunities to improve Western New York’s early childhood system:

1. Increase parental and caregiver knowledge of early childhood screenings that measure developmental milestones at various ages, such as taking a first step, smiling for the first time and waving.
2. Engage the business community in support of the report’s priority areas.
3. Develop a community-wide strategic plan that can serve as a roadmap guiding efforts toward meeting early childhood goals.
4. Work with elected officials to become educated about and involved in public policy work that supports awareness, availability and access.
5. Support strong advocacy work and increase the number of WNY leaders taking an active role in statewide forums to support regional approaches for system changes related to kindergarten readiness, quality, costs and accessibility to early childhood education and development.

Liftoff will continue to work with partners across the region to address these priorities.