Why We’re All In For Kids

The conditions that promote lifelong health and well-being start early in a child’s life.  But children are growing up in uncertain and stressful times. In school, kids experiencing traumatic stress are 2.5x more likely to fail a grade and score lower on standardized tests.

Communities and local leaders have the solutions, yet siloed systems limit access to comprehensive, integrated, and holistic service provision. People get stuck with inflexible and restricted service options, and children suffer.

We need breakthrough thinking to reimagine and create the experiences and conditions that help children, families, communities, and society thrive and prosper. So we started All In For Kids, in partnership with our founding donors and partners.

All In For Kids is an innovation incubator that leverages what actually works for kids. Our partners develop and design responsive early childhood ecosystems of healing and caring from deep within their community. 

All In For Kids and our partners are co-designing solutions that break down the barriers. Everyone in the early childhood ecosystem of care—from policymakers and educators to healthcare providers and more—has a role in healthy outcomes.

Too often, outside organizations and policymakers call for solutions that don’t consider this interdependency, focus too much on individual-level solutions, and do not lead to the best outcomes for kids. All In For Kids shifts that power—and resources, along with it—into the hands of the community. 

All in For Kids grantee First 5 Monterey County is an inspiring example of this concept in action. They provide robust supports for families with young children, but they recognized their work was incomplete without also advancing families as advocates and leaders. Their political education and mobilization work is now a model that they are sharing through the Parent Power Blueprint.

By investing in community-driven solutions, All In For Kids is making systems-level changes to sustain the services, policies, and practices that result in holistic well-being across generations.

In early October, California leaders who work to make life better for families every day came together to share, learn and dream about health and behavioral health innovations with our All in For Kids partners. There was important collaboration and storytelling in the room, and we hope to see more of this at our future roundtables. 

The fact that racial disparities in economic, educational, health, and social outcomes for our children and their families still exist is a direct testament that what we are currently doing is not working or is not enough. 

Children deserve our boldest, most creative thinking and actions, and their parents deserve our authentic partnership. Our grantees work across systems and lift up parent and community voices because that’s where our most imaginative and effective solutions come from. 

From prenatal to school age and beyond, All In For Kids envisions a world where young children and their families have the support they need to thrive. 

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