Leadership Cleveland wants to improve the first 5 years of life for Cleveland kids: Impact 2016: The First 2,000 Days

Some preschools don't need a state rating to attract students

A group of preschoolers play during gym class at Laurel School. (Gus Chan / The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio --Some of Cleveland's top leaders will spend the next nine months developing a plan to address problems Ohio children face during the most vulnerable stage of their lives: the first 2,000 days.

The 2016 class of Leadership Cleveland, a nonprofit that provides leadership training to people at various stages of their career, decided to target early childhood development for a community-improvement project.

Marianne Crosley, the nonprofit's president and CEO, said the class settled on the topic after learning about lead poisoning and infant mortality in Cleveland and visiting the neonatal intensive care units at Cleveland MetroHealth and University Hospitals Rainbow Babies Children's Hospital.

Leadership Cleveland's project coincides with a year-long series, Impact 2016: The First 2,000 Days, a collaboration between cleveland.com, Plain Dealer Publishing Co. and ideastream (the public broadcasting entity that includes WVIZ/PBS Channel 25, WCPN FM/90.3 and WCLV FM/104.9), and sponsored by PNC Bank. The series has examined a range of topics associated with the first 2,000 days of a child's life and how parents, teachers and caregivers can help promote positive growth.

Research shows the brain develops faster during the first 2,000 days than at any other point in life, and every experience during that time period helps build a framework in the brain that will sustain the children for life.

Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish said publicity generated by the 2,000 Days series helped the county to solicit $12 million in private donations to match $10 million the county budgeted for high-quality pre-K education in November.

The Plain Dealer published a series in October that revealed 13 percent of Cuyahoga County children under 6 who were tested had lead in their bloodstream and has reported extensively on infant mortality.

Alumni of the Cleveland Leadership program will develop a blueprint for their 2,000 days project and will eventually hand it off to an organization that can carry out their plans.

Several of the committee members are involved in organizations that deal directly with early childhood issues and could serve resources, including Elizabeth Newman, president and CEO of the Centers for Families and Children, Patricia DePompei, president of University Hospitals' Rainbow Babies & Children's and MacDonald Women's hospitals, and Cleveland Councilman Brian Cummins, who chairs council's health and human services committee.

Crosley said she envisions the project having long-term results.

"My hope would be that they learn the incredible amount of difference one can make if you really focus in on the first 2,000 days of life, and they choose a project that will have an impact for children for years to come. So it won't be a one and done. They can look back and say 'this is what we did and we really made a difference.'"

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