Making Small Moments Big for Children’s Early Brain Development: The Clinton Foundation & Too Small to Fail

Every child deserves the best possible chance at success in school and in life; preparing them for that success is a process that begins from the moment a child is born. Too Small to Fail, the early childhood initiative of the Clinton Foundation, promotes early brain and language development by surrounding families with early language and learning opportunities and supporting parents with resources to talk, read and sing with their young children starting at birth. Today, almost 60 percent of children in the United States start kindergarten unprepared, lagging behind their peers in critical language and reading skills. Through partnerships with pediatricians, faith leaders, hospitals, community-based organizations, businesses, the entertainment industry and others, Too Small to Fail is meeting parents where they are to help them prepare their children for success in kindergarten and beyond. Please join us to learn more about the Clinton Foundation’s Too Small to Fail initiative and hear how we are working with funders and community partners to raise awareness about the importance of talking, reading and singing with young children and providing families with tools to engage in language-rich interactions during daily moments. We will provide an overview of how Too Small to Fail is building strategic partnerships that help us to harness the power of media, transform public spaces into language-rich environments and build local community campaigns. We will be joined by several of our wonderful partners. Brian Wallace, CEO of the Coin Laundry Association, will share how the LaundryCares Foundation is working to engage thousands of laundromats across the country, helping them create playful, literacy-rich spaces for children and families. Shannon Riley-Ayers, Senior Program Officer at the Nicholson Foundation, will describe how they have built a funder collaborative to support and launch an early brain development community campaign in Paterson, New Jersey. And Akshara Vivekananthan, Assistant Director for Education of the United Way of Greater Lehigh Valley, will share how they are leading a community campaign promoting early brain development through trusted messengers and local media — billboards, buses and public service announcements.