Opportunity Starts at Home (OSAH) campaign partner ZERO TO THREE has released its State of Babies Yearbook: 2023. Providing a blueprint for a comprehensive infant and toddler policy agenda, the Yearbook identifies five areas requiring urgent federal action: maternal health, infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH), childcare, housing, and economic security. The Yearbook, which was released alongside an accompanying website, is designed to bridge the gap between science and policy by bringing together national and state-by-state data on the well-being of babies and families in the U.S. The resource explores disparities and inequities by examining data related to race and ethnicity, income, and geography and augments its findings with real-time RAPID Survey Project data collected during the pandemic.
Among other things, the Yearbook demonstrates the threat of crowded housing and unsafe neighborhoods for babies, while also discussing recent challenges to affordable housing, the links between poverty and housing challenges, and the connections between housing and the child welfare system. The Yearbook also identifies a series of solutions supported by the OSAH campaign for addressing the urgent needs of infants, toddlers, and families at the federal level.
“A safe, stable, affordable home provides more than just shelter; it is the emotional and social center of family life,” reads the Yearbook. “The security and quality of a baby’s earliest relationships and experiences, which their surroundings can acutely affect, molds young children’s brain architecture. When babies have the security and predictability of safe places, they are better able to sleep, eat, crawl, play and develop bonds with caregivers. When this central family place becomes unstable, overcrowded, unaffordable or threatened by unsafe neighborhood conditions, babies’ rapid brain development is put at risk, leaving them susceptible to long-term developmental and health problems.”
Read the Yearbook here.