Opportunity Starts at Home (OSAH) campaign partner ZERO TO THREE hosted a webinar, “A National Call for Safe, Affordable Housing for Our Children,” on May 22. On the webinar, leading experts from the OSAH campaign, Children’s HealthWatch, SchoolHouse Connection, and the Connecticut Head Start on Housing Program discussed recent findings about the intersections of early childhood development, health, education, and affordable housing and the critical role that the early childhood development sector has in mitigating the impact of housing instability and homelessness.
Mollyrose Schaffner, senior policy analyst at ZERO TO THREE, shared findings from the 2023 State of Babies Yearbookthat highlight the significant health and developmental risks of housing instability for babies and young children and the importance of stable housing in early childhood development.
Erin Patterson, director of education initiatives at SchoolHouse Connection, discussed conclusions from a recent report that analyzed state-by-state data on infant and toddler homelessness. She also discussed how homelessness is defined in the report and the developmental consequences of homelessness for young children.
Dr. Megan Sandel, co-lead principal investigator at Children’s HealthWatch, discussed the health risks that housing instability and homelessness pose for infants and young children and how stable, affordable housing can mitigate those risks.
Karen Pascale, director of the Connecticut Head Start Collaboration Office, and Dr. Shanté Hanks, director of Head Start on Housing (HSOH), highlighted the partnership between Head Start and the Connecticut Department of Housing in running the state’s innovative Head Start on Housing Program. They shared the program’s successes and best practices for states interested in similar collaboration.
The full panel discussed why stable, affordable housing is a central concern in advancement of their organization’s mission and how housing advocates can best partner with advocates in the early childhood development, health, and education sectors. OSAH national partners also shared why they participate in the OSAH campaign and encouraged interested attendees to join the OSAH Roundtable.
ZERO TO THREE and SchoolHouse Connection are OSAH Roundtable members, and Children’s HealthWatch sits on the Steering Committee. See the full list of OSAH Roundtable and Steering Committee members here.
Watch the recording at: https://tinyurl.com/bdcjt2jj