The Center on the Developing Child was founded in 2006 on the belief that the vitality and sustainability of any society depends on the extent to which it provides opportunities early in life for all children to achieve their full potential and engage in responsible and productive citizenship. The Center views healthy child development as the bedrock for economic prosperity, strong communities, and a just society. The goal of the Center is meaningful change in policy and practice that produces substantially large impacts on the learning capacity, health, and economic and social mobility of vulnerable young children.
The Center has developed a broad collection of resources to help fill the gap between what experts know about the science of early childhood and what the public understands and does about it; these include reports and working papers, briefs, multimedia tools, stories from the field, articles, and books. The Center is home to the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, the National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs, the Global Children’s Initiative, the Frontiers of Innovation initiative, and the Science of Adversity and Resilience. The Center’s education and leadership development activities help to create new leaders and change agents to improve the well-being of vulnerable children.