From the time they are born, children grow and learn within the context of their relationships. Unable to care for themselves, babies rely on the adults in their world for safety and nurturance. It is through relationships, therefore, that babies and young children learn to trust, to play, to communicate and to solve problems. Children learn who they are and how to treat others through their interactions with those they depend on for care and comfort. As they grow older, children develop skills such as literacy, perspectivetaking and critical thinking within relationships with teachers, parents and peers.
Environmental stressors such as illness, financial problems, substance abuse and family conflict place enormous strain on both young children and a family’s caregiving relationship. Without sufficient family and community support, vulnerable children are at significant risk for cognitive, behavioral and emotional problems during their school years and beyond. As adults, these children are more likely to face mental and physical health issues, struggle with financial independence, engage in substance abuse or become trapped in a cycle of poverty or family violence.
On Nov. 3, Vashon residents have the opportunity to cast a vote to support the health of our children and our community. The Best Starts for Kids initiative (King County Proposition 1) is a meaningful opportunity to invest in prevention and early intervention services for children, families and communities. A six-year levy at a rate of 14 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value is proposed to fund the initiative.
Fifty percent of the levy funds are intended for programs serving pregnant women and children under the age of 5. Programs funded would include home-based services for mothers and babies, pregnancy and post-partum support, early childhood developmental screenings, domestic violence prevention and family homelessness prevention.
Research tells us that services designed to support healthy development in the first five years of life are enormously effective. Infancy and early childhood are periods of rapid and uneven development; early responses to challenges such as premature birth, language delay or feeding difficulty have a strong impact on later growth. Maternal supports which offer services such as mental health treatment, parenting education and nutritional counseling can strengthen and stabilize the env i ronment into which a child is born. Skilled observation of young children and their caregivers together can identify and repair disturbances in social and emotional growth long before clinical symptoms emerge.
The brain continues to develop steadily, if not as rapidly, throughout the school years and into early adulthood. Best Starts for Kids aims to sustain gains made in the early years by designating 35 percent of the levy funds to programs serving 5- to 24-year-olds. Services for this age range would focus on early detection and treatment of mental health symptoms, family-oriented crisis response, school-based programs, life skills training, childhood nutrition and community support for young adults. Domestic violence and homelessness prevention would remain key aims for this age group as well.
As children enter the school years, they rely on social and emotional skills to navigate the academic world. Literacy is much more than the ability to decode words: it demands empathy for characters, interpretation of social behavior and anticipation of outcomes. Children of any age cannot fully engage academically while they are worried about basic needs, or their perceptions are impacted by mental illness or relational difficulties.
An additional 10 percent of the levy is set aside to promote healthy communities with a particular emphasis on reducing health disparities associated with race and income. Efforts to support communities would include efforts to increase food security, expand economic opportunities and increase access to affordable housing.
The remaining 5 percent of the proposed levy would support evaluation, data collection and improving service delivery of programs to assure that programs are tailored to the needs of children and families of diverse backgrounds. Family and youth homelessness prevention will be a special focus of the first year of the levy, should the initiative pass.
Our children count on the adults in their lives to protect them, to comfort them and to help them grow into adults themselves. Communities, in turn, can offer families the resources to create a stable environment in which children can develop. The Best Starts for Kids initiative is an excellent way to demonstrate, as a community, how much we value these connections. Please vote yes on Nov. 3 for healthy families and healthy communities.
— Valerie Harrington, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist who lives and works on Vashon, providing professional consultation and supervision.
