Early childhood is both the most critical and the most vulnerable time in any child's development. Our research, and that of others, demonstrates that in the first few years the ingredients for intellectual, emotional, and moral growth are laid down. If they are not, it is true that a developing child can still acquire them, but the price rises and the chances of success decrease with each subsequent year. We cannot fail children in these early years.

— Stanley Greenspan and T. Berry Brazelton
"The Irreducible Needs of Children"
Perseus Publishing, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2000

From the moment children are born, they begin learning about how the world works. During their first three years, children learn to give and accept love, to be confident and secure, to show empathy, and to be curious, eager learners—characteristics that are key to developing healthy relationships, to doing well in school, and for living a meaningful and successful life as they grow.

Young children learn through their important relationships with their parents and caregivers. How we learn, think, control our emotions, and relate to others the rest of our lives—in short, everything that makes us human—is highly dependent on the nature of the interactions and experiences we have as very young children, even before we have words.

Early childhood development programs are rarely portrayed as economic development initiatives, and we think that is a mistake. Such programs, if they appear at all, are at the bottom of economic development list for state and local governments. They should be at the top. Most of the numerous projects and initiatives that state and local governments fund in the name of creating new private businesses and new jobs result in few public benefits. In contrast, studies find that well-focused investments in early childhood development yield high public as well as private returns.

— Art Rolnick and Rob Grunewald
Early Childhood Development: Economic Development with a High Public Return
Fedgazette, January 24, 2003

The Atlas Family Foundation concentrates its charitable resources in early child development and parenting education programs impacting infant and toddler aged children and their families. We are targeting low income, high-risk families. Our mission is based on our belief that from the prenatal to preschool years the map of one's life is pretty much set. Early intervention programs taking corrective action on children's social, emotional and cognitive problems as they are developing have high success rates and are relatively inexpensive. As children get older, the interventions are much more costly and the probabilities of success much lower.

By having the discipline to stay focused, our ability to impact the problems we are addressing is much greater that if we were to be more diversified.