In a landmark effort to better understand, explain and improve the landscape for Early Care and Education (ECE) in Los Angeles County, Advancement Project has released three reports and unveiled a new interactive website to benefit media, advocates and decision makers...
News & Resources
Board Approves Bills for First 5 LA Legislative Agenda
First 5 LA’s Board of Commissioners unanimously approved support on April 9 for a number of state bills that could greatly improve the lives of young children and their families in California.Bills included in First 5 LA's 2015 Legislative Agenda were selected based...
Keeping Her Eye on the Ball
“Know where to throw the ball before you catch it,” was an early lesson Leanne Negron – a First 5 LA Senior Program Officer in the Best Start Communities department – learned through sports and then adopted throughout her life.Negron started playing sports when she...
Helping Families to Their Best Start
Like some other parents, Iris Galicia, a mother of two who lives in West Athens, faces some challenges related to how to best raise her young children to ensure they grow up healthy and ready to attend school.That is why she and about 40 other people recently attended...
VISTA Program is a Great Success in Communities it Serves
As a Best Start “Volunteer In Service To America” (VISTA) Program member, Jonathan Diaz takes pride in his work within the East Los Angeles community, helping community members come together to ensure the well-being of their children.Diaz and two additional VISTA...
Where Best Start Works
Low birth weight. Low-performing schools. Poverty.When Best Start expanded beyond Metro LA in 2009, these were among the risk factors for young children, along with geographic, racial and ethnic diversity, used to determine which additional communities would become a...
Best Start: How We Work
From engaging in “Learning by Doing” to organizing local resource fairs, and hosting health insurance forums to improving communication of community issues, see some of the ways Best Start works to improve the lives of young children and their families by viewing the...
Best Start – Stories of What We Do
March 5, 2015 “After nourishment, shelter and...
What Best Start Means to Me
When First 5 LA launched its Best Start pilot effort in 2008, the goal was to encourage parents, community-based organizations, local businesses and other community leaders to work together to transform neighborhoods into places where young children can grow up safe,...
Coming “Full Circle”
Rafael González’s current role as director of First 5 LA’s Best Start Communities has brought him back full circle to the single most important lesson of his youth: it’s all about community. “It wasn’t so much a choice for me to go into social justice work – it was...
