United Way Announces Connected Beginnings, Massachusetts' First Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Training Institute

BOSTON— Today, state commissioners, pediatricians, educators, and other leading professionals, including the Honorable Martha Grace, Chief Justice of Massachusetts Juvenile Court, gathered to publicly launch Connected Beginnings, Massachusetts’ first statewide infant and early childhood mental health training institute. The training will enable professionals who work with young children to respond to the social and emotional needs, signs of developmental disruptions, and indications of trauma among infants, toddlers and preschoolers.

Of the 400,000 children ages five and under living in Massachusetts today, more than one quarter of them attend childcare, 2,900 will receive early intervention services and 12,000 will receive services from the Department of Social Services. Connected Beginnings will be Massachusetts’ first statewide effort focused on supporting the numerous professionals who interact with young children during these critical months and years of healthy growth and early brain development.

Scientific advances reveal the importance of early life experiences and relationships to a child’s life-long social and emotional health. Lacking other outlets, early social and emotional instability can manifest itself behaviorally, impeding a child’s capacity to learn. A 2005 Yale University Study revealed that Massachusetts has the ninth highest rate of pre-kindergarten expulsions in the nation. The state’s pre-kindergarten expulsion rate of 11.15 per 1,000 is nearly twice the national rate of 6.7 per 1,000 and more than 13 times Massachusetts’ kindergarten-to-12 th grade rate.

“Fostering nurturing relationships and understanding a child’s social and emotional health is not just the responsibility of mental health professionals, nor should it be,” said Libby Zimmerman Ph.D., executive director of the Institute. “Connected Beginnings will ensure that all professionals birth-to-five are trained and supported.”

Connected Beginnings will provide training, and inform the coordination and evaluation of early childhood mental health training efforts throughout the Commonwealth. The launch coincided with the release of the Connected Beginnings report: Training Professionals to Support the Mental Health of Young Children and their Families: Lessons for Massachusetts from the National Landscape, which highlighted current practices and initiatives across the country for developing and implementing a statewide training system.

“I have watched this institute grow from a concern to an idea, an idea to a strategy, and a strategy to the partnerships that have brought it to life today,” said Milton Little, president and CEO of United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley. “It is a sign that, through partnerships, we can help to bring together a fragmented system, close the gaps in early childhood mental health training, and build the foundation that will support Massachusetts children for years to come.”

The reception also formally introduced the Connected Beginnings Advisory Council, a group composed of leading professionals from a wide range of disciplines who are dedicated to infant and early childhood mental health training for all Massachusetts practitioners.