County awarded Pritzker Children’s Initiative grant

Allegheny County on Thursday was announced as a recipient of a three-year grant from the Pritzker Children’s Initiative toward the improvement of life outcomes for infants and toddlers.

The county and 10 other communities and coalitions around the U.S. received the grants. The recipients are to use the money for a community-based strategy to improve access to programs and services to better prepare the youngest children for success in school and in life, a statement said Thursday.

The grants come after a national yearlong competition held by Pritzker to identify communities with the potential to impact at least half of their total at-risk populations within five to seven years and can demonstrate meaningful progress toward that goal within the threeyear grant period.

The statement said Pritzker anticipates the work by these communities to collectively impact as many as 50,000 infants and toddlers by 2023, with that number potentially doubled by 2025.

“Supporting strong efforts in communities across the nation is key to expanding the numbers of young children in the United States with access to high-quality programs and services. We believe that by beginning prenatally and continuing these supports after birth, we are setting infants and toddlers on the path to success in school, and in life, is work upon which we can all agree,” Gerry Cobb, director of Pritzker Children’s Initiative, said in the statement.

“We are pleased to support the priorities of the deserving recipients through these grants and want to build upon the innovative work being done by their outstanding public and private partners who have come together on behalf of the nation’s youngest children.”

In addition to Allegheny County, other recipients of the grant include:

•The United Way of Coastal Fairfield County (Bridgeport Prospers), Bridgeport, Conn.

• Children’s Trust of Alachua County, Alachua County, Fla.

• Agenda for Children, New Orleans.

• Baltimore City Health Department, Baltimore.

• First Steps Kent, Kent County, Mich.

• Ready for School, Ready for Life, Guilford County, N.C.

• Adirondack Foundation (Adirondack Birth to Three Alliance), Adirondack Region, N.Y. (including Clinton, Essex and Franklin counties and the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation).

• Learn to Earn Dayton, Montgomery County, Ohio.