Who We Are
Our Vision
Contra Costa’s young children will be healthy, ready to learn, and supported in safe, nurturing families and communities.
For more than two decades, First 5 Contra Costa has worked to support every child in our county in reaching their full potential by focusing on their most critical years of development—prenatal to age 5. We focus on prevention, center our work around equity, and play many roles to reach our vision: funder, convener, and advocate.
Read more about our work and how we put our core values and guiding principles into action in our Strategic Plan.
Why Focus on Ages 0-5?
Research shows that a child’s brain develops most dramatically during the first five years of life. During this critical period, a window of opportunity exists to help shape how a child’s brain matures and to lay the foundation for all of the years that follow.
While the early period in children’s development is critical to their future success, it is also where public investments are lowest. Research shows that early childhood programs have some of the highest returns on investment of social service programs.
Our Core Values
Diversity & Inclusion:
We work to ensure the diverse values, voices, and perspectives of our staff, partners, and community members are heard, represented, and reflected throughout our work.
Equity:
We work to eliminate systemic and structural barriers that cause or contribute to inequities so that all children and families in our community succeed.
Cultural Humility:
We continuously reflect on the ways in which our beliefs, cultural identities, power, and privilege influence our actions and interactions. We maintain curiosity and an openness to learning from others’ lived experiences and adapting our approaches.
Community Partnership:
We listen to and learn from families, organizations, and policymakers. We build relationships based on shared values, shared power, trust, respect, and a collective commitment to ensuring the health and well-being of all children.
Our Guiding Principles
We will prioritize our efforts and investments to focus on eliminating disparities and creating equitable opportunities and outcomes.
We will contribute to strengthening and building trauma-informed early childhood systems that prevent, treat, and heal trauma and adverse childhood experiences.
We will seek out and listen and partner with diverse and under-represented voices, with shared power, clear communication, and agreements as to roles and responsibilities, expectations, decision-making, and accountability.