What if the gap between what we know to be optimal conditions for child development and what actually happens to many at-risk children and their families could be closed?
What if a public university could leverage its land-grant mission by working with partners across the state to put the science of early childhood education into practice?
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Because of a generous gift to the University of Nebraska from Omaha philanthropist Susie Buffett — a gift the university has committed to more than match — these goals are now well within reach for Nebraska.
Buffett’s gift — which was announced Monday — will establish the Buffett Early Childhood Institute at NU, a universitywide, multidisciplinary research, education, outreach and policy center that will help transform the approach to early childhood development and education in Nebraska and across the nation.
The institute will include input from the UNMC College of Public Health and the Munroe-Meyer Institute and will:
- Promote development and success of children from birth to age 8; and
- Focus especially on those who are vulnerable because of poverty, abuse or developmental, learning or behavioral challenges.
The institute also will focus on transferring its successes to a national scale, so that the work of the institute can have a national impact.