Facing the challenges

The University's commitment to children, youth, and families

U of M president Bob Bruininks with toddlers at Baby's Space in Minneapolis

Photo by Tom Foley

From M, spring 2003

Three years ago, when Valerie Martinez heard about a new culturally based child care program opening right across the street from her home in the Little Earth Native American housing community, she didn't waste a minute calling to reserve a spot for her soon-to-be-born child. Her daughter became the first baby enrolled in Baby's Space, a groundbreaking program providing infant and toddler care and family support services to parents in one of the most economically distressed neighborhoods in Minneapolis.

"I needed to find a child care program with people and teachers I could trust and relate to, personally and culturally," says Martinez.

The University and several neighborhood early-childhood programs collaborated to create Baby's Space. Parents were involved in its development, and the Minnesota Children's Museum designed the infant and toddler classrooms with an emphasis on nature.

University research shapes the programs at Baby's Space. For example, research indicates that high-quality child care boosts cognitive and language development, particularly in children who live in poverty. To provide this kind of care, Baby's Space keeps the staff-to-child ratios low--one staff member for three babies and one staff member for four toddlers--and the program assigns specific caregivers to each child to provide consistency of care.

Research has also found that a strong mother-and-child relationship fosters a child's cognitive development, so Baby's Space provides support services for parents that are not offered in traditional child care settings.

Anecdotal evidence suggests the Baby's Space model is working, says Terrie Rose, associate director of the University's Irving B. Harris Center for Infant and Toddler Development and Baby's Space executive director. Babies in the program are developmentally on track, and their mothers are delaying further pregnancies while learning and doing what it takes to successfully nurture a child.

Valerie Martinez says Baby's Space is unusual because of its commitment to bring University resources into her community.

"Lots of people come here to study and find out about problems like our high infant-mortality rate," says Martinez, "but they don't come back to help us. This program works with us to find solutions."

The program has proven so successful that Rose and her colleague Amos Deinard received private funding to expand the Baby's Space model to five existing child care centers and do a longitudinal study that could lead to implementing similar programs across the country.

In late March, University president Bob Bruininks visited Baby's Space to announce the expansion of this program and to publicly launch the President's Initiative on Children, Youth, and Families. The initiative, which will be privately funded, aims to focus University faculty expertise and research on issues facing children, youth, and families and to work in partnership with other community groups.

The four goals of the initiative are to increase public awareness of challenges facing youth and families; to find solutions to those challenges; to improve outcomes for Minnesota's youth and families; and to expand and share the University's intellectual vitality, leadership, and resources.

On May 30, the University will convene the first of three children's summits as the initial phase of the President's Initiative on Children, Youth, and Families.

To learn more about Baby's Space: A Place to Grow, see www.harristrainingcenter.org. To learn more about the President's Initiative on Children, Youth, and Families, see www.umn.edu/pres/cyf.html.