are the foundation for future development, providing a strong base for lifelong learning including cognitive and social development.
show that positive stimulation of a child’s brain during the critical first years of life lays the foundation for the child’s future ability to learn.
in early childhood education is an investment in our future: For every $1 dollar spent on high-quality early education, the public will save $7 or more in future costs like grade repetition, early parenthood, or incarceration.
Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) is the preeminent funder of early care and education facilities in San Francisco. In 2021, LIIF launched the Connecting Children to Nature program in San Francisco, an effort to transform the outdoor spaces of early care and education facilities into natural play spaces where children can learn, explore, experiment, play and thrive in nature.
A key component of the program is the focus on early educators and the role they have in facilitating outdoor learning for children. Through a series of professional development trainings, educators learn to incorporate outdoor play to enhance children’s physical health, social- emotional growth, sensory exploration and connecting to nature. Since the program’s inception, 230 early educators have benefitted from the trainings.
With support from the Fund, LIIF extended its outdoor learning training series to serve an additional 100 early educators.
On March 6 the Mimi and Peter Haas Fund hosted a dinner at Epic Steak to celebrate our 6 Model Centers and the partners who support them. In total, there were 17 agencies and 57 guests in attendance. The night was filled with warmth, inspiration, community, and connection.
“On behalf of all of us at Compass/Compass Children’s Center, I want to thank you and Mimi for a very wonderful evening!!! As always it was so great to have the opportunity to mix and mingle with colleagues in a beautiful non-meeting setting AND it was extra wonderful to be able to appreciate our team, all of whom do such great work every day. We ALL had a wonderful time.”
Erica Kisch, Chief Executive Officer
Compass Family Services