Advancing Community Solutions: Introducing ECX
By Philip Fisher and Joan Lombardi
September 4, 2024
Communities everywhere are turning their focus to ways in which they can support young children and the adults in their lives. To celebrate and amplify these transformative place-based efforts, the Stanford Center on Early Childhood is proud to announce Early Childhood X (ECX), an initiative to advance early childhood systems solutions.
Something is stirring in communities across the country. It feels like an awakening – perhaps the beginning of a sea change. Local action is surging through the design and development of early childhood ecosystems, energizing efforts to improve social and economic conditions, promote healthy child development, and support families with young children. Local action like this — in counties, municipalities, and neighborhoods — is a sign of democracy working. It shows that people are working together on behalf of the greater good, with a sense of agency and optimism.
The many ways in which diverse community voices are coalescing on behalf of young children and their caregivers are reminders that together we can mitigate structural and systemic inequalities and foster a next generation that thrives, even as we face challenges ahead. In addition, these place-based efforts can catalyze and inform state and national policies and programs. It is in recognition of their transformative potential that the Stanford Center on Early Childhood (SCEC) is taking steps to identify and amplify this work, and to build connections.
The purpose of this commentary is twofold. First, we describe some common elements of these community-based early childhood systems initiatives, along with their theoretical underpinnings, in order to begin creating a blueprint for implementation, evaluation, and scaling of core processes. Second, this commentary serves to introduce a new initiative that SCEC is launching, focusing on supporting and telling the stories of communities engaged in early childhood systems innovations.
It should be noted that SCEC’s focus on community action in early childhood is not new — it has been present since the Center’s launch in November of 2022, and our team members’ commitments to this work collectively span decades. At the on-campus convening held to celebrate SCEC’s launch, we noted that our vision is to ensure that each and every child thrives from the start. We further stated that to achieve this vision, all adults in young children’s lives — parents, early care and education providers, and grandparents — must receive the support they need in the context of their community. And communities must have developmentally continuous, coordinated, and equitable ecosystems of supports and services for children and families.
In the two years since SCEC’s launch, we have been partnering with place-based organizations and coalitions to document the realities of parents and caregivers. Specifically, our RAPID Survey is being implemented not only at the national and state level but also in communities around the United States, with a new cohort of seven communities coming on board this fall. At the same time, we have been reading, convening, listening, and learning from communities directly. Through this work we are developing a better understanding of the key components and necessary infrastructure to assure nurturing care across the early years of life.
The Conceptual Model Guiding SCEC’s Community-Focused Work
The essential components of an early childhood ecosystem span the sectors of health, nutrition, and mental health; early care and education; family social and economic supports; and what has been referred to as neighborhood conditions (e.g., safety, housing, a healthy environment). Moreover, this ecosystem must be responsive across the span of development, from conception through entry into the early elementary school years. To coordinate and facilitate access and quality across sectors, a strong community infrastructure must be in place. This process often includes the establishment of a common vision and objectives, a commitment to equity across the early life course, input from parents and providers, coordination and alignment across services, and the collection and use of actionable local data, and increased financing (Lombardi, 2024).
Revisiting Urie Bronfenbrenner
The roots of this movement lie deep in the original thinking of Urie Bronfenbrenner and his Ecological Systems Theory. Revisiting his seminal work, The Ecology of Human Development, we are reminded that understanding development means that we must go “beyond a single setting” and look at the many contexts to which children are exposed and the interconnections among and across these contexts over time that impact the developing child. Bronfenbrenner aptly compared these intersecting environments to a set of nesting dolls.
In Bronfenbrenner’s original formulation (1979), he referred to the microsystem, i.e., the contexts in which the child has face-to-face interactions with others. In early childhood, this concept includes adults in family and early care and education environments. Contiguous to the microsystem is what Bronfenbrenner called the mesosystem, or the connections among contexts to which the child is directly exposed. In early childhood this may include interactions between home and care settings. The third context he referred to as the exosystem, which involves connections among contexts, at least one of which influences the child indirectly. Examples might be the social and economic conditions of the family. The fourth context he called the macrosystem, or the cultural and societal values and influences that cut across micro-, meso-, and exosystems. Later in his writing, Bronfenbrenner also recognized a chronosystem, which refers to both the child’s development over time and the extent to which the environment around the child evolves over time (Bronfenbrenner, 1994).
For decades these concepts have influenced the work of social scientists, educators, public health officials, and service providers working to better understand and implement what works under what conditions. Moreover, they have informed many strategic initiatives, including two-generation and whole-child approaches that are increasingly influential on policy and programs.
Contemporary Realities
In revisiting Bronfenbrenner in 2024, we want to underscore the importance of the ecological systems framework and consider the model in the context of contemporary realities of children and families today (Lombardi & Fisher, 2024). This dimension may be especially critical where policies have not kept up with realities. Specifically, of the large-scale societal changes that are most apparent since the early 1970s, we recognize four that are of great relevance:
The continuous intergenerational cycle of poverty and the impact of structural and systemic inequalities, racism, and discrimination (sometimes referred to as social determinants)
The need for and use of early care and education, including home and center-based infant and toddler care and preschool
Environmental conditions brought on by climate change, including heat, water, and air quality as well as preexisting environmental conditions that threaten healthy development
In addition, technology will almost certainly have an increasing influence on children and families in the future
These societal changes appear to be exerting a significant influence on the developing child as they interact directly with various settings as well as with caregivers who are directly impacted by these conditions across the span of development (in other words, at all levels of the ecological system). Indeed, there is increasing scientific evidence of direct impacts from these domains on cognitive and social-emotional development, but also on the development of numerous neurobiological systems (Blair et al., 2011; Hair et. al, 2015). Some domains that Bronfenbrenner may have conceived of as only having distal influences on child development appear to also have the potential to have more proximal impacts.
Children may be doubly at risk if neighborhood conditions are not favorable to development. They may also be doubly protected or buffered when more favorable conditions support them directly as well as through their interactions with their families. One consequence of this perspective is that the more we strengthen and connect the settings that surround children and families, the more likely they will meet with success.
However, there is no silver bullet. In fact, in reviewing the effectiveness of early interventions some 50 years ago, Bronfenbrenner noted that a long-range intervention could be viewed as a sequence of stages including preparation for parenthood, adequate conditions before children arrive (housing and economic security), activities to establish reciprocal parent-child interactions, and preschool and parent support of educational activities at home and school. (Bronfenbrenner, 1975). More recently, the 2022 National Survey of Children’s Health underscored the importance of focusing on multiple modifiable protective and risk factors rather than assuming a single program approach.
Local Innovations
An increasing number of communities across the country are working to establish holistic ecosystems to promote early development, coming together across sectors to create a more coherent and continuous system of support for young children and families. For example, just north of Stanford in San Mateo County, a community coalition will soon begin implementing a program that combines early childhood systems alignment, cross-sector data integration, community health workers, and a universal basic income program for families with new babies. Similar efforts are underway in numerous locations across the country, in traditionally “red” as well as “blue” states.
In addition, national networks are working across communities to provide technical assistance in implementing and evaluating these initiatives, and an increasing number of partnerships between state governments and communities are focused on better understanding and responding to family needs. We join in partnership with these efforts as we take new steps forward to learn about and create new knowledge and understanding of place-based strategies that can support children and their caregivers.
Early Childhood X
Given SCEC’s aims to support early childhood systems solutions, our team is expanding a number of our ongoing community-focused activities and launching an exciting new storytelling initiative.
As noted above, we will continue to support communities that are listening and documenting the concerns of caregivers and influencing change through RAPID Community Voices. In parallel with the next cohort of RAPID Community Voices sites, we will welcome the first cohort of Saul Zaentz Community Fellows—a program specifically designed to build and support the research capacity of emerging leaders in these communities. In particular, we aim to complement local research infrastructure by providing opportunities for community leaders in the early childhood ecosystem to develop skills that will equip them to lead community-research partnerships with institutions of higher learning. Stay tuned for an announcement about the Saul Zaentz Community Fellows program.
In addition, with this commentary we announce the launch of SCEC’s Early Childhood X (ECX) initiative. The goal of ECX is to showcase and advance early childhood ecosystem solutions that are underway in communities. We will do this through two modes of storytelling: journalism and case studies. Crucially, both feature a great number of community voices.
Case Studies
Case studies document lessons learned from community system efforts that can be used as tools of inquiry in higher education as well as by other communities. Specifically, we plan to highlight those communities that have (a) made significant progress in implementing systems solutions and/or (b) overcome significant challenges (e.g., diminishing funding, historical and current issues with structural and systemic inequalities). Graduate schools of business and others use case studies to document the evolution of community-level efforts, with the goal of allowing other communities, policymakers, and future early childhood leaders to learn from these communities.
Spotlights
A series called Spotlights presents promising community innovations in system change. These are shorter in format than the case studies and are journalistic in style, including specially commissioned photojournalism. The first, released today, features Gering, Nebraska, and the second focuses on an organization called Brilliant Detroit, in Michigan. Others will follow.
You will find a link to the first Spotlight below; To find out about future releases sign up for our newsletter and follow us across social media.
Expanding ECX
As part of ECX, we plan to partner with other national and state networks that are working with communities to provide a learning exchange of knowledge that can help inform the implementation and impact of our work and influence emerging early childhood policies at the national, state, and local level. We envision the ECX umbrella of activities expanding to include convenings and additional strategies in the future. We invite you to join us as we take these steps forward and to learn with us as we seek to ensure a strong beginning for young children and improved conditions for those who care for them.
Early Childhood × Gering, NE
In western Nebraska, Mark Swartz and photographer Jeff van Patten discover community efforts engaging business and political leadership to participate in strategies for meeting the demand for high-quality child care.
Read the first Spotlight pieceReferences
Blair, C., Granger, D.A., Willoughby, M., Mills-Koonce, R., Cox, M., Greenberg, M.T., Kivlighan, K.T., Fortunato, C.K. and (2011), Salivary Cortisol Mediates Effects of Poverty and Parenting on Executive Functions in Early Childhood. Child Development, 82: 1970-1984. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01643.x
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Harvard University Press.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1994). Ecological Models of Human Development. International Encyclopedia of Education, Vol 3, 2nd. Ed. Oxford: Elsevier. https://www.ncj.nl/wp-content/uploads/media-import/docs/6a45c1a4-82ad-4…
Hair, N. L., Hanson, J. L., Wolfe, B. L., & Pollak, S. D. (2015). Association of Child Poverty, Brain Development, and Academic Achievement. JAMA pediatrics, 169(9), 822–829. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2015.1475
Lombardi, J. (2024, March 24) From Program to Place: A Community Systems Approach to Supporting Young Children and Families. Stanford Center on Early Childhood. https://earlychildhood.stanford.edu/news/program-place-community-systems-approach-supporting-young-children-and-families
Lombardi, J. & Fisher, P.A. (2024, June 27). Personal communication.