Executive Summary

Smart envisions a world where every child feels safe, secure and loved and has their basic needs for healthy food, warm clothing, secure housing and safe neighborhoods met. We work toward a day where every child regardless of what they look like, who their parents are or where they live, has access to high quality, fun, enriching education that honors and celebrates their diversity, making it possible for them to fulfill their greatest potential and to realize their dreams. We aim to prevent the achievement gap by preparing the young children whose lives we touch for school success; to provide school aged youth the enriching academic, extracurricular and character-building programs; and to empower families and communities to provide the stable and supportive living conditions necessary to create and sustain environments conducive to healthy development. Our team including our founder come from the neighborhoods and populations we engage and have triumphed over the same challenges our families face and we partner closely with traditional and non-traditional stakeholders to weave a tighter safety net and to engage in collective impact. Smart from the Start’s grassroots, trauma-informed, community-driven program model is strengths-based, ecological and holistic, and reflects the rich cultural diversity of the families we engage. We raise and bridge resources into historically underserved communities and work in partnership with youth and family leaders to create, facilitate and evaluate programs and services to ensure long lasting and sustainable change. By providing the right combination of tools, resources and support to ensure that children and families have what they need not just to survive, but to thrive.

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