On Wednesday, April 23, 2025, Prosper Lincoln announced the priority areas that will define its third iteration. Early Childhood remains a critical pillar, the only priority area that has consistently been a focus of Prosper Lincoln since its beginning ten years ago.
The goal of the Early Childhood focus is that all children are flourishing socially, emotionally, physically and educationally. Lincoln Littles drives this work every day.
The theme of the breakfast event held at Innovation Campus was “Jump In,” encouraging the public to get involved in the focus areas. For Early Childhood, the recommendations included:
- Enhancing equitable access to high-quality early education. You can do that by donating to Lincoln Lincolns for use in providing tuition assistance and improving provider quality.
- Building knowledge about adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and advancing efforts to reduce them. Lincoln Littles does this through a new partnership with BraveBe.
- Advocating for policies that support early childhood initiatives. This is an important part of Lincoln Littles strategic plan.
The event also highlighted some important new statistics from Lincoln Vital Signs related to early childhood including:
- There has been a 29% increase in childcare costs since 2019.
- Only 26% of children ages 0 to 5 years are enrolled in preschool programs.
- While children living in poverty has decreased, it is still at 28% of the population of children.
The other two Prosper Lincoln 3.0 priority areas are Connections and Housing.
If you’d like to get involved, you can sign up for more information here.