Champions for Children

The period of childhood is a time of unparalleled brain development, when positive support and experiences can profoundly influence a child’s success in school, work, and life. During this time, the child’s brain builds the foundation for the academic, social, and emotional skills necessary for productive adulthood.

Our Center for Business Champions supports business executives and childhood development leaders around the world in building effective and lasting partnerships. Business leaders can play a significant role in ensuring healthy, happy childhoods for children today while meeting the workforce needs of tomorrow.

Giving Children a Strong Start

As compelling – and often unexpected – champions, business leaders can dramatically increase attention to and resources for giving children a strong start in life. For this reason, business leaders around the globe are considering how they can use their wide range of assets to promote the well-being of their future community members, employees, and workforce.

This can be a vital part of their growing attention to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) efforts.  While many companies are recognizing that attending to ESG is good for their bottom line, children often get less attention than other issues. However, succeeding at any issue – climate change, health care, innovation – requires a skilled citizenry.  Including children in ESG programs will result in positive short- and long-term impacts on employees, companies, communities, and nations.

Child development and business leaders often face challenges in building lasting and effective partnerships. However, demonstrated success shows that with the right support, both groups can work together to build networks of business champions who will use their array of resources – political, reputational, organizational, financial – to support current workforce productivity and put their country’s children on the path to success in school and in life.

By building partnerships with business to advance early childhood development worldwide, we’re building a brighter future for everyone.