Why Invest?>> Your Investment Helps>> Rate of Return>>
			Why invest in healthy brain development of infants and toddlers? 1,200 infants are born each year; 700 of their moms must return to work within 12 months. There are only 73 infant slots in child care centers in Lawrence. Many home-based care providers don't accept infants. In the early years, children’s brains form trillions of connections or synapses.  If used repeatedly in a child’s day-to-day life, they become part of the brain’s permanent circuitry.  If not used often enough, they are eliminated.  Early interactions directly affect the way the brain is “wired.”  -- Rima Shore, Rethinking the Brain. The brain’s capacity to control emotions and care for self and others is determined by those early interactions. Unresponsive or inconsistent care sets infants and toddlers up for costly cognitive, social, emotional and physical problems. More than half of all mother’s return to the workforce within a year of the baby’s birth. Child care breakdowns leading to employee absences cost businesses $3 billion annually in the U.S.  Over 70% (809 of 1,162 calls) of childcare request are from working families with infants and toddlers. Working families pay nearly all costs of early care and education out of their own pockets, while K-12 schools are publicly funded and college education is publicly funded and endowed.
						Child care breakdowns lead to employee absences which cost businesses $3 billion annually in the U.S.