By MARVEL HARRISON, PhD
President, First Born Program
At a recent fundraiser in White Rock, candidate Geoff Rodgers expressed concern that the First Born Program was the government telling parents how to parent. For clarification, First Born is a non government health promotion program that has been heavily supported by Governor Martinez through the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department. In Los Alamos the First Born Program is overseen by a Board of Directors of a 501.c.3 not for profit group. Current funding is designated to reach up to 60 families who request services.
With expanding knowledge of human growth and brain development in the earliest years of life, combined with results from longitudinal studies of child development programs, we now know that children’s success in preschool and beyond is built on the foundation of relationships, experiences, and skills they develop in their first three years of life. The LANL Foundation is a core supporter of First Born and believes that investing in newborns at birth, when they begin learning, can change lives of individual children today and for years to come.
In 2002, the First Born Program, which was developed by a private individual in New Mexico, was named one of the nation’s 10 most innovative and exemplary prevention programs by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention and other collaborative national agencies. The success of the program is based on several key characteristics. FBP is community based and works toward meeting local priorities through community involvement and collaboration and it relies strictly on evidence base data.
