The Unlocking Potential (UP) Coalition for PN-8 families prioritizes the voices of expectant parents, caregivers, and service providers as a driving force for prenatal-to-eight services. The UP Coalition envisions a world where their collective efforts result in strong, more equitable communities, where every child thrives, and families find support and opportunity. Together, this team will foster empowerment and racial equity to transform the future of generations to come.
The UP Coalition aims to:
- Lift UP Parent and Provider Voice: lifting up the voices of families, partners, and providers to create the transformative power that is needed to inform policy, catalyze systemic changes, support services, and usher in a new era of power-sharing in the focus communities and across the state.
- Step UP Maternal-Infant Health Care and Family Supports: stepping up maternal and infant health outcomes and ensuring first food access and nutrition security for all to create systems of care that embrace the health and well-being of NJ families.
- Raise UP High-quality Early Care and Education for Infants and Toddlers: creating an environment where children can be lovingly nurtured and raised up in high-quality early care and education settings that enable children to grow up healthy, safe, and well-educated.
- Build UP Systems, Resources, and A Culturally Diverse Workforce: building up robust prenatal to age 3 systems, allocating essential resources wisely, and cultivating a culturally responsive workforce.
The goals of the UP Coalition are that:
- The voices of parents and service providers statewide are valued and utilized to inform PN-3 policy and programming.
- All women are able to receive adequate perinatal care for themselves and their child, including home visiting, maternal depression screenings, breastfeeding, food assistance and nutrition support.
- Families with infants and toddlers will have access to high-quality childcare options based on parental choice.
- A robust supply of PN3 services, deemed essential by families residing in the selected communities, are accessible to families.
- The PN-3 plan evolves as state and local and family leaders learn more about the needs of families and what is feasible to achieve.
