The Need
Tennessee currently ranks 36th in child well-being compared to all other states in the country, a sobering statistic that underscores the widespread challenges – such as poverty, abuse and neglect, and unsafe living environments - impacting thousands of children within the state.
According to data from the MIT Living Wage Calculator, the annual cost of raising a child averages nearly $21,000, an increase over previous years. These mounting expenses underscore the importance of providing robust support to parents, ensuring that their children can grow up in an environment that promotes health and security.
While pandemic-related stimulus payments and the expansion of child tax credits helped decrease the percentage of children living in poverty, this number is now back to pre-pandemic levels.
How We Help
We're here at the start.
Our commitment to assisting parents during their child's formative years addresses a pressing need and promotes robust brain development during the pivotal stages of growth and development. Parenting, particularly during these initial years, poses significant challenges. It's worth noting that the first five years of a child's life profoundly affect their long-term health and overall well-being, spanning across all stages of their life.
-
In the first five years of life, experiences and relationships stimulate children’s development, creating millions of brain connections. During no other time do we learn faster or retain more information in such a short period of time. As much as 80% of brain development happens by age 3, and 90% occurs by age 5. This is when the foundations for learning, health, and behavior throughout life are formed. Recognizing this pivotal stage, Nurture the Next offers services that prioritize supporting families from the onset, emphasizing the nurturing of healthy brain growth in their children.
-
Within the state, 60% of third graders are not proficient in reading.
Why is achieving a third-grade reading level so crucial? Early reading proficiency is a pivotal predictor of future academic achievement and is tightly linked to enhanced lifelong socioeconomic and health prospects. Conversely, low literacy levels are correlated with a range of adverse outcomes, including poor adherence to medical treatments, limited health-related knowledge, increased risk of pre-teen alcohol use, heightened susceptibility to depression, greater likelihood of involvement in physically violent incidents necessitating medical attention, and carrying weapons to school. A report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation* reveals that students who do not attain reading proficiency by the third grade are four times more likely to not graduate from high school.
*https://assets.aecf.org/m/resourcedoc/AECF-DoubleJeopardy-2012-Full.pdf
-
To bridge this achievement gap, our programs provide coaching and empowerment to parents, enabling them to nurture lifelong learners. We aim to instill confidence, facilitate an understanding of developmental milestones, and foster emotional intelligence. These combined skills equip students to be well-prepared to face the educational and social challenges both within the school and in their lives beyond.
-
Nurture the Next is the largest provider of evidence-based home visiting programs in Tennessee, where we help parents lay the foundation for healthy physical, cognitive, and emotional development in their children. And it works. Decades of research show that serving families in the home leads to significant, positive outcomes for American families: fewer preterm births, fewer injury-related emergency room visits, increased kindergarten readiness, more economically independent families, and overall reduction in child maltreatment.
-
Our home visiting programs aren’t just effective, they’re economical, yielding significant savings for taxpayers over time through reduced criminal justice costs, decreased dependence on government support, and increased employment. Returns are as high as $5.70 for every dollar invested in prevention services at Nurture the Next.
Nurture the Next empowers caregivers with the skills and strategies to meet their goals through targeted, layered support.
-
Through our in-home support services, our staff works with parents in the comfort and safety of their own homes to help them foster loving relationships and build nurturing homes for their children. This builds the best foundation for the next generation to grow into capable and resilient adults.
-
Our evidence-based parenting classes help parents navigate the tougher moments of raising children by providing concrete resources and skills proven to enhance communication, foster emotional well-being, and strengthen the parent-child bond.
-
The Parent Leadership Tennessee Initiative and parent advocate leadership development program offers parents and practitioners throughout the state the chance to champion programs and policies to strengthen families and communities.
-
Advocacy is a critical piece of work. When we invest upstream in public policies and programs that help families thrive, children are safer, and dependency on government and social services shrinks. Communities grow stronger as a result.