Imperial Strategic Plan (2005)

After three years of intense media exposure about brain research, child development and the importance of the first years of life, California voters responded in November 1998 with the passage of Proposition 10: The California Children and Families First Act. Funded by an increase in tobacco taxes, Proposition 10 will enhance service availability in improving child health and development. Proposition 10 is intended to promote, support and improve early childhood development through coordinating resources and programs that emphasize family support, parent education, child care and development and child health.

The focus of Proposition 10 is early childhood development due to current research indicating that the emotional, physical and intellectual environment that a child is exposed to in the early years of their life has a profound impact on how his or her brain develops. The experiences that an infant and toddler has with parents and caregivers will influence how a child functions when he or she reaches school and later in life. Although Proposition 10 is similar to Proposition 99 which funds anti-smoking and health programs and Proposition 98 which is state tax money that is utilized for public education, Proposition 10 provides the first significant investment of monies strictly focused on the critical years of a child’s development.

This Strategic Plan proposes to enhance the capacities of Imperial County communities to improve the environments – normative, family, social service, health care and child care in which children are conceived and young children grow; to develop a system of comprehensive, integrated, high quality early childhood services within every community; and to improve accountability and performance measurements ensuring all public funds directed toward young children are achieving the desired outcomes.

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