Our Work
Biddeford Ready! focuses on community-level change.
We are not focused on developing a single program or strategy, but instead on supporting a mix of mutually reinforcing data-driven and evidence-based strategies to support school readiness.
We have a strong bias toward leveraging and expanding existing programs, policies, practices, and approaches that are working – including better coordination of services for children and families – and developing new ones where there are important gaps.
Our mission is to ensure that all children in Biddeford enter school ready to succeed.
Biddeford Ready! convenes community organizations, businesses, and individuals to share resources, combine efforts, and collect local data to help identify specific areas of need and inform strategies that support school readiness.
Biddeford Ready! continues to build its partnerships and develop committees to implement three strategies to support school readiness:
Increase access to affordable, high-quality early care and education
Promote community awareness of the importance of early learning environments
Address and mitigate the effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) through a community-wide, cross-sector approach to building child, family, and community resilience
High-Quality Early Care and Education is Critical
90% of brain development occurs by age 5
High-quality early care supports school readiness and nurtures cognitive, social, and emotional growth.
(Source: INBRIEF: The Science of Early Childhood Development, Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University)
It’s a smart investment in Biddeford’s future
Every $1 invested yields a 13%-16% return on investment in future savings in education, health, economic productivity, and reduced crime.
(Source: Art Rolnick and Rob Grunewald, Early Childhood Development: Economic Development with a High Public Return, March 2003)