Article 17

"I Am Your Child", an hour-long prime time special, is scheduled to air on ABC at 8:00 p.m. EST on Monday, APril 28, 1997. Produced by Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner, the program will feature music, comedy and a documentary created by New Screen Concepts about a community that has mobilized on behalf of young children and their families. The program will be hosted by Tom Hanks, and will feature Shaquille O'Neal and many Hollywood stars.

The television special is part of a public awareness and engagement campaign to focus on new and compelling evidence about the importance of the first three years of life. Prominent entertainers, media, foundations, corporations, and child development experts have joined forces in establishing and promoting the campaign, which will create and enduring collection of education resources for parents, early childhood practitioners, and policymakers. The TV special will also include a toll-free number viewers can call to obtain a wide variety of resources and materials.

The "I Am Your Child" effort builds on research evidence presented in Starting Points, the 1994 Carnegie Corporation report that documents the substantial body of literature on young children's emotional, social, physical, intellectual, and brain development. It concludes that "how children function from the preschool years all the way through adolescence, and even adulthood, hinges in large part on their experiences before the age of three."

The report points out that our nation has inadvertently neglected these crucial years and that this neglect has led to a variety of troubling conditions that should be improved. Nationwide, many families with very young children do not have health insurance, child poverty rates are alarming, child abuse rates are high, and a substantial number of infants and toddlers are in potentially harmful child care situations. Parents worry about the amount of time they can spend with their families and about the safety and future prospects of their children.

The "I Am Your Child" campaign hopes to help reverse those troubling trends by:

-raising public awareness about the importance of the first three years of life;

-working with national, state and community leaders to improve programs and policies for young children and their families; and

-connecting families with young children to information, resources and services they need.

For more information on the "I Am Your Child" campaign, contact the Families and Work Institute, 330 Seventh Avenue, 14th Floor, New York, NY 10001, telephone (212) 465-2044, fax (212) 465-8637.