Work of Early Child Development and Learning Task Force Praised by Mayor, Councilmembers

The Early Child Development and Learning Task Force presented its midterm report to the City Council on Monday, detailing the progress of its work related to the City of Pasadena’s goal of becoming an Early Learning City. 

The Early Childhood Development and Early Learning Task Force was convened at the recommendation of Mayor Victor Gordo and the Pasadena City Council at the February 28, 2022 City Council Meeting. 

It is tasked mainly to work with staff to review the status of the implementation of the Early Childhood Development Policy adopted by the City Council on March 23, 2015, and recommend next steps for Pasadena to become an Early Learning City by the year 2025.

At the meeting, task force chair Vera J. Vignes reported that the task force held six meetings so far since it convened last February. 

At the previous meetings, the task force conducted a review of the existing data on Pasadena’s young children and their families, revisited the Vision, Master Plan Elements and infrastructure to support implementation, and revisited each of the Eight Building Blocks in the adopted plan.

Consensus was reached that capturing data and information on children and their families is necessary and the city must use the data to drive decision-making.

The task force also reached consensus on the need to improve access to services and outcomes for all children and families. 

At previous meetings, task force members also emphasized the need to be explicit throughout the policy in addressing the issues of racism, social justice, economic instability, and health disparities, among other issues. 

In the upcoming weeks, the task force will review the local, county and state funding and early childhood priorities and strategies, and review the role of the Office of the Young Child and its priorities in order to recommend improved systematic integration across the community, according to Vignes.

“I want to thank the group for the presentation. I  don’t think there’s anything that we do that is more important than this work,” Councilmember Steve Madison said. 

“Because of this work, it would be great to have a community-based task force and not just a task force but something that is set in stone moving forward,” Councilmember Tyron Hampton remarked. 

“There is no more important work than the future of the kids living in Pasadena,” Mayor Victor Gordo said. “We could model different ways of providing existing services and bring those services to the attention of families and help them to access them, and align our policy with funding streams at the state, federal and county level so that we can bring additional services.” 

The task force will return in September to present its final report to the City Council which includes recommendations for going forward and becoming an Early Learning City by the year 2025.