Blueprint for Improving the Future of Mississippi’s Children

While it’s common to hear discussions among decision-makers, advocates, parents, and researchers about the challenges Mississippi’s children face, there has been no statewide plan to address these. The Children’s Foundation team has prioritized addressing this need by creating a data-driven roadmap that can guide the state toward the best possible future for all of our children.

Our first signature project is the development of the Blueprint for Improving the Future of Mississippi’s Children, focused on the needs of children from 0-18 years of age. Because different approaches are needed for different age groups, the Blueprint will be rolled out in two phases, birth to age 8 and ages 9 to 18. The second Blueprint is now available for digital download below.

The goal is to identify the top challenges facing Mississippi’s children and then determine what is feasible to improve their well-being. Through our research partnership with the T.H. Chan Harvard School of Public Health, graduate students have interviewed leaders across Mississippi who have the knowledge and experience to provide meaningful input regarding priority areas to address. The work of the Harvard research fellows is ongoing, and they are analyzing data from the interviews and online surveys to identify recurring themes. The data from these will be used with other primary and extant data to focus the CFM’s work to those areas of greatest need.

We invite community partners from around Mississippi to collaborate with us in following these research-based recommendations to improve the well-being of all our children.