Week 5: Getting to Know International Contacts - Part 2

Upon review of Harvard University's Global Children's Initiative website (http://developingchild.harvard.edu/about/what-we-do/global-work/) the following insights were obtained:

- Early experiences and toxic stress can alter the architecture of the brain. Changes can be made later in life to alter the effects of toxic stress during early childhood, but it is easier when children are not exposed to it in the first place.

-Harvard's Global Children's Initiative encompasses a scientific approach to help the most at risk children through targeting at risk populations, testing interventions, analyzing results, researching feedback and adapting interventions.

- Children who are at risk for developing mental health issues or who are experiencing mental health issues early on have the greatest chance for successful treatment when they are acknowledged and identified early. Collective learning communities are one way that the Global Children's Initiative proposes for such identification to occur. These collective communities allow for a distribution of leadership, collective learning across professions and accelerates the potential process of change.

In addition, based on the information shared from the World Forum's Global Leaders for Young Children portion of their website (http://connect.worldforumfoundation.org/global-perspectives/global-leaders-for-young-children/), there is an organization called "Hand to Hand". This organization strives to understand what children's lives are like in other parts of the world. The group hopes that through sharing stories a greater understanding will occur of the values, challenges and even dreams children all over the world have. Their hope is that greater advocacy efforts will result from growing friendships and understanding from the international relationships and exchanges they establish. There are smaller cohort groups of professionals that plan advocacy projects to help bring to light the issues occurring around the world for the purpose of promoting quality early childhood services on a global level.