Reimagining How Contra Costa Supports Children and Families
Phase Zero: Designing the Foundation for Contra Costa’s Prenatal to 5 Initiative
Why this Matters
Families in Contra Costa are navigating fragmented systems, falling through structural gaps, and facing conditions that were never designed with them in mind. Too often, support is hard to find, hard to trust, and hard to piece together across systems.
We know we cannot get to thriving through urgent services alone. Safe housing, nutritious food, strong relationships, access to early learning, and a sense of belonging all shape whether children and families can thrive. These conditions must be strengthened together, upstream, and with the communities most affected, helping to lead the way
What is the Initiative
With grant support from the Roots & Wings Foundation, the Contra Costa Regional Health Foundation has convened a cross-sector planning team — including First 5 Contra Costa, Contra Costa Health, the Lesher Foundation, community-based organizations, and subject matter experts — to launch Phase Zero, a human-centered design process focused on strengthening the systems of care that shape children’s earliest years.
This work is aligned with the First 5 Early Childhood Systems Map, Contra Costa Health, and the Vital Conditions Framework, as well as the county’s Community Health Assessment, which uses the framework as its organizing lens. Rather than building something new in isolation, Phase Zero is intended to build on and deepen what is already underway in the community — with shared language, shared power, and shared purpose.
What We're Exploring
Phase Zero is bringing together leaders across the safety net, philanthropy, community-based organizations, early childhood systems, and residents to explore three foundational questions:
How do we reimagine early childhood as a collective investment in our shared future?
How do we make early childhood experiences, decisions, and options the healthy and easy choice for all families?
How do we shape a coherent early childhood well-being investment portfolio — one that moves from over-reliance on urgent services toward reliable access to the vital conditions every child needs to thrive?
Emerging Ideas
Early conversations in Phase Zero are surfacing several promising directions for future design and investment. These ideas are still taking shape, but they point toward what a stronger prenatal-to-age-5 ecosystem could make possible in Contra Costa.
Place
How might Contra Costa feel smaller, more connected, and easier to navigate for families with young children? Early ideas include bringing essential supports closer to where families live and creating more place-based pathways to care, connection, and everyday needs.
Culture and Story
What would it look like to become a more child-centered county — a place where children and families truly belong? This includes shaping a shared vision, strengthening how families move between systems and stages of development, and building a broader sense that every child matters to all of us.
Reimagining Investment
This initiative was made possible through the generous support of the
Roots & Wings Foundation and Contra Costa Community Health Foundation.
