Zero to Five initiative launches December 13th. Find out more at zerotofive.org.

The resources of the Headwaters Foundation belong to the communities we serve. As a foundation, it’s our responsibility as good, responsible stewards of these funds to create the most significant impact possible. To this end, we are working with communities and seeding strategic initiatives that drive toward transformational change.

We heard time and again from folks in western Montana that we should prioritize children in our funding decisions. They told us that the best return on our community investment would be to focus on children in their earliest years. They also told us that to achieve real, sustainable impact, the work must happen locally with an engaged, committed community.

In response, our first strategic initiative will be crafted, driven and carried out by local community collaboratives.

Intentionally narrow and specific, this initiative is aimed at building resiliency for children ages 0 to 5. It will help seed a locally-driven community collaborative that will provide a framework and focus work in one of three areas: healthy pregnancies, positive parenting and school readiness.

To launch this initiative, Headwaters will convene organizations and facilitate a community conversation to establish these collaboratives. Once established, we will support this work with multi-year funding, a dedicated program office that will serve a central hub, and other resources while we work side-by-side with the collaboratives to improve the lives of children in our region.

Strategic initiative funding is only granted to organizations that are invited to apply. Reach out to find out more about our collaborative work or tell us about the good work you’re doing in your community.