What is the BEST initiative?
The Birth through Eight Strategy for Tulsa (BEST) provides coordinated supports and services in the earliest years of children’s lives to help make Tulsa a good place for all children and families to live, grow and thrive. By convening a diverse network of about 26 partners that are public agencies, health and childcare providers, education institutions, and local non-profits, BEST aims to develop a seamless multi-sector continuum of high-quality programs and services for children from birth through age 8 and their families.
The BEST Study, led by American Institutes for Research, will occur over a six-year period to help community members, educators, and service providers to better understand the experiences of families with young children from different neighborhoods in Tulsa. We hope to learn how and in what ways a comprehensive, continuous, and integrated system-change approach can improve children’s success in school and in life.
Goals of the BEST initiative are to increase the percentage of children in Tulsa:
Born healthy
On a positive developmental trajectory by age 3
Ready to enter Kindergarten
