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HealthySteps — meeting families where they are

👋 As the mom of 2 boys, I vividly remember those early pediatric visits  — full of questions and worries amid moments of wonder. Is my baby growing as expected? Sleeping enough? Should I be doing more to support his development?

Those visits are for most families the first and most consistent touchpoint with the healthcare system after a child is born. Too often, though, we seemed rushed and I didn’t get to bring up everything on my mind. The physical exam, which of course is important, was about all we’d accomplish in a 15-minute visit.

That’s what makes HealthySteps unique. Pairing medical care with practical, compassionate guidance from a child development specialist, this innovative approach turns routine pediatric checkups into opportunities for prevention, connection, and lifelong impact for parents and children.

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Child care — infrastructure we can’t afford to ignore

👋 As a mom who juggles board meetings and bedtime stories, policy memos and playground runs — like so many working parents — I’ve struggled to balance career and caregiving. And I know how precarious that balance can be without reliable child care.

At the Burke Foundation, we’ve spent years supporting the health of families in their children’s earliest years — piloting and scaling such innovations as Family Connects NJ, HealthySteps, and Centering, reaching thousands of New Jersey families. Our grantees’ accomplishments confirm what decades of research already tell us: Invest early, and the returns — for children, parents, and society — are extraordinary.

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Rx for play ?‍♀️?⚽

👋 Starting Early is back from our summer break!

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I didn’t grow up with much exposure to sports, so it still surprises me that I’m now a soccer mom who spends weekends crisscrossing New Jersey to watch my sons play. From the sidelines, I see kids of all backgrounds running, high-fiving, and building friendships that stretch far beyond the field.

A few years ago, I met Denny Boyle, fellow soccer parent and passionate champion of Soccer Without Borders. His love for sports and belief in its power to bring people together was contagious. Denny’s story — about how playing sports shaped his life and opened doors to connection, community, and leadership — reminded me that play is so much more than a game.

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What we learned at the First 1,000 Days Summit ?

👋 For 8 years, the Burke Foundation has worked with community leaders and experts in early child development and maternal-infant health from New Jersey and across the nation. These efforts came together for 2 days last month at our inaugural First 1,000 Days Summit, co-hosted with the New Jersey Academy of American Pediatrics. The time was right to demand more for families.

The Summit started with the interactive Brain Architecture Game designed by Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child. The team exercise showed how even a single strong relationship can help buffer the harmful impact of early adversity. It drove home the point that, without relationships, the foundation for lifelong health and well-being can falter.

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The Doula Difference

👋 The first time I came across the concept of weathering — how the cumulative stress of racism ages the bodies and endangers the health of mothers and babies of color — I was stunned. It was a 2018 article in the New York Times Magazine by Linda Villarosa explaining something no medical chart could: why Black women, regardless of income or education, face some of the worst maternal health outcomes in the country.

At the Burke Foundation, one of our responses was to invest in community doulas who compassionately guide birthing families through a complex and often unwelcoming system. What we’ve seen from partnerships with community doulas is nothing short of extraordinary.

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Paid leave works for families

👋 Especially in the earliest days, parenthood is a rollercoaster. There’s learning, bonding, worrying, feeding, changing — all while trying to grab a few precious hours of sleep.

During those early weeks with my newborn son, I had a moment of clarity: The health of a parent, especially a mother, is deeply connected to the support systems around her. I was fortunate to have 12 weeks of paid leave through my employer. But not everyone is so lucky — 1 in 4 women in the U.S. return to work within just 2 weeks of giving birth, often because they can’t afford to stay home longer.

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?️ Protecting Medicaid – A lifeline for families

👋 The news from Washington is disheartening: Nearly 2 million New Jerseyans stand to lose essential medical services if cuts to Medicaid federal funding being discussed take place.

Among those whose health and well-being would be severely threatened are the mothers and babies who the Burke Foundation and our many partners in the nonprofit community, government, and elsewhere support through efforts aimed at making sure all families can provide the nurturing and care needed to promote lifelong well-being.  

Medicaid enables families that struggle to make ends meet — including new mothers, children, seniors, and people with disabilities — to obtain critical medical care.

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The science of love ❤️

👋 “Love fuels learning,” as Isabelle Hau says in her powerful new book, Love to Learn: The Transformative Power of Care and Connection in Early Education.

I know this firsthand because a rare health condition kept me out of recess during kindergarten. Instead I spent extra time with my teacher — reading, talking, and forming a close bond.

Now I realize how that time together gave me the confidence to question, explore, and grow. The connection between love and learning was shaping me before I even had words for it.

Love to Learn reinforces what science has shown for decades: For babies and young children, loving relationships are as essential to health and happiness as food and shelter, and critical for cognitive development.

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Fighting for families ?

👋 The hatred and anger that often dominate discourse these days erode people’s belief in the possibility of progress. It’s easy to feel discouraged when high-decibel conflict drowns out the voice of cooperation.

But dedicated community activists, advocates, and local policymakers are persistently working together across the country to increase economic security and improve families’ health and well-being. We see the power of change in such efforts as expanding paid leave to care for loved ones, making quality child care more available and more affordable, and launching life-saving maternal health initiatives for every new mom.

Shared values drive this progress: the belief that every child has the right to grow up healthy, happy, and well cared for.

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Meet Burke’s 2024 Community Champions ⭐

2024 Burke Foundation Community Champions

👋 Happy Holidays!

“When a child walks in the room, your child or anybody else’s child, do your eyes light up? That’s what they’re looking for.” – Toni Morrison

That powerful reminder speaks to the heart of the Burke Foundation’s mission to help make sure every child feels seen, valued, and loved. Parent-child bonding begins with these moments of connection — moments that lay the foundation for a child’s emotional well-being and long-term success.

At Burke, we work to support families by alleviating stress and helping them to have the healthcare and community resources they need to thrive. Through trusted community care, we empower families to create the space and stability that enable them to light up when their children walk in the room.

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