Increasingly, business leaders are realizing that a well-educated, qualified workforce is the cornerstone of a vibrant economy and prosperous communities. High-quality early childhood education helps cultivate a skilled workforce by narrowing the achievement gap and giving young children a strong foundation in critical early social and academic skills.

The Fresno County area has a number of business engagement activities designed to promote awareness, advocacy and action in the arena of early learning. Brief descriptions of local, county efforts are:

Business Leaders And Schools Together for Early Learning (BLAST)
Fresno Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
The Fresno Business Council
The Fresno Compact

Additionally, a Business Toolkit is available by visiting the Preschool California website. This Toolkit outlines the business case for early learning; research on its benefits; news coverage; ways to get involved at the state level and more.

Fresno Business Council Preschool Cluster

Neighborhood Transformation: A Four Sphere Initiative
Building upon existing assets, the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative will use the framework of the Four Spheres and Community Values to support the transformation of areas of Fresno in economic, infrastructure and social terms. The preschool cluster will use the multi-sector, multi-level approaches advocated in the Human Investment Initiative aimed at workforce and personal development, the employer relationships and entrepreneurial practices associated with the RJI, and the holistic, multi-lens analytics espoused in the Four-Sphere model.

The framework will lay the foundation for a comprehensive, integrated strategy that will link, align and leverage existing assets behind shared goals that are both qualitative and quantitative. In addition, the strategy will identify gaps and find innovative ways to fill them working with institutional, CBO and private sector partners. Cluster members will work with the underlying premise of the knowledge and skills of the residents and quantity of connections between the residents and larger community have the greatest impact on the quality of a neighborhood and the wellbeing of its inhabitants. Insuring access to a wide range of developmental pathways to enhance technical and personal skills is essential to personal and neighborhood transformation.

2010 First 5 Fresno County Child-Friendly Businesses

The Fresno County Office of Education salutes the winners of the 2010 First 5 Fresno County Child-Friendly Businesses Award.

Austin’s Restaurant, Sanger
Forward Advantage, Inc.
Organic Pastures Dairy
Granville Homes
Fresno County Office of Education

2009 First 5 Fresno County Child-Friendly Businesses

Changing the Face of Human Service-Rehabilitation Counseling Program, Fresno State
BSK Associates-Engineers & Laboratories
Pacific Gas and Electric Company
RHA-program design+management