For more than a decade, the Princess of Wales has been highlighting the importance of the earliest years of a child’s life in shaping the person that they become. Now, she’s launching a major new awareness campaign to emphasise even further how critical this time is.
The campaign will see Kate make a number of appearances, both in-person and online, as she attempts to generate new levels of awareness about the early years. In an open letter ahead of the launch she has outlined how strongly she feels about this subject, which will form a large part of her work in her role as Princess of Wales.
“As a society, we currently spend much more of our time and energy on later life,” Kate wrote in the letter. “I am absolutely determined that this long-term campaign is going to change that.”
The Princess has been joined by a team of experts in helping to shape the campaign, whom she describes as “spanning science, research, policy-making and front-line practice as well as an exciting group of well-known faces from music, sport and television.” Kensington Palace geared up for the campaign launch by asking “What Shapes Us?” on their Instagram channel, alongside a video showing Kate turning the pages of a photograph album.
Kate launched the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood in June 2021 to become the hub for driving her work in this area. In 2020, she commissioned a big research study to find out what people across the UK think about the under-fives.
This week, I am delighted to reveal, The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood will launch a major new awareness-raising campaign, highlighting the critical importance the first five years of our lives have on shaping the adults we become.
During our very early childhood, our brains develop at an amazing rate – faster than any other time of our lives. Our experiences, relationships, and surroundings at that young age, shape the rest of our lives.
It is a time where we lay the foundations and building blocks for life. It is when we learn to understand ourselves, understand others and understand the world in which we live.
But as a society, we currently spend much more of our time and energy on later life.
I am absolutely determined that this long-term campaign is going to change that.
It will start by highlighting how we develop during early childhood and why these years matter so much in terms of shaping who we become.
I will be joined by a remarkable group of experts spanning science, research, policy-making and front-line practice as well as an exciting group of well-known faces from music, sport and television, to show all of us, why it is in all of our interests to care about this.
We all need to know the critical importance of our early childhood. They really are years like no other in our lives. I urge everyone reading this, to take the opportunity to learn more about this incredible time of life, to think back to your own childhood and how it shaped you, and most importantly, to ask yourselves what you can do to make the world a more supportive and loving place for our children.
Because healthy, happy children shape a healthy, happy future.
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