The Boston Globe's fine editorial page took note last week of Mayor Tom Menino's new 10-year civic initiative called "Thrive in Five" to to "turn all of Boston into a resource center" for healthy child development.The editorial notes that, to succeed, Menino's program "needs to go far beyond promoting public awareness. Thrive in Five has to beef up the quality of existing preschool programs. Home visits that send nurses and other trained staff to visit expectant and new mothers should be expanded."

This is a trend reporters should be watching. Years of strategic investment by the Pew Charitable Trusts (a supporter of this blog), the Packard Foundation, the Joyce Foundation and others put increasing spending on high quality pre-kindergarten firmly on the policy agenda of states and the federal government. Philanthropists have long had an abiding interest in promoting healthy and educational childhood experiences as a foundation for the future. But that interest is now on the rise. Menino's effort depends on private funds, the Foundation for Child Development in New York works on these issues, the Pew trusts is broadening its grantmaking to address all aspects of healthy child development, and a group of major foundations is about to provide a big boost to the movement.

Chicago businessman Irving B. Harris launched the The Ounce of Prevention Fund in the 1980s to work on preventing problems with children before they occur. The Harris foundation is also involved in the new effort, which will be called the First Five Years Fund. The purpose of the fund is to "significantly increase the life chances of at-risk children by making cost-effective investments" to promote "high-quality learning programs, beginning at birth."

Other funders include the Buffett Early Childhood Fund, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Tulsa-based George Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Children's Initiative, which is a project of the J.B. and M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation. The organization has already managed to lure Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago Tribune editorial writer Cornelia Grumman away from journalism to head up the Fund. Look for more from them soon.