At Back to the Start, we believe in effective and evidenced-based approaches in the form of upstream investments to prevent costly and tragic downstream effects. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” in medicine, public policy and, really, for any situation we can imagine. So why are we doing this backwards in the US when it comes to our most vulnerable? Why are we not doing more to prevent poverty, incarceration, and systemic inequities at a juncture when we could really make a difference?

 

Why don’t we as a society systematically provide comprehensive support and services to eliminate health and educational disparities in children rather than wait for them to grow up and have lives all too often punctuated by tragedy, dealing with the downstream effects of trauma, poor educational achievement, poverty, and incarceration?  Besides making logical sense, 

being more effective and the right thing to do, upstream investments deliver huge cost savings.