The two-time NBA MVP and president of the Steve Nash Foundation calls for a greater investment in quality early learning opportunities for disadvantaged children
WASHINGTON – Today the Invest in US campaign released its latest celebrity video PSA calling for greater investment in early childhood education, this time featuring two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash. The PSA premiered on the jumbotron at Friday night’s Phoenix Suns game during a ceremony where Nash was inducted into the Suns Ring of Honor. The video can be viewed online here: https://youtu.be/FhnNrm5bF-c.
“We’re incredibly grateful to Steve Nash for lending his powerful voice to this campaign,” said Kris Perry, executive director of the First Five Years Fund, the non-profit organization behind the Invest in US campaign. “Thanks to champions like Steve and the Steve Nash Foundation, countless more children will grow up with the skills they need to succeed in school and life.”
The PSA features Nash discussing the importance of investing in quality early learning opportunities, with hear-warming scenes of Steve reading to preschool-age children at the historic Henry Street Settlement. Other prominent figures who have narrated or starred in videos for the Invest in US campaign include Julianne Moore, Shakira, John Legend and Jennifer Garner, with more to be released over the coming weeks and months.
Earlier in the day Friday before his induction into the Suns hall of fame, Nash spent the morning at Educare Arizona, a state-of-the-art school serving at-risk children from birth to 5 years. Funded in part by the Steve Nash Foundation, Educare Arizona is part of the national Educare network, which implements the latest science, research, and evidenced-based practices to ensure that low-income infants, toddlers, and pre-school children who are most at risk for academic failure build the skills they need to arrive at kindergarten safe, healthy, eager to learn, and ready for school.
Nash and his family founded the Steve Nash Foundation in 2001 to assist underserved children, such as those in Educare schools, in their health, personal development, education and enjoyment of life. The Steve Nash Foundation focuses its resources on underserved populations of children across the United States and Canada, and around the world.
Invest in US, launched by President Barack Obama at the White House Summit on Early Education, is a campaign powered by the First Five Years Fund challenging public and private partners, business leaders, philanthropists, advocates, elected officials and members of the public to help build a better nation by expanding high-quality early childhood education programs for children from birth through age five.
As part of the Invest in US campaign, dozens of major corporations, foundations and individuals have agreed to dedicate a greater ongoing percentage of their philanthropy to expanding high quality early childhood programs and research as a strategy for achieving better education, health, social and economic outcomes, with commitments currently totaling more than $333 million. A full list of those who have made commitments through the Invest In US campaign can be found online here.
About Invest in US
Invest in US is a challenge to business leaders, philanthropists, advocates, public officials and the public to build a better nation through high-quality early childhood programs for children from birth to age five. When we invest in them, we invest in us.
About the First Five Years Fund
The First Five Years Fund helps America achieve better results in education, health and economic productivity through investments in quality early childhood education programs for disadvantaged children. FFYF provides knowledge, data, and advocacy – persuading federal policymakers to make investments in the first five years of a child’s life that create greater returns for all. www.ffyf.org
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