RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – RTI International is stepping up its efforts to boost childhood development with a new “Center for Thriving Children.” And an executive at the independent nonprofit research institute, which says it is “dedicated to improving the human condition,” didn’t mince words when asked why RTI launched the center.

“The triggers for the establishment of the Center were two-fold,”  Katherine Merseth King, director of early childhood development at RTI, tells WRAL TechWire.

  1. The increasingly dire circumstances of millions of children around the world, driven by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., millions of children orphaned) and the highest-ever number of children (36.5 million) forcibly displaced by violence and conflict, such as the Ukraine war; and
  2.  The passage of the Global Child Thrive Act, which mandates the US government to include early childhood development interventions in US foreign assistance programs. RTI sees opportunities to improve implementation of the Global Child Thrive Act, and seeks to spur innovation—through cross-sectoral collaboration—that generates measurable, positive outcomes for children and their families. Children can’t wait.”

So how will the center be funded?

“RTI plans to sustain the expansion of the Center by providing technical services and research consulting services through contracts and grants from governments and foundations,” King says.

For now, RTI says it will build on work already done and utilize existing resources.

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“RTI has self-invested over $2 million since 2015 in early childhood development program implementation and research. This Center builds on that investment by establishing a permanent platform in the organization for continued expansion of this work,” King explains.

“No additional employees are being recruited at this time. Instead, the Center will draw upon the expert staff across the Institute whose work focuses on different aspects of early childhood development (e.g., health, learning, nutrition),” she says. “The Center will break down silos that typically prevent experts in different fields from collaborating to solve problems innovatively.”