First Things First partners with families and communities to help our state’s youngest children prepare for kindergarten and beyond.
Many young children in Arizona face challenges that threaten their healthy development and learning. In the Navajo Nation Region, there are 10,894 children (under age 6) with 51% living in poverty.
Here is how FTF is working to support young children and their families in this region.
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“Early education resources support our families to build stable foundations for our children during their most impressionable years of life. First Things First makes it easy to connect to essential outlets that will contribute to a child’s healthy development. We need to invest in our children now so that they may grow up to be strong, educated and passionate leaders.” Shaandiin Parrish |
Navajo Nation Regional Key Impact Highlights
[Fiscal Year 2020]
165 Families with young children participated in voluntary home visiting programs proven to reduce parental stress levels, increase connections to community supports, and improve children’s cognitive, motor, behavioral and social-emotional development.
687 Children attended preschools and child care programs participating in Quality First.
243 Children birth to age 5 received a Quality First scholarship to attend high-quality preschools and child care programs.
1,154 Children benefited from their families receiving food boxes, backpacks and food vouchers to access nutritious meals.
491 Children monitored to receive appropriate screenings to detect vision, hearing and developmental issues to prevent learning challenges later on.
5,678 Books were given to families with children ages birth to 5 years to encourage parent-child interaction and reading.
31 Early childhood educators received college scholarships to improve their qualifications for working with infants, toddlers and preschoolers.
Navajo Nation Family Story
Home visits help Navajo mother support daughter with speech problems
Years ago, Natasha Naha recalls sitting with her mom during the home visits for her little brother, who was enrolled in a home visitation program in the Seba Delkai Boarding School. The program provided regular in-home visits from a trained professional who provided parenting information, modeled ways to support healthy development and shared connections to other community resources. Naha remembers the remarkable progress her little brother made while in the program.
Read moreFTF Navajo Nation Regional Partnership Council
SFY20 Total Regional Program Expenditures
The FTF Navajo Nation Regional Partnership Council is made up of volunteers who study the unique needs of the local community and decide how funds should be used to best support the healthy development and early learning of young children birth to age 5. FTF invests in proven programs and innovative strategies through grants to community organizations that provide services to children and families. Some of the programs in this region include Navajo Nation Growing in Beauty, Community Outreach Patient Empowerment’s Fruits and Vegetable Prescription (FVRx) and St. Jude’s Healthy Beginnings.
| Quality Child Care and Preschool | $1,806,729 | 44% |
| Preventive Health | $1,022,225 | 24% |
| Strengthening Families | $733,601 | 18% |
| Workforce Development and Training | $368,483 | 8% |
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Parent and Community Awareness |
$139,610 | 3% |
| Research and Evaluation | $109,400 | 2% |
| Coordinating Care | $80,459 | 1% |
| TOTAL |
$4,260,507 |
The FTF Navajo Nation Region is defined as the Arizona portion of the Navajo Nation Reservation. The region covers nearly 16,000 square miles in the northeast corner of the state, stretching across Apache, Navajo and Coconino counties. The entire reservation, which dates to the Navajo Treaty of 1868, also includes lands in Utah and New Mexico. The FTF Navajo Nation Region includes Legislative District 7. (Legislative districts are not necessarily congruent with regional boundaries.)