Accelerating Early Childhood Systems Transformation by Centering Connection and Relationships

A Vision Rooted in the Power of Connection

Nurture Connection brings together families, communities, early childhood practitioners, researchers, and system leaders to promote Early Relational Health (ERH). Nurture Connection’s vision is grounded in the science that shows that children grow and learn through relationships. The emotional connection babies and toddlers experience with their parents and caregivers not only shapes their early development, but their health and wellbeing for life.

As a national network, Nurture Connection’s work is focused on spreading new ideas and breakthroughs about the role of relational health in early childhood and beyond, connecting early childhood practitioners and champions, and making sure families have a seat at the table.

The Opportunity to Nurture a Network

Nurture Connection began with a simple but ambitious idea: that truly supporting Early Relational Health (ERH) required building a field catalyst that would bring together a broad, multisector network of ERH champions and advocates.

But launching a national network of this scale meant getting the fundamentals right — a clear strategy, a shared identity, and a story that could bring people together across sectors. That meant establishing a unifying vision, mission, and governance structure, while also developing a brand that could communicate Early Relational Health in a way that resonated with both researchers, clinicians, and policymakers as well families and communities. The result was Nurture Connection.

Our Approach

Launching the Nurture Connection brand meant taking a complex, research-backed idea — Early Relational Health — and making it accessible, compelling, and recognizable to a wide range of audiences. It meant defining what the network stood for, who it was for, and how to communicate that clearly across sectors as different as pediatrics, public policy, and home visiting, among others.

The identity work — the name, logo, messaging, and website — gave the movement a shared language and a unified face. Instead of a loose collection of champions and organizations working in parallel, Nurture Connection became something people could point to, join, and rally around. The brand made the network real.

• Leading the Brand Development: We facilitated a collaborative naming and branding process alongside a diverse steering committee and a parent advisory group — ensuring that the voices of families were central from the start. The resulting brand identity and visual system uses color and inviting shapes to express diversity, childhood, and the nurturing bonds young children need to thrive. The identity carries through to Nurture Connection’s website — also designed and developed by Health+ — which serves as the initiative’s hub for awareness, education, and coalition-building.
• Communicating About ERH: To ground the network in a clear and consistent voice, we developed the Nurture Connection messaging framework — building on the ERH Communications Guide we had created earlier, which itself translated the ERH Strategic Framing Brief by the FrameWorks Institute into an accessible core story for the field.
• Supporting Collective Action: To build the network’s infrastructure, we facilitated listening and learning sessions with practitioners doing ERH work in local communities to understand what they needed. We guided the steering committee to build consensus around the mission, vision, and values, and developed a year-long action plan with key performance indicators (KPIs).
• Translating Complex Science: To ensure the network’s foundation was scientifically rigorous yet accessible, Health+ synthesized a vast amount of complex research—including dyadic neuroscience and longitudinal study data—into clear, engaging content for the “ERH Science” digital hub.

By providing strategic clarity and a strong governance structure, Health+ Studio built permanent capacity for the initiative. This foundational work enabled a stable transition of the initiative from its initial backbone organization, CSSP, to its permanent home at the Georgetown University Thrive Center for Children, Families and Communities.

The movement’s growth demonstrates the power of this collaborative approach. Today, the Nurture Connection network has almost 4000 ERH champions actively engaged and includes over 250 practitioner members in the national ERH Network. This momentum was vibrantly displayed at the 2025 National Summit in Washington, D.C., where over 300 ERH champions, parent leaders, policymakers, and systems leaders from 23 communities across 18 states gathered to reimagine early childhood systems. As the strategic communications partner to Nurture Connection which includes spearheading the initiative’s monthly “Connections Matter” newsletter, Health+ Studio continues to support Nurture Connection as it transforms systems and promotes foundational early relationships nationwide.

Explore the full website: https://nurtureconnection.org/