WHY FIRST 5?

Family life used to be much easier.

Parents didn’t have to work so hard to make ends meet. Grandparents or other family lived down the street. If you needed someone to watch the kids, or if you had a question about measles or misbehavior, help was right nearby. Today, many parents are dealing with longer work hours, frequent moves, blended families, and relatives living far away. We truly love our kids. But some days it’s a struggle to give them all the care and attention they need in order to thrive later in life. In 1998, California voters created FIRST 5 to help families raise children in a new and changing world. Using tobacco tax money, Californians now invest $700 million per year in healthy child development – because if we don’t, we’ll eventually spend much more on school dropouts, substance abuse, health care, mental health care, and crime prevention.