Our Beliefs and Aspirations

From the outset our goal was to be strategic, focused, and collaborative. To accomplish this, we created and put into practice two five-year strategic plans over our first decade. The first plan, initiated during our first year of operations, was produced with the assistance of more than 30 university faculty and staff from across all four campuses, as well as other stakeholders from public education, early childhood, and community organizations. This plan defined our vision and mission, which remain identical today, as well as five overarching strategies that guided our work from 2014–19. The second plan, largely written and developed by the Institute staff with assistance of consultants and based on what we learned over our first five years of work, was released in 2020 to guide us through 2025. This plan includes updated statements about the values that shape our work, as well as four strategic goals with corresponding objectives. Collectively, our vision, mission, values, and strategic goals describe what we believe and seek to accomplish.

Vision and Mission

The Institute’s vision and mission were first embraced by the Institute’s Strategic Planning Commission in 2013 and, 10 years later, they continue to serve as the basis for the daily work of the Institute. Both are grounded in research and best practice concerning early childhood learning and development—research that is as relevant today as it was in 2013.

Our vision is to make Nebraska the best place in the nation to be a baby. Research demonstrates that high-quality early learning experiences are linked to long-term progress in school, increased earnings, reduction in anti-social behavior, lowered welfare participation, reduced adolescent pregnancy, and less trouble with the law. In making Nebraska the best place to be a baby, we believe that we hold in our hands the potential to transform the trajectory of life for children in greatest need—both here and beyond Nebraska. Given what we know, there is no justification for ignoring the impact of quality early care and education.57-63

Our mission is to transform the lives of young children by improving their learning and development. We seek to accomplish this by harnessing the interdisciplinary resources and research of the four University of Nebraska campuses and developing collaborations with schools, child care programs, agencies, community partners, and policymakers across the state to implement and support high-quality, evidence-based services, programs, and policies for young children and their families.64-68

Values

Fundamental to realizing our vision and mission is a parallel understanding of the values and beliefs that permeate our efforts. These values reflect our conviction that how we work is as important as the work we do. Over the past 10 years, we have refined our values as follows:

Equity. We believe that all children must have the opportunity to reach their full potential, and we recognize that the predictability of who succeeds or fails based on race, class, or ethnicity is incompatible with healthy development. We are committed to promoting diverse perspectives, increasing our understanding of how to work with one another, and becoming sensitive to the diverse ways in which children, families, and communities can thrive.

Excellence. We believe in leveraging our collective resources, strengths, and partnerships in pursuit of high-quality and rigorous standards of research, practice, policy, and outreach. We have the extraordinary distinction of being one of only three institutes at the University of Nebraska with responsibilities and access to all four of its campuses. This collection of talent, experience, and knowledge has the potential to strengthen and magnify all our research and programs.

Impact. We believe in taking bold and courageous steps to improve the lives of children and families in Nebraska and beyond. Moreover, our work is not finished until we have begun to strategically inform people of what we have accomplished so they can learn from our experience and adapt it to their own settings.

Innovation. We believe in embracing change, growth, creativity, diversity of thought, and new solutions that will enable us to achieve our vision. We see ourselves as a “learning organization” that respects the history of our field and profession while simultaneously asking whether current and accepted solutions—including our own—should undergo change based on data and interactions with our partners and constituents.

Relationships. We believe in putting people first. We recognize the inherent dignity of children, families, teachers, and other colleagues we work with and serve. We acknowledge and celebrate our differences and strive to be honest, compassionate, ethical, and caring while remaining rigorous and committed to scientific principles of inquiry.

Collaboration. We believe that working together as a team, rather than as individual investigators, enables us to experience the nearly incomparable gains that accrue from exposure to multiple perspectives. By sharing knowledge and effort, we can achieve greater success more efficiently and comprehensively and enrich and empower one another in the process. We seek to be cross-cutting, cross-unit, and cross-disciplinary.