In 2016, the Center and its partners in Latin America launched two innovation clusters [1] in the region: the Aceleradora de Innovación para la Primera Infancia in Mexico and the iLab Primeira Infância in Brazil. Both clusters drive the development of innovative program strategies that address the unmet challenges of children and families facing adversity. These clusters have not only expanded the Frontiers of Innovation [2] community beyond the U.S. and Canada for the first time and significantly advanced the full community’s innovation agenda.
Keep reading below for information on the origins and initial projects of the Latin American Clusters. Or, read about the current activities of the Brazilian Innovation Cluster [3].
Core Elements of Our Collaboration:
- Local Partnerships Are Key [4]
- Bringing the ECD Field Together for an Innovation Agenda [5]
- Uncovering Unmet Challenges [6]
- Innovation and Co-Creation at Every Level [7]
Members of the Mexico and Brazil innovation clusters describe their work and how it has changed.
The first year of co-creating these clusters with local partners was devoted to building local capacity in the science of early childhood development (ECD), identifying unmet challenges, exploring science-based program strategies with community leaders, and engaging in the Center’s innovation model [8]. Over the following two years, the clusters’ seven project teams implemented and evaluated various iterations of their projects, leveraging the community of peers to inform strategic adaptations through rapid-cycle iteration [9].