New York, NY, March 06, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Mount Sinai Parenting Center has received a grant from the Bezos Family Foundation to enhance early-childhood development programs through expanded training, research, and supplemental resources that foster strong caregiver-child relationships during a pivotal period in human development.
The $2.2 million grant from the Foundation will support the expansion of the Center’s marquee programs to educate health care providers on social, emotional, and cognitive development during early childhood. Building on the 25,000 providers and 550 academic institutions they have already reached, Mount Sinai will use the funds to enroll an additional 30,000 primary care providers over the next three years into its Keystones of Development Provider Portal, a digital suite of interactive learning modules and curriculums that cover topics from promoting early numeracy and literacy to discipline and self-regulation. The Center will also expand its reach through new segments of primary care, including training for nurse practitioners and family medicine physicians.
“The Bezos Family Foundation has been a passionate champion for getting the science of early childhood development into the hands of pediatric health providers. We are so grateful for their partnership in creating and distributing this work, and know that it will lead to tremendous change in the field,” said Carrie Quinn, MD, Executive Director of the Mount Sinai Parenting Center and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “This support allows us to reach providers across the country, including those with the least resources, to support parents.”
“With the Keystones of Development Provider Portal now reaching more than 25,000 health care providers, Mount Sinai Parenting Center has proven both the approach and reach of this valuable resource,” said Megan Wyatt, Bezos Family Foundation Managing Director. “Through this grant, the Mount Sinai Parenting Center will be able to expand its groundbreaking work, equipping tens of thousands of new providers with the skills to cultivate strong caregiver-child relationships.”
The investment will also support Mount Sinai’s national recruitment of other health partners, including hospital networks, community clinics, and individual providers, to implement Vroom, the Bezos Family Foundation’s early learning program focusing on boosting brain development during the critical years from birth to age five. Vroom offers access to 1,000 free tips and digital brain-building tools. As part of an earlier grant, the Mount Sinai Parenting Center pioneered Vroom messaging and staff training throughout six care units at The Mount Sinai Hospital in 2019.
“This generous grant from the Bezos Family Foundation is truly transformative for the Mount Sinai Parenting Center and the children and families we serve,” said Lisa M. Satlin, MD, Herbert H. Lehman Professor and Chair of the Jack and Lucy Clark Department of Pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “I am deeply thankful for their commitment to early childhood development. This funding will allow us to significantly expand our reach and impact, ensuring that more health care providers have access to resources and training that are key to supporting the social-emotional-cognitive development of young children. We are so excited to partner with the Bezos Family Foundation on this vital work and look forward to the positive change it will bring.”
About the Mount Sinai Health System
Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with 48,000 employees working across eight hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, more than 600 research and clinical labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time—discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.
Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 9,000 primary and specialty care physicians and 11 free-standing joint-venture centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida. Hospitals within the System are consistently ranked by Newsweek’s® “The World’s Best Smart Hospitals, Best in State Hospitals, World Best Hospitals and Best Specialty Hospitals” and by U.S. News & World Report's® “Best Hospitals” and “Best Children’s Hospitals.” The Mount Sinai Hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report® “Best Hospitals” Honor Roll for 2024-2025.
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