Maria Shriver

Maria Shriver Narrates "One Window of Opportunity" Animated Video for National Head Start Association

By MariaShriver.com

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As part of part of the National Head Start Association's national effort to underscore the importance of investing in early childhood education, the organization created an original, two-minute animated video -- “One Window of Opportunity" -- to help capture a child’s perspective of the vast possibilities Head Start offers America’s youngest minds.

Produced by creative agency SS&K and narrated by Maria Shriver, the animated video spotlights the critical window of opportunity in the first five years of life, during which essential cognitive, social and emotional development occurs. The NHSA hopes the video will shine a spotlight on the enormous and still growing need for Head Start programs as more Americans slip into poverty while battling devastating unemployment.

With 46 million people living below the poverty line, including one in four children under age six, Head Start is a lifeline to almost one million at-risk children each year. With current funding levels, Head Start is only able to serve less than 50 percent of eligible children, with only five to six percent of children needing Early Head Start able to access programs.

"As Director of President Lyndon Johnson's Office of Economic Opportunity, my father, Sargent Shriver, created the Head Start program more than 46 years ago," said Maria Shriver. "My father understood with great clarity the importance of this window of opportunity and the tremendous value of Head Start, and he fought to get the program off the ground and to keep it alive. I am proud to join this new fight to ensure that our country's most vulnerable children don't lose their precious window of opportunity."

Watch the video and leave a comment below. If you like it, be sure to pass it on!