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Investing in Infant Mental Health: Starting from Home

As a new parent or caregiver, you may be wondering how you can best support the social and emotional development of your young child. Infant mental health focuses on promoting healthy social and emotional development for children from birth to three years old. The foremost expert on Infant Mental Health,

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5 Things We Love About Child Care

Child care is not just a necessity for working parents; it plays a vital role in our society as the backbone of our economy, enabling families to thrive. High-quality child care has far-reaching effects on our community and economy as a whole. There are so many reasons that we, as

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First 5 San Mateo County Stands for the End to Gun Violence

Our vision of success for every child means that children should have the opportunity to grow up with security, safety, stability, and respect from the first days of their lives. Creating success for every child is about constructing a nurturing and limitless future that we hope to leave the next

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Newsletter: The Next Decade of Thriving Families

Read about the 2022 Child Care Needs Assessment, share stories about what child care means to you, hear from Family Connections’s Eric Valladares about why he chose to vaccinate his children, register for a webinar about children and gender identity, and while you’re at it, sing the Dragon Song. All

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JOIN US for Breakfast! Thriving Families Symposium: The Next Decade

The San Mateo County Child Care Needs Assessment found a critical child care shortage in San Mateo County with serious implications for our community. We ask you to partner with us to identify community solutions to ensure our communities have equitable access to high quality, affordable childcare. To turn data

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Applauding the 2023–24 Budget Proposal

First 5 San Mateo County, along with the First 5 Association of California, is applauding Governor Newsom’s proposed 2023-24 budget plan, which was released Tuesday. The budget continues to demonstrate a commitment to provide for the needs of young children and their families and build toward an improved early childhood

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Let’s Talk: Vaccines, Boosters, Variants & COVID-19 WATCH NOW!

Wow! Catch up on the incredible conversation we had with Dr. Naveen Mahmood of Palo Alto Medical Foundation and Dr. Sylvia Espinoza of Stanford Children’s Health, in discussion with Eric Valladares, Executive Director of Family Connections about vaccines and boosters for your children. Children 6 months and older are now

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Headshot of Kitty Lopez

Kitty Lopez has served as the Executive Director of First 5 San Mateo County since 2013, focusing on strategic investing, community leadership, policy and advocacy development for young children, 0-5, and their families.

Kitty has served as Co-Chair of the Advisory Body for Build Up for San Mateo County Children’s Initiative, with Board of Supervisor, Dave Pine, since 2018.  Congressman Kevin Mullin is Honorary Co-Chair.  This initiative was established to preserve, grow, and increase the number of early care sites in San Mateo County.  

Kitty previously served as the Executive Director of Samaritan House, one of San Mateo County’s leading Core Service Agencies and safety-net nonprofits serving low-income families and individuals with food, shelter, clothing, health care, counseling, education classes, and holiday assistance from 2002 to 2013. 

Kitty taught kindergarten, second grade, and high school in southern California and San Francisco and was a consultant in schools with children who have autism and special needs. Additionally, Kitty worked in a residential substance abuse treatment center in San Francisco and psychiatric hospital for children and youth in San Diego.  Kitty’s roots in supporting children began as a 16-year-old volunteer at the Braille Institute in Los Angeles where she taught swimming to children and adults with visual impairments.

She attended University of California Santa Barbara earning a California Teaching Credential and B.A in Psychology. Kitty is active in her community serving as Vice Chair of the San Mateo County Event Center, and Past President and Current Member of the San Mateo Rotary Club.  She is currently serving as Past President of the First 5 Association of California. On March 2022, Assembly Speaker pro Tem Kevin Mullin selected Kitty Lopez as the 2022 Assembly District 22 Woman of the Year.