The David Mathews Center for Civic Life, located in Montevallo, Alabama, has embarked on a statewide public forums project that will focus on the question of how to best ensure a healthy start for infants and toddlers. An issue guide titled Minding Our Future: Investing in Healthy Infants and Toddlers, was created by the David Mathews Center, and will be used to help people deliberate in forums around the state. 

The issue guide drew on earlier work by the West Virginia Center for Civic Life and the issue guide, Making the Most of the First Three Years: How Can We Give Our Youngest Children a Good Start in Life?

The David Mathews Center held the first forum in the statewide Minding Our Future series on January 26, 2015 at the B.B. Comer Memorial Library in Sylacauga, Alabama. For more information about this statewide forums project, or about other public forums work in Alabama, contact Acting Executive Director Cristin Foster at cfoster@mathewscenter.org.