The strategy of Operation Restore Dreams is to add 20 pregnant mothers per year. Although Operation Restore Dreams is a program for children of ages 0-3, at least initially, the program will only include the babies that were born to mothers who were already part of the program during their pregnancy. This strategy will allow the program to grow slowly since the first year will only have newborn babies, the second year will only have newborn babies and 1 year olds, etc. In addition, this strategy will allow pure statistical analysis. If the program were to admit a child at the age of 2, for example, the performance of that child could be misleading when trying to assess the success of the program.

Of course, with this strategy, the amount of funding required would increase each year. However, due primarily to overhead in the form of staff salaries, the highest cost per child comes during the first year – $9,000 per child. Nonetheless, the estimated cost for year two currently is $320,000 or $8,000 per child. Although, this may seem like a large amount of money, research done by the State of Virginia Department of Education shows that this money spent would be a very wise investment. Specifically, the Department of Education has found that money invested in Early Childhood Education programs produces an absolutely stunning return of 8:1.

Regardless of probable success rates, raising this large amount of money in subsequent years will be a challenge. However, Operation Restore Dreams is confident the strategy of slow growth will result in the ability to acquire supporting data during the less expensive beginning year, which will open more doors to local, state and federal grants.

The main hurdle has always been to open peoples’ eyes to the importance of the first years of a child’s life, and more importantly, that a program can be developed to adequately impact a child’s brain development. Research has shown that the more common, less expensive programs that consist of short-term classes and/or home-visits for mothers are resoundingly ineffective. The same research shows that for a program to be successful, it needs to literally walk hand-in-hand with the mothers during the entire critical period of a child’s first three years. This is what Operation Restore Dreams aims to do. If given the opportunity, the possibilities are endless – both for the program and the children who will have participated in the program.