A new Savannah group is aiming to tackle poverty -- through the lens of early childhood.

The Savannah Early Childhood Foundation has an ambitious agenda.

The group plans to raise $2 million in two years.

That would make it one of the largest Savannah philanthropic efforts.

The group is seeking much of its initial phase funding from national and regional early childhood organizations.

The foundation's Paul Fisher says the idea focuses resources on parents of children from birth to age five.

"What we're really doing is identifying resources focused on children and parents, but using those resources and applying them a little earlier in the stage of a child's life and the parents who help with the care, nurturing, and education of that stage of life," Fisher says.

The group extols the growing science showing how care and nurturing in a child's early years leads to life-long results in financial attainment and other success markers.

"If a child's ready for school, they enjoy school, they stay in school, graduate from school and become constructive community members and role models: that's our long-term objective," Fisher says.

The Early Childhood Foundation already runs Savannah's "Parent University."

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