First Steps was created in 1999 by the South Carolina General Assembly for the purpose of having every child in South Carolina arrive at kindergarten ready to learn. First Steps exists to bring together efforts in early childhood at the state and local level, public and private, to focus and intensify services and assure the most efficient use of all available resources to serve the needs of South Carolina’s young children and their families.

First Steps works to accomplish its mission through a state coordinating office and a network of county partnerships (46), each a private non-profit organization led by a board of early childhood stakeholders. With a modest recurring appropriation of state funding, First Steps leverages cash and in-kind resources at the federal, state and local level to improve services for young children in several strategy areas: Parenting, Child Care Quality Enhancement and Child Care Training, Literacy