BATON ROUGE — Gulf Coast Social Services celebrated the launch of its new Early Childhood Support and Services program with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday. 

The new initiative focuses specifically on children from birth to age 5, providing critical early-intervention resources and care. Operations leadership emphasized the long-term impact of investing in early childhood development.

"If we get that right and put those resources and supports in place at birth to five, then the rest of the outcome, the trajectory, is so much better," Vice President of Operations Marcus Alexander said.

The program expands the non-profit's reach in the community, aiming to set local children and families up for long-term success through foundational early childhood support.