| Hello, Leitor Experiences during early childhood play a decisive role in the formation of cognitive, socio-emotional, and physical skills that will bear fruit for the rest of one’s life. It is, therefore, a celebratory fact that the last decades have seen the formation of a broad agreement – involving governments, civil society, and researchers – on the importance of supporting development in the early years of life. In Brazil, one of the pioneering experiences in public policies aimed at early childhood – and, in fact, one of the drivers of this agreement – is the Better Early Childhood Program (PIM), a state public policy created in 2003 in Rio Grande do Sul. In territories of social vulnerability, it operates weekly visits by public agents (the "visitors") to families in their homes. The guiding principle of PIM is that "playing" is the most relevant input for early childhood development. The program's theory of change draws on the psychology and neurology of child development to convey to the most vulnerable families what are the ways of playing that would stimulate and form crucial cognitive, social-emotional, and physical skills. These periodic playful activities are guided by individualized care plans for children and their families and by the articulation of network actions with other government agencies, such as primary health care and social assistance. Programs such as PIM – present in other states of Brazil and in several other countries around the world – thus strengthen the capacities of caregivers to support the integral development of beneficiary daughters and sons of vulnerable families. Given the centrality of the visit to the achievement of the program's objectives, one of the manager's central concerns is to ensure that the quality is as high as possible. And central dimensions of quality in this type of program are the strength and stability of the bond between the visitor and the family. In this sense, the frequent departure, and the consequent change of visitor during the childhood of a beneficiary child are central indicators for monitoring the processes that make the program effective. One of the projects currently being developed by IMDS, through the Technical Cooperation Agreement with the state of Rio Grande do Sul, will study the phenomenon of turnover of PIM visitors, with the objective of generating inputs to guide practical management decisions. The project was motivated by interactions with program managers, who consider the way visitors are hired by the government – for example, by internship, CLT contract, or by temporary contracts of other types – and their schooling as variables closely related to turnover. One of the indicative signs of the maturity of the PIM is that it has a monitoring system rich in information (including on child development) that allows the child to be longitudinally monitored in his or her experiences of interaction with the program's visitors. The technical report, which will be presented to the PIM management team in Rio Grande do Sul in the coming months, will present a statistical analysis of the relationship between these variables and the exit rate of visitors, the length of stay of the beneficiary family and the child's development trajectory. An abridged version of this report will be available on our website. The project is part of a broader set of technical products that aim to support the construction of a comprehensive state policy aimed at early childhood. Until the next “Letter from IMDS”! Paulo Tafner CEO | 
