United Way of Anderson County Success By 6

1. United Way of Anderson CountySuccess By 6

2. WHAT IS ?

3. Our Mission:Success By 6 will strive to ensure thatevery child enters school ready to succeedby promoting positiveearly childhood development opportunities.

4. Some South Carolina statistics: • 7% of our population is age 0 – 5 years. •  62% of pre-school children are in child care. • South Carolina ranks 46th out of 50 States 10 measures of children’s success. (Per Annie E. Casey Foundation report, KIDS COUNT 2007)

5. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? SCIENCE, and RETURN ON INVESTMENT

6. What Matters: Improving People’s Lives • Success in Life • Job Readiness • Success in School • Quality Early Learning

7. Enhances our understanding of child development and developmentally-appropriate practice. • We influence it: experience literally reshapes the brain, which neuroscientists call “plasticity.” • Long-lasting effects: there really are critical periods in brain development. • Legitimizes investment in early childhood. Why know about the brain?

8. Plasticity • Genes and the environment interact (about 50/50) throughout development to shape the brain and mind. • Brain structure is permanently altered by experience in an “activity-dependent” manner: • “Cells that fire together, wire together.” • “Use it or lose it.” • This plasticity is present throughout life, but it is especially strong in childhood. • Critical periods correspond to phases of synaptic exuberance.

9. Synapse Development • Synapses: • 50 trillion at birth • 1000 trillion at 1 year • Pruned in adolescence • 500 trillion at 20 years Synapses are created at an astonishing speed in the first three years of life. Until they are about 10 years old, children’s brains have twice as many synapses as adults’ brains. Upstate Alliance June 20, 2007

10. Most brain growth is postnatal 1400 1200 1000 Brain weight (grams) 800 600 400 200 conception. birth 1 2 3 5 10 20+ Age (years)

11. Years • Pre • 0 • 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • Motor Development • Emotional Development • Vocabulary • Math/Logic • Music • Vision • Social Attachment • Language Windows of Opportunity: Optimum Times for Learning Adapted from The National Center for Family Literacy 1998 Video, Small Wonders: Early Brain Development. Upstate Alliance June 20, 2007

12. Economic Development • “Early Childhood Development Programs are rarely portrayed as economic development initiatives, and … that is a mistake.”– • Arthur J. Rolnick, SVP Director of Research, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

13. STUDIES of RETURN ON INVESTMENT • PERRY/HIGH SCOPE 17:1 ROI • (Longest running longitudinal study) • ABCEDARIAN 7:1 ROI

14. Investing in Early Care and Education Yields a High Return • Every dollar invested in high quality pre-kindergarten accompanied with intensive family assistance saves up to $17 in future government expenditures by: • Reduced Arrest RateDecreased Prison Costs • Increased EmploymentIncreased Home Ownership • Reduced Cost of Remedial Education Increase in High School Graduation • Perry Preschool Study

15. Research Proves It: Quality Early Learning Matters Quality Development REDUCES Crime Rates Teenage Pregnancy Welfare Dependency Job Training Costs Special Education Cost Grade Repetition Quality Development INCREASES Success in School Graduation Rates Workforce Readiness Job Productivity Community Engagement

16. Return on Investment • A publicly financed, comprehensive ECD program for all children from low-income families would cost billions of dollars annually, but would create much larger budget savings over time: • positive ROI by year 17 • after 25 years positive annual ROI - $31 B • after 45 years positive annual ROI - $61 B • Robert G Lynch, • Economic Policy Institute

17. Return

18. Spending Upstate Alliance June 20, 2007

19. WHY DO YOU CARE? • NC Statewide Child Care Industry Economic Impact • Total economic impact of nearly $7.5 billion • Gross receipts in excess of $1.5 billion • Employees over 46,000 tax payers • Child Care workforce earns over $704 million • Pays over $140 million in taxes

20. Economic Impact in Anderson County • Number of centers/groups/homes = 132 • Number of child care slots = 6,417 • Estimated Receipts = $25,000,000 • Estimated Number of Employees = 600 • Estimated Earnings = $9,000,000 • Estimated Taxes Paid = $1,800,000

21. Costs/Benefits to Industry - Current • Employees without access to reliable child care result in higher costs to employers. • Absenteeism • Turnover • Retraining

22. Costs/Benefits to Industry - Future • Investment in early childhood education is related to future workforce development. *1998-1999 State Department of Education Special Survey

23. WHAT ARE WE DOING?

24. Success By 6 Initiatives • LITERACY – book distribution • QUALITY CARE – mini-grants; training • ADVOCACY – childcare standards; quality ratings • OUTREACH and EDUCATION – Cat in the Hat; annual conference; health and community fairs; presentations to business community

25. LITERACY

26. Distributed 28,000 free, age-appropriate books to young children and their families.(since Jan 2006) Literacy Efforts

27. “Today a reader, tomorrow a leader”.Margaret Fuller

28. QUALITY CARE

29. Provided almost 70 hours of state-approved training to over 500 childcare providers.(since Jan 2006)Distributed $10,000 in mini-grants to childcare providers for curriculum and facility improvements.(since Jan 2006) Quality Care Efforts

30. ADVOCACY

31. 2005/2007 Advocacy Efforts • South Carolina • Full day 4 year-old kindergarten for all at-risk children • Quality Rating System (QRS) – • Mandate for system and implementation plan • Child Care Licensing • - Administration • - Regulations • Federal • Head Start • Fought reduction in funding for proven, effective intervention program

32. Upstate Alliance June 20, 2007

33. OUTREACH & EDUCATION

34. Participate in a tri-county ECE collaborative. Sponsor region-wide events to educate our community about the overwhelming evidence of the importance of quality early care and education. Attend numerous health, church and neighborhood fairs to educate and support families in providing optimal early childhood environments for their young children. Visit classrooms as the Cat in the Hat to promote early literacy.

35. WHAT CAN YOU DO?

36. Recommendations • Incorporate high quality early learning experiences into your county’s or city’s economic development plan. • Be aware that at the request of the South Carolina General Assembly, a 20 member task force is evaluating Early Childhood Quality Standards. • Give consumers the means, and economic incentives, to differentiate between child care options. • Link South Carolina tax incentives to improvements in the availability of high quality child care. • Encourage all public and private entities that fund child care and early education to focus on strengthening the quality of the current child care industry. • Increase access to capital to help existing child care programs improve the quality of their facility and program. • Talk to your local Success By 6, First Steps or CCR&R partner in your community for immediate, local opportunities. Upstate Alliance June 20, 2007

37. Options for getting involved locally… • HERE’S WHAT YOU CAN DO: • Read with a child. • Volunteer at a childcare center. • Offer employees child care assistance, or sponsor workplace trainings. • Distribute Success By 6 materials. • Adopt or open a child care center • Ask elected officials to support legislation that helps families and children. • Volunteer with Success By 6. • Support United Way and its partners. • Log onto www.bornlearning.org for more ideas.

38. Thank you! United Way of Anderson County