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United Way of West Georgia, Inc. United Way of West Georgia’s Success By 6 is an early learning community impact initiative that helps prepare our youngest children for learning when they get to school. Local and state SB6s pursue multiple strategies –
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United Way of West Georgia’s • Success By 6 is an early learning community • impact initiative that helps prepare our • youngest children for learning • when they get to school.
Local and state SB6s pursue multiple strategies – • including public awareness, parent/caregiver • education, increasing quality childcare, and • increasing access to services (like health care • and literacy) – to galvanize communities to help • young children come to school ready to succeed. • SB6 is the nation’s largest network of • early childhood coalitions.
Common Goal The common goal is to create a community where all children, by the age of 6, have the mental, physical, social and emotional foundation to grow into healthy, productive members of this community.
Focus • Success By 6 accomplishes it’s goals by focusing on the community’s energy and resources in four areas: • The promotion of quality and early literacy • Parent awareness and education • Community awareness and engagement • Public policy
Why should I care about children’s development? • If we do not take action now, we will • continue to create a permanent segment • of society who cannot participate fully in • community life.
We will all face: • Higher taxes to support programs for • dependent people • An increase in crime, less personal safety. • Decline in America’s ability to compete in • world economy. • A lower standard of living.
Early Learning What the research tells us… • 46% of kindergarteners are coming to school at risk for failure. • Economically disadvantaged children enter kindergarten 1-2 years behind in language and other skills important to school success.
….research also tells us… • 1 in 3 children is born into poverty. • The typical middle-class child is read to 1,000 to • 1,700 hours before entering 1st grade, whereas a • child from a low-income family is read to an • average of just 25 hours. • Young children whose parents respond to them • verbally at a high rate develop greater vocabularies. • These differences tend to persist over time, • impacting school readiness and success.
EARLY LEARNING IS CRITICAL • Research proves that high-quality • early learning matters. • Experts say prevention is better than intervention, • and starting early works best.
Here are some of the reasons early learning is critical: • Brain research has shown that nurturing in the earliest years is crucial for emotional and social, as well as intellectual development. • While research shows that people continue to learn throughout life, there is no doubt that the earliest years are those of the greatest growth… • The first years of life do not dictate what a child will become, but they do lay the foundation for educational and life success. • Bruner, Floyd & Copeman for SECTAN, “Seven Things Policy Makers Need to Know about School Readiness: Revised and Expanded Toolkit”
Nurturing, responsive, and individualized interactions build healthy brains that provide a strong foundation for future growth and development. • We must close the gap between what we know and what we DO to promote the healthy development of young children. Jack. P. Shonkoff, M.D. “Beyond Neurons to Neighborhoods: Leading the Way from Research to Policy”
When adults verbally interact with young • children – talking, singing, and playing rhyming • games – they stimulate language and • vocabulary development, building important • foundations for learning to read. • B. Hart & T.R. Risley “Meaningful Differences in Everyday Experience of Young American Children”
Words Heard by Children and Their Average Vocabularies, By Socio-Economic Group
What’s the Crisis Our Children and Georgia Face? • Children are not developing the physical, • emotional, social, imaginative and intellectual • skills they need to become successful adults. • Research shows if children do not develop • properly when they are young, they are more • likely to drop out of school, go to jail, become a • teen parent and/or live on welfare.
GEORGIA’S CHILDREN ARE IN CRISIS – and it effects you, our economy, and the long-term future of our state and nation. Consider some recent statistics: • Did you know? • 35% of children in Georgia live in homes where parents have NO full-time, year-round employment • 21% of children in Georgia live in single parent households • 34% of children from low income families typically enter kindergarten with a vocabulary 85% smaller than needed to be successful • Children who start behind, stay behind
According to the 40-year High Scope/Perry Preschool Study, every $1 invested in high-quality early education produced a $17 return.
Quality Early Learning REDUCES Crime Rates Teenage Pregnancy Welfare Dependency Job Training Costs Special Education Costs Grade Repetition Quality Early Education INCREASES Success in School Graduation Rates Workforce Readiness Job Productivity Community Engagement Lifetime Income
Success In Life Success in Work Success in School Quality Early Learning
What can you do? United Way’s Success By 6 is closing the gap. • Join us by: • Equipping parents and caregivers to support early learning through programs such as the Born Learning campaign. • Increasing the quality of early education by supporting the development of quality rating systems for pre-k for all. • Urge local lawmakers to include early learning among their priorities.
For sources and other information, visit national.unitedway.org Look up Success By 6 under “Our Work” and choose “Early Childhood” Look up BornLearning when you choose “Partners”
