Education Initiatives

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EDUCATION: Helping Kids Succeed

Goal:

Children enter school developmentally on track, prepared to succeed in later grades and graduate high school on time.

Fact:

4 out of 10 4th graders from United Way's target communities did not meet the State's proficiency requirements for Math and Language Arts.

Strategies

 United Way of Greater Union County works to ensure: 

1. Young children have the foundation they need to begin kindergarten ready to learn.

2. Students receive the support they need to overcome obstacles to learning and succeed in school.

3. Families become more engaged in their children's education.

Initiatives

Ready to Learn

• Ready to Learn makes available, affordable quality early childhood education in Union County's academically underachieving communities.

Keeping Kids on Track

• Keeping Kids on Track, provides supplemental academic enrichment programs designed to reinforce school-based instruction and provide additional support for students falling behind. 

Born Learning Programs for Children

It's a simple fact that children are learning constantly, right from birth. What children learn during those first five years depends on the experiences they have each and every day.

In addition, studies show that children who do not receive quality care and education before they reach school age may lag behind in their ability to learn and may have difficulty keeping up with their classroom peers. That's why United Way is committed to ensuring local children are well prepared to learn and succeed in school and in life.

United Way of America Initiative, click here for bornlearning.org website.

Project Improve

Early Care and Education Centers constantly struggle to maintain quality services due to the lack of time, money, and staff turnover, according to the Union County Child Care Plan 2005. The report also states that local centers need to be improved through better coordination of resources, advocacy, training, and  professional development. United Way and Community Coordinated Child Care are working together to boost the quality of local programs through Project IMPROVE. Project IMPROVE is bringing trained volunteers into our local centers to assess their programs and determine areas of weakness. Child Care professionals are then providing intensive training and technical assistance to help improve their services.

PSE&G Stay in School Initiative

content to follow

Learning MI Way: Arts Education for Local Children

Exposure to the arts has been proven to help children build self-confidence, express their creativity and perform better in math and reading. Thanks to United Way and Artsgenesis' Learning MI Way program, hundreds of children and their families are learning these skills through a special artist-in-residence program at our local preschools.