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Overview: Education

Education - Successful Children and Youth

Providing children and youth with appropriate tools, supports and opportunities to become strong individuals and successful members of our community.

Having a good education is essential for lifelong success.  United Way works with parents, educators, community leaders and elected officials to ensure that children in our region have the resources they need to begin school ready to learn and to continue to succeed as they grow into young adults. We are committed to providing children and youth with the support and opportunities they need to become strong individuals and successful members of our community.

Success By 6®

United Way staff member explains why Success By 6 is important.

Success By 6® (SB6) is United Way’s initiative to ensure that more children come to school ready to learn.  The years between birth and six are a time of tremendous growth and development.  The experiences children have in their earliest years determine the actual structure of their brain and lay the foundation for their ability to learn, as well as their emotional and behavioral well-being.  The stakes are high – these early years matter, not only for young children and their families, but also for our entire community.  Investments in early childhood have a high rate of return: for every $1 invested in high-quality early childhood programs, we save $16 in costs such as special education, incarceration, and welfare.

School-Age Youth

Statistics

• Approximately 30% of young children in New Haven and the inner ring communities of Hamden, East Haven, and West Haven do have not have a preschool experience. (Strategic School Profiles)
• 63% of all preschool programs in New Haven are nationally accredited.  (New Haven Early Childhood Plan, 2008)
• 39% of New Haven students reached proficiency in reading in the 3rd grade, as measured by 2007 CMT scores.  The CMT 3rd grade reading score in West Haven is 62%; the score in Madison is 90.7%.
• The cumulative dropout rate in New Haven is 16.2% (Child Well-being Data by Town, 2008)
• CT has the largest achievement gap in the nation between poor and non-poor children in both reading and math. (Pulling Apart Report, CT Voices ) 
  
  

Goals

Success By 6®

1. Increase the percentage of children who attend preschool in New Haven and the “inner ring” communities.
2. Improve the quality of early care and education experiences.
3. Increase parents’ and primary caregivers’ knowledge of the important developmental milestones their children must meet to come to school success-ready.
4. Increase public awareness about the positive effect that quality care and education can have for the community at large.

School Age Children

1. Increase the number of children and youth who achieve developmentally appropriate academic, social and emotional success.
2. Increase educational/ academic equity across the region.

What We Do

Provide leadership on education issues critical to our communities

• Serve in a citywide leadership capacity by serving as Co-Chair of the New Haven Early Childhood Council and Co-Chair of the Task Force that developed the 2008 New Haven Early Childhood Plan.
• Provide Born Learning materials to local organizations throughout the region that work with families with young children.  These materials provide concrete ideas for how parents can support their child’s learning and healthy growth, including mealtime tips, learning games, and what to expect from a child at each age. 

Mobilize volunteers, business, and other organizations and connect them to community needs

• Partnered with the Agency on Aging of South Central Connecticut to implement Experience Corps in the Greater New Haven region. Experience Corps is a national model to engage older adults (55+) to mentor kindergarten to third grade students. Students in Experience Corps increase their academic achievement and scores on standardized tests. Experience Corps is currently in all eight elementary schools in Hamden, as well as Wintergreen Interdistrict Magnet School. This project is supported by the Connecticut Commission on Community Service, a partnership of the Corporation for National and Community Service and the Connecticut Department of Higher Education.
• Worked with volunteers from the Regional Water Authority and Comcast to install the first two Born Learning Trails in Connecticut.  
• Organized a book drive across all the colleges and universities in the region which collected more than 4,000 books for children and youth.

Invest Community Fund dollars based on alignment with UWGNH outcomes

• Support programs that help parents of young children understand child development and how they can be their child’s first and best teacher.
• Created the Accreditation Initiative in partnership with the New Haven Early Childhood Council to help early care and education programs in New Haven, Hamden, East Haven, and West Haven maintain their accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).  Accreditation is a nationally accepted measure of quality.  In its first year, the Accreditation Initiative project worked with 13 centers in New Haven, East Haven, and West Haven; to date, seven of the 13 centers have been successful, with the others still waiting to hear about their results. 
• Help increase the number of licensed family child care providers in the region, and improve the quality of care they provide. 
• Support a wide range of after-school and summer programs that help children learn new skills, participate in recreation and fun activities, and help them explore their world.

Identify additional resources to address community needs

• United Way has leveraged over $1 million in additional federal and state funding to support education efforts in the New Haven region.

Make possible philanthropic contributions to local non-profits

Measure and communicate results, needs, and successes