EDUCATION

WHY IS EARLY LEARNING CRITICAL?

When children are born, they all have the potential to succeed in school and in life. But at some point, their circumstances will affect the opportunities they have and, ultimately, their chances in life. While many children have the support they need to get started on the right foot, prepared for school and ready to succeed, not all children are as fortunate. Too many children live in an environment that isn’t preparing them for a bright future. Brought on by their circumstances, the barriers they face shadow their belief in themselves and what they are capable of.

Most Americans wrongly believe that it is OK for children to enter school without basic literacy skills because they assume they will catch up. The reality is, 88 percent of first graders who are reading below grade level will continue to read below grade level in fourth grade.

Fourth graders who struggle to read are four times more likely to drop out of school as compared to proficient readers.

THE HIGH COST OF FALLING BEHIND

When students drop out of high school, it’s at great cost to themselves and our community. The student will likely not have the same career opportunities, and research shows that those without a high school diploma will earn 75 percent less than their peer that graduated. The social implications of a student dropping out are far-reaching, beyond any one student or any one family. Communities with higher dropout rates have more crime and poverty and less social and economic stability. The number of high school students who graduate impacts our entire community from our businesses, schools, and local government, to each of us as individuals.

UNITED WAY SUNCOAST WORKS TO BREAK THE CYCLE

United Way is committed to help change these conditions by leading a comprehensive approach to improving early learning in our region. Through partnerships and collaboration, United Way is uniquely positioned to lead an innovative, comprehensive approach to early learning and deliver at a regional level. With the objective of sharing and reinforcing proven literacy development techniques, our vision for a successful, regional early learning initiative requires a multi-prong approach. Our approach includes parent/family engagement, volunteer mobilization, caregiver support, strategic community partnerships and investments, and community awareness.

United Way Suncoast operates and invests in local programs serving more than 100,000 children and youth (ages 0 – 17) throughout DeSoto, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pinellas, and Sarasota counties. We work with and through a network of some 50 partner agencies across the region to achieve our community educational objectives.

UNITED WAY EDUCATION PROGRAMS

In addition to investing in programs operated by our strategic investment partners, United Way Suncoast directly manages programs to assist caregivers, providers, and community supports to help children in the Suncoast region succeed.

myON

The Read on myON partnership provides all children from birth through grade five in Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties with access to more than 8,000 e-books. The goal of the myON partnership is to provide each child in our community with equitable access to a large collection of enhanced digital books to encourage reading, increase literacy rates, and promote literacy throughout the region.

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Summer Care

Faced with the high cost of child care, many low-income households must choose between quitting their paying job to stay home with their child(ren) over the summer or leaving them with family or unskilled child care. United Way’s Summer Care initiative ensures that low-income families have access to quality, education-enriched summer childcare while providing parents with financial literacy classes. In 2020, 477 children received scholarships, and parents received financial education classes in which they learned about budgeting, dollar stretching, and credit/debt management. In addition, 127 children received virtual (due to the pandemic) individual tutoring through United Way Suncoast. Of those, 100% had no summer learning loss and on average, participants increased reading ability by 6 months.  In addition, we provided Summer Bridge Books to 2,026 children at the 22 Summer Campsites plus Seminole Elementary and four other programs in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. Three-fourth of students who received the books and completed the pre and post-tests did not experience summer learning loss.

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