Get Involved Spotlight: United Way Capitol Area – Success By 6
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About United Way for Greater Austin:
United Way for Greater Austin helps the working poor overcome barriers to economic opportunity to ensure Austin thrives. For almost 90 years, we’ve run employee giving campaigns and built public/private partnerships to address the greatest needs in our community. Today, we also run strategic programs, give grants, connect the community through our Navigation Center and manage Austin’s largest volunteer network. By doing this, we create opportunities for anyone to be a philanthropist and unite our community.
About Success By 6:
By age 6, 90 percent of brain development has occurred – which sets the stage for a child’s lifetime learning. Success By 6 focuses on three strategies- family support, quality child care and social emotional learning- to make sure all Central Texas children enter kindergarten happy, healthy and ready for school success. In the past year, Success By 6 released the results of a year-long study that showed only 13 percent of Austin-area children living in low-income neighborhoods were ready for school.
Success By 6 is working to change the lives of children by:
- Teaching educators: SB6 trained over 30 parent educators in The Incredible Years, a nationally renowned, evidence-based curriculum last year. These and other trainings helped 3,300 infants and toddlers enjoy quality care resulting in less aggressive behavior and more effective problem solving.
- Starting an innovative Play To Learn program: SB6 will educate parents and children on school readiness, provide books, and offer educational activities including integrating tablet technology.
- Providing accessible health care: through an innovative partnership with White Glove Health, five child care centers serving our community’s poorest children will now receive on-site health services including flu shots, vaccinations, and wellness assessments at no charge. Since launching in February, 124 parents have enrolled in the project.
Success By 6 is a targeted, results-based program driven by in-depth research. We’ve studied where the greatest needs are and what infants and toddlers need in order to be ready to learn, and now we’re implementing a plan to invest in the future of our community.
Volunteer needs:
- Preparing materials
We need volunteers to prepare learning kits and organize books for Play To Learn and other educational programs. Volunteers would sort through materials and arrange them as needed so educators, trainers and parents have the tools they need. - Facilities
Play To Learn and other programs are more powerful when they are accessible to the community. You can help make that happen by identifying locations to hold groups in our targeted areas (Dove Springs, Manor, and St. John). - Born Learning Trails
Born Learning trails are paths in parks and other community locations that provide outdoor learning games to build pre-literacy skills. These trails offer families a wonderful place to be active and help children get ready for school success. You can create a new trail or rejuvenate an existing Born Learning trail, including touching up paint and cleaning up, to give children a fun place to learn. - Advocacy
The biggest impact we can make is by raising the importance of early childhood as an issue in our community. Please share information about the need in our community with your friends and help us raise the profile of this key issue. - Donation needs
Various disposable materials, including diapers, crayons, paper, and paper products are needed to keep children healthy and prepare them for school. We’re also looking for art supplies for early childhood classrooms. You can hold an arts supply drive in your business, church, or other locations, or coordinate other donations of materials. You can also donate directly to United Way to make a powerful investment in the future of our community’s children.
Contact:
Manager, Donor Engagement – Leah Newkirk Meunier, Ph.D.
Office 512.225.0375 or leah.meunier@unitedwaycapitalarea.org
Video produced by Mike Lee
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