What's New at Your United Way

	United Way of Greater Richmond & Petersburg
	GIVE. ADVOCATE. VOLUNTEER.	NEWS FROM YOUR UNITED WAY

	May 2010
	May 2010

I'm Ready and Eager for Kindergarten - Thank You!

For at-risk children, high quality childcare is the great equalizer, helping children improve language, math, thinking and behavior -- all before they set foot in kindergarten.

Quality childcare can increase school success, graduation rates, workforce readiness, job productivity and community engagement. It can also help reduce crime, teen pregnancy, welfare dependency, grade repetition, and the cost of job training and special education.

Thanks to generous contributions from donors like you, almost 900 local children under the age of 5 have been served by five United Way-supported high-quality childcare programs!

Success You Can See

Kids who receive the foundation they need in the first five years are more likely to enter school ready to succeed. In fact, since our region began concerted efforts to improve childcare quality and support early childhood, there has been a steady improvement in the number of children starting kindergarten with age-appropriate pre-literacy skills.

Above, you can see those improvements as measured by the results of the Phonological Awareness and Literacy Screening-Kindergarten instrument, or PALS-K.

Special congratulations go to Petersburg, which has gone from 70 percent of children meeting this important benchmark in 2002 to 85 percent in 2009!

As impressive as the region's improvements are, it is still very important to keep working until all children have the quality early childhood experiences they need to prepare for success in school and in life.

You Are Investing in Our Future

Investing in quality childcare is an effective economic development plan.

Every $1 invested in early childhood development programs generates a $7 return.
For each child in a high quality preschool program, $70,000 is avoided in crime costs.

Visit www.readychildren.net to learn more about the Regional Plan for Children's School Readiness and Smart Beginnings Greater Richmond.

June Lunch & Learn

Quality Child Care

for Young Children

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

12:00 p.m.

RSVP online

Many pre-schoolers spend eight to 10 hours each day -- most of their waking hours -- in child care programs. Join us for lunch and learn how to take the guesswork out of choosing child care.

For lunch, enjoy pizza, dessert and a beverage provided by United Way, or bring your own.

Speaker: Karen Sweeney Lang, Education & Training Services Director, ChildSavers of Richmond

Location: United Way, 2001 Maywill Drive, Suite 201, Conference Room 204.

Register online today!

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