NLC’s Institute for Youth, Education, and Families (YEF Institute) and United Way of America (UWA) awarded technical assistance grants to six cities to promote school readiness among young children. Atlanta, Denver, Des Moines, Iowa, Nashville, Tenn., Providence, R.I., and San Antonio were competitively selected to receive technical assistance through the Cities and United Ways Promoting School Readiness initiative.
This initiative is supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and is designed tol strengthen the efforts of these six cities to support informal caregivers, lay the foundation for helping other cities promote school readiness and highlight promising practices that can be replicated in communities across the nation.
The Child and Family Policy Center, recipient of this grant, will work in partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Children and Youth and the United Way of Middle Tennessee to convene stakeholder discussions about school readiness policy and design a plan to implement parent education programs throughout the city to help children who are cared for by family, friends and neighbors (FFN) be better prepared to start school.
Both parents are in the work force in more than 60 percent of U.S. households with children under the age of 6. The majority of infants, toddlers and young children in low-income families are in FFN care settings, with care provided by grandparents, aunts, uncles, other relatives, friends and neighbors. Therefore, supporting FFN care providers is critical to ensuring a successful early care and education experience for our city’s youngest residents.
Quality early learning experiences translate into long-term benefits for cities. Children with positive early experiences exhibit higher academic achievement and employment rates, as well as less criminal behavior and reliance on social services later in life.
Through the new technical assistance initiative, the YEF Institute and UWA are helping cities and United Ways form strategic partnerships that leverage each other’s resources and capacity to ensure that children are born healthy, have access to early education opportunities and enter school ready to learn.
“City and United Way leaders are uniquely positioned to lend support and resources to school readiness initiatives,” said Clifford M. Johnson, executive director of the YEF Insitute. “The credibility and history of these two grounded institutions working together is a model for all communities to replicate to improve the early education experiences for all children.”
Details: To learn more about the YEF Institute’s early education initiatives, visit www.nlc.org/iyef or contact Tonja Rucker at (202) 626-3004 or rucker@nlc.org. |
|
National League of Cities
|
