OUR WORK IN EDUCATION We all win when a child succeeds in school
United Way works to help all children in our community reach their full potential by preparing them for success in school and teaching them healthy lifestyle choices, so they will be ready to succeed in life.
FOCUS ON EDUCATION
School Readiness
Children entering kindergarten with skills they need to succeed are more likely to graduate from high school and become productive workers. United Way's Project Ready for School ensures that children get early exposure to books – which helps build literacy skills and is a factor in graduation rates.
Quality Child Care
Children learn best in loving, nurturing relationships and through everyday experiences. That hard-wires the brain for future learning, especially in the early years. The quality of early education is key to later school success. United Way is leading programs to improve the quality of childcare and equipping parents to make the best choices for their children.
Academic Completion
What's the cost of more than 1.2 million children dropping out each year? More than $312 billion in lost wages, taxes and productivity over their lifetimes. These trends are reversible, but only when communities and public, private and nonprofit sectors work together. So we support mentoring programs, dropout prevention programs and after-school initiatives to help improve graduation rates.
Did you know...
...25 percent of kindergarteners in the greater Chattanooga area start school educationally behind
...that 80% of brain development occurs in the first three years of life? Reading, singing and playing with your children is the best way to help their brains grow, make connections and build critical language skills?
...that reading to your child at least 5 times a week is the best way to set them up for future success in school?
...that investing in early childhood learning is good for everyone in the community? It leads to adults with greater success in life, fewer brushes with crime, higher levels of education and higher incomes.
Our Impact in Education
Thanks to your donations, more than 16,000 local children are receiving Project Ready for School resources.
14% of children receiving books have received a free learning checkup.
Children who love reading will become lifelong readers. 75% of Project Ready for School families surveyed say their children enjoy being read to “very much.”
55% of Project Ready for School families surveyed read their child at least five times per week.
We provided matching funds for PreK classrooms in Hamilton County.
We gave thousands of PreK students in Hamilton and Dade Counties their first dictionary.
Have you been giving to United Way of Greater Chattanooga for 25 years or more? If so, we want to THANK YOU! Please click here and let us know so we can celebrate your generosity!
