Community Impact Focus Area: Education

2011 Accomplishments

Success by 6

Together with the help of loyal supporters, United Way Capital Area’s Success By 6 (SB6) program accomplished some great things this past year. We’ve helped:

• 3,300 infants and toddlers enjoy quality care, thanks to UWCA training for parents and care givers.
  -UWCA host workshops to educate trainers who work with parents and caregivers on evidence-based training in English and Spanish. This curriculum has been proven to children have less aggrssive behaviors in the classroom and parents and caregivers more effectively problem solve.
• 7,000 young children receive new books
  -UWCA invests in Reach Out and Read, a program that educates families on the importance of developmentally-appropriate books and reading to children. By providing books at regular pediatric checkups, UWCA ensures low-income families can take advantage of the opportunity without added time or travel. Parents served by this program are up to four times more likely to read aloud to their children. The children show significant gains in language and are, on average, six-months developmentally ahead of their peers in preschool.

Middle School Matters

Together with the help of loyal supporters, United Way Capital Area’s Middle School Matters (MSM) program accomplished some great things this past year. We’ve helped:

• 3,000 students access quality after-school programs
  - UWCA engages hundreds of out-of-school time workers through the Youth Program Quality Initiative. The goal of this movement is to improve the quality of youth programs and ensure all out-of-school environments are safe, supportive, interactive, and engaging. UWCA coordinates the assessment and improvement of programs so that all youth receive quality out-of-school care. In the past year, 3,000 students benefited from programs improved through the help of UWCA.
• 2,315 middle school students receive tailored services to help them graduate on-time
  -Through MSM, UWCA is concentrating on three Central Texas middle school campuses to provide students with the wraparound services they need to graduate high school. By coordinating with case management, parent education, mentoring, tutoring, and out-of-school time providers, UWCA delivers a calibrated assortment of supports to positively change the academic climate of Mendez, Webb, and Decker Middle Schools.

Goal: To create opportunities for children and youth to learn, grow, and engage

Perhaps no other “building block” is more essential to future success than a quality education. But sadly, many groups in Central Texas don’t have the same opportunity to learn, thrive, and succeed as others. So United Way Capital Area has made providing educational opportunities to everyone a major priority.

The United Way Strategy

We decided to address educational disparities in two major ways:

1) Make sure that every child in our community is “healthy, happy, and smart” by the time they enter the first grade. We call this initiative “Success By 6.”

2) In order to boost lagging high-school graduation rate, we are focused on middle school students—where many future drop-outs begin to fall behind and where we can make the greatest, longest lasting impact. We call this our “Youth Education” initiative.

Defining Success

United Way is committed to constantly measuring the success of our efforts, because this is about community-wide, long-term change—not just short-term solutions. Here is a small sample of how we intend to determine how well we’re doing: