United Way is working every day to improve lives and build stronger communities across the region through our Agenda for Change, which represents feedback from over 6,500 tri-county residents and extensive research. The agenda targets Educational Preparedness, Financial Stability and Basic Needs, and will be fully implemented in July 2008.

Preparing Children to Succeed
Children and youth need to be prepared for life, work and postsecondary education, and we will accomplish this by helping to make sure more:

• Children enter school ready to learn
• Students consistently read at grade level
• Youth stay in school

Why We’re Taking Action
According to the 2006 MEAP Reading Test results, 33,000 tri-county 3rd through 6th graders failed to read at grade level. Nationally, 46 percent of children come to school unprepared to succeed. The American Library Association says there is a nearly 90 percent probability that a poor reader in first grade will remain a poor reader at the end of the fourth grade, and that a grasp of letters upon entry into kindergarten is a strong predictor of reading ability in 10th grade. Metro Detroit ranked third from the bottom among the top 20 metro areas nationwide in the number of college graduates among its residents.

Individual and community levels of academic attainment are one of the single-most critical predictors of personal health, life expectancy, potential earnings, crime rates and civic participation.Unless more people complete school prepared to succeed in the workforce, southeast Michigan will be unable to compete in the global economy.

Our Plan
Through Operation ABC™, Success by 6®, Born Learning, the Women’s Initiative and other programs we help ensure that all children across the region experience quality early learning and development opportunities. That work is further supported by the Virgil H. Carr School Attendance Initiative, Metro Detroit’s Promise and other Keeping Kids on Track activities, which engage youth in positive activities and provide the support they need to succeed academically and socially.

Producing Results
Success by 6® has increased the number of licensed childcare slots available to area children from 2,461 to 3,134, and the number of nationally accredited slots from 200 to 757. Success by 6 has also provided parenting classes, support and home visits to 6,500 area families, and its Children’s Early Literacy Imagination Library effort registered nearly 600 children in its book-a- month program in just four months.

The Women’s Initiative Early Childhood Literacy Program has provided over 200 area families with literacy training in their homes. As a result, 57 percent of the preschoolers involved are better able to recognize letters, 61 percent have substantially improved their awareness of printed materials and 43 percent more are asking parents to read to them every day.

Thanks to the Virgil H. Carr School Attendance Initiative, 346 students (grades K-8) from 12 area schools, and their families, are receiving the support necessary to increase poor school attendance rates. More than 140 students improved their attendance records during the first monitored reporting period, resulting in a total of 692 more days spent in school.

We are partnering with five other civic organizations in One D: Transforming Regional Detroit to make the region stronger and more vibrant. United Way is leading the collaborative’s educational preparedness activities.