Vision Statement
Every child, from birth to adulthood, is valued and supported. Resources are maximized to support the development of our children and youth as contributing members of the community.
Priority Issue Areas 2006 - 2011
Enhance and Promote Quality Child Care.
- Provide and promote quality training for child care teachers (in-home and center teachers).
- Provide and assess child care environments (day care; at-home, etc.)
- Provide special child care - sick child care, child care for 2nd and 3rd shifts, and child care for children with special needs.
- Provide families with access to affordable quality child care.
- Improve the vocabulary and language skills of children early in their development.
Promote Community and Corporate Awareness on the Importance of Birth-to-Five Education and the Economic Impact of School Readiness on the Community.
- Promote awareness on the importance of birth-to-five education.
- Promote corporate awareness on the positive economic impact of supporting school readiness.
- Promote the use of standardized materials and best practices.
- Enhance early intervention through standard comprehensive screening.
Enhance Parenting Skills.
- Enhance parental understanding and education on early childhood development.
- Enhance family support for children and youth through outreach to targeted at-risk populations.
- Improve the vocabulary and language skills of children early in their development.
Provide Positive Youth Development and Youth Activities.
- Promote awareness of cultural differences and diversity-related issues through outreach to all children and youth.
- Promote positive youth development through outreach to targeted at-risk youth populations.
Improve Mental Health of Children and Youth.
- Improve emotional and behavioral skills in young children.
The Early Language and Literacy Initiative
United Way Fox Cities’ Developing Children and Youth Impact Area completed a two-year study on a variety of issues affecting children and youth in the Fox Cities. As a result, the impact area identified the importance of focusing on early childhood development and school readiness, specifically pertaining to language and literacy skills and emotional and social skills in children.
The Early Language and Literacy Initiative (ELLI), developed in partnership with Child Care Resource & Referral, addresses the need for improved language and literacy practices, high quality preschool literacy environments, qualified child care staff who understand and model best practices in early language and literacy, high quality oral language development, and the formation and development of early childhood leadership.
- The first pilot was launched in 2007 at 3 local child care centers for a total of 18 rooms, completed during the first part of 2009.
- ELLI involved 50 child care staff who participated in 14 trainings and mentoring, impacting about 240 children enrolled at these centers.
- Overall, the three centers improved their environments by 57%, based on increasing average scores of 3.7 to 5.8 on a 7-point scale.
- Teacher interactions with children demonstrate a 40% improvement based on a change in the total average scores from 4.5 to 6.3 on a 7-point scale.
- All of the child care teachers reported improving their knowledge of early child brain development.
- 91% of infants and toddlers and 97% of preschool children demonstrated improvement in at least one developmental step on the child assessment.
- The centers’ language and literacy environment and activity scores improved 111% based on increased literacy scores from an average of 15.3 out of 36 to final average of 32.3 out of 36.
Impact Area Meetings
The Impact Area meets the third Thursday of the month, from 7:30 am to 9:00 am. If interested in volunteering for this Impact Area, please contact Rhonda Hannemann, United Way Fox Cities at 920-954-7210 or rhonda.hannemann@unitedwayfoxcities.org.
