What is Success By 6?
United Way of West Georgia's Success By 6 is people in business, government, labor, education and health & human services agencies working together to make sure kids get what they need to succeed.

The common goal is to create a community where all children, by the age of six, have the mental, physical, social and emotional foundation to grow into healthy, productive members of the community.

Success By 6 accomplishes its goals by focusing on the community's energy and resources on four areas:

1. The promotion of quality and early literacy.

2. Parent awareness and education.

3. Community awareness and engagement.

4. Public policy

Children and teachers at the LaGrange Child Development Center during the June 2007 Summer Play program.

Why should I care about children's development?
If we don't take action now, we will continue to create a permanent segment of society who cannot participate fully in community life.

We all will face:

- Higher taxes to support programs for people who are dependent.

- An increase in crime, less personal safety.

- A decline in America's ability to compete in the world economy.

- A lower standard of living. 

Georgia's children are in crisis
And it affects you, our economy, and the long-term future of our state and nation.

Did you know:
- 35% of children in Georgia live in home where parents have NO full-time, year-round employment.

- 21% of children in Georgia live in poverty.

- 34% of children in Georgia live in single parent households.

- 29% of children from low income families are at risk of developmental delays (ages 1-5).

- Children from poverty-level families typically enter kindergarten with a vocabulary 85% smaller than needed to be successful.

- Children who start behind, stay behind.

What's the crisis our children and Georgia face?
Children are not developing the physical, emotional, imaginative and intellectual skills they need to become successful adults.

Research shows if children do not develop properly when they are young, they are more likely to drop out of school, go to jail, become a teen parent and/or live on welfare.

Early learning is critical
Research proves that high-quality early learning matters. Experts say prevention is better than intervention, and starting early works best.

Here are some of the reasons early learning is critical:

Brain research has shown that nurturing in the earliest years is crucial for emotional and social, as well as intellectual development. While research shows that people continue to learn throughout life, there is no doubt that the earliest years are those of great growth. . . the first years of life do not dictate what a child will become, but they do lay the foundation for educational and life success.

Nurturing responsive, and individualized interactions build healthy brains that provide a strong foundation for future growth and development.

When adults verbally act with young children - talking, singing and playing rhyming games - they stimulate language and vocabulary development, building important foundations for learning to read.

Reading ability depends more on learning activities in the home than does math or science. Studies of individual families show that what they do to support literacy in the home is more important to student success than family income or education.

What's the difference between Success By 6 and Bornlearning?
One supports the other.

SB6 is United Way's early learning community impact initiative that helps prepare our youngest children for learning when they get to school. Local and state SB6s pursue multiple strategies - including public awareness, parent education, increasing quality child care, and increasing access to services (like health care and literacy) - to galvanize communities to help young children come to school ready to succeed. SB6 is the nation's largest network of early childhood coalitions.

Bornlearning is not a brand, program, initiative or PSA campaign. It is a public engagement toolkit available entirely through BornLearning.org, created to help any United Way - with or without a SB6 - raise awareness about early learning, help educate parents and caregivers, and build public will for early learning policy and action. It has three components to support community engagement:

1. Awareness... through the PSAs developed by United Way's partner, the Ad Council.

2. Education... through parent and caregiver educational material developed by our partner, Civatas.

3. Action... through community action tools, tips and templates created by United Way's Success By 6 and our partner, Families and Work Institute.  
                                                                                                                                                      


Click below to view a SB6 slideshow