Transcript United Way of Anderson County Success By 6

United Way of Anderson County
Success By 6
WHAT IS
?
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Our Mission:
Success By 6 will strive to ensure that
every child enters school ready to succeed
by promoting positive
early childhood development opportunities.
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Some South Carolina statistics:
 7% of our population is age 0 – 5 years.
 62% of pre-school children are in child care.
 South Carolina ranks 46th out of 50 States 10
measures of children’s success.
(Per Annie E. Casey Foundation report, KIDS COUNT 2007)
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WHY IS THIS
IMPORTANT?
SCIENCE, and RETURN ON INVESTMENT
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What Matters: Improving People’s Lives
Success in Life
Job Readiness
Success in School
Quality Early Learning
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Why know about the brain?
• Enhances our understanding of child development and
developmentally-appropriate practice.
• We influence it: experience literally reshapes the brain, which
neuroscientists call “plasticity.”
• Long-lasting effects:
there really are critical
periods in brain
development.
• Legitimizes investment
in early childhood.
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Plasticity
• Genes and the environment interact (about 50/50)
throughout development to shape the brain and mind.
• Brain structure is permanently altered by experience in an
“activity-dependent” manner:
• “Cells that fire together, wire together.”
• “Use it or lose it.”
• This plasticity is present throughout life, but it is especially
strong in childhood.
• Critical periods correspond to phases of synaptic
exuberance.
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Synapse Development
Synapses:
• 50 trillion at birth
• 1000 trillion at 1 year
• Pruned in adolescence
• 500 trillion at 20 years
Synapses are created at an astonishing speed in the first three
years of life. Until they are about 10 years old, children’s brains
have twice as many synapses as adults’ brains.
Upstate Alliance
June 20, 2007
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Most brain growth is postnatal
Brain weight (grams)
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
conception. birth 1
2
3
5
10 20+
Age (years)
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Windows of Opportunity:
Optimum Times for Learning
Years
•Pre •0
•1
•2 •3 •4
•Motor Development
•Emotional Development
•Vocabulary
•Math/Logic
•Music
•Vision
•Social Attachment
•Language
Adapted from The National Center for Family Literacy 1998 Video,
Small Wonders: Early Brain Development.
Upstate Alliance
June 20, 2007
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Economic Development
“Early Childhood Development Programs are
rarely portrayed as economic development
initiatives, and … that is a mistake.”
–
Arthur J. Rolnick, SVP Director of Research, Federal
Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
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STUDIES of RETURN ON INVESTMENT
PERRY/HIGH SCOPE
17:1 ROI
(Longest running longitudinal study)
ABCEDARIAN
7:1 ROI
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Investing in Early Care and
Education Yields a High Return
• Every dollar invested in high quality pre-kindergarten
accompanied with intensive family assistance saves up to $17 in
future government expenditures by:
 Reduced Arrest Rate
Decreased Prison Costs
 Increased Employment
Increased Home Ownership
 Reduced Cost of Remedial Education
Increase in High School Graduation
Perry Preschool Study
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Research Proves It:
Quality Early Learning Matters
Quality Development
REDUCES
Crime Rates
Teenage Pregnancy
Quality Development
INCREASES
Welfare Dependency
Success in School
Job Training Costs
Graduation Rates
Special Education Cost
Workforce Readiness
Grade Repetition
Job Productivity
Community
Engagement
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Return on Investment
A publicly financed, comprehensive ECD program
for all children from low-income families would cost
billions of dollars annually, but would create much
larger budget savings over time:
• positive ROI by year 17
• after 25 years positive annual ROI - $31 B
• after 45 years positive annual ROI - $61 B
Robert G Lynch,
Economic Policy Institute
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Return
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Spending
Upstate Alliance
June 20, 2007
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NC Statewide Child Care Industry
Economic Impact
•Total economic impact of nearly $7.5 billion
•GrossWHY
receipts DO
in excess
of $1.5
billion
YOU
CARE?
•Employees over 46,000 tax payers
–Child Care workforce earns over $704 million
–Pays over $140 million in taxes
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Economic Impact in Anderson County
Number of centers/groups/homes = 132
Number of child care slots = 6,417
Estimated Receipts = $25,000,000
Estimated Number of Employees = 600
Estimated Earnings = $9,000,000
Estimated Taxes Paid = $1,800,000
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Costs/Benefits to Industry - Current
Employees without access to reliable child care
result in higher costs to employers.
Absenteeism
Turnover
Retraining
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Costs/Benefits to Industry - Future
Investment in early childhood education is
related to future workforce development.
*1998-1999 State Department of Education Special Survey
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WHAT ARE WE DOING?
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Success By 6 Initiatives
LITERACY – book distribution
QUALITY CARE – mini-grants; training
ADVOCACY – childcare standards; quality ratings
OUTREACH and EDUCATION – Cat in the Hat; annual
conference; health and community fairs; presentations to
business community
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LITERACY
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Literacy Efforts
Distributed 28,000 free,
age-appropriate books
to young children
and their families.
(since Jan 2006)
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“Today a reader, tomorrow a
leader”.
Margaret Fuller
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QUALITY CARE
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Quality Care Efforts
Provided almost 70 hours of state-approved
training to over 500 childcare providers.
(since Jan 2006)
Distributed $10,000 in mini-grants to childcare
providers for curriculum and facility
improvements.
(since Jan 2006)
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ADVOCACY
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2005/2007 Advocacy Efforts
South Carolina
• Full day 4 year-old kindergarten for all at-risk children
• Quality Rating System (QRS) –
Mandate for system and implementation plan
• Child Care Licensing
- Administration
- Regulations
Federal
• Head Start
Fought reduction in funding for proven, effective intervention
program
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Upstate Alliance
June 20, 2007
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OUTREACH &
EDUCATION
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Sponsor region-wide events to educate
our community about the
overwhelming evidence of the
importance of quality early care
and education.
Attend numerous health, church and
neighborhood fairs to educate and support
families in providing optimal early childhood
environments for their young children.
Participate in a tri-county ECE collaborative.
Visit classrooms as the Cat in the Hat to
promote early literacy.
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WHAT CAN YOU DO?
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Recommendations
 Incorporate high quality early learning experiences into your county’s
or city’s economic development plan.
 Be aware that at the request of the South Carolina General Assembly,
a 20 member task force is evaluating Early Childhood Quality
Standards.
 Give consumers the means, and economic incentives, to differentiate
between child care options.
 Link South Carolina tax incentives to improvements in the availability
of high quality child care.
 Encourage all public and private entities that fund child care and early
education to focus on strengthening the quality of the current child
care industry.
 Increase access to capital to help existing child care programs
improve the quality of their facility and program.
 Talk to your local Success By 6, First Steps or CCR&R partner in your
community for immediate, local opportunities.
Upstate Alliance
June 20, 2007
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Options for getting involved locally…
HERE’S WHAT YOU CAN DO:
 Read with a child.
 Volunteer at a childcare center.
 Offer employees child care assistance, or sponsor workplace
trainings.
 Distribute Success By 6 materials.
 Adopt or open a child care center
 Ask elected officials to support legislation that helps families and
children.
 Volunteer with Success By 6.
 Support United Way and its partners.
 Log onto www.bornlearning.org for more ideas.
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Thank you!
United Way of Anderson County
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