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Vision
To provide unduplicated collaboration of efforts focused on ensuring that all Marion County children birth through age 6 enter school ready to learn. This will be accomplished by focusing on the importance of early communication as well as dental health and hygiene.
Mission
Success By 6 is a community-wide initiative of United Way of Marion County, focused on bringing together volunteers and resources from business, government, non-profits, and the community to increase the awareness of the needs of children, ages 0 to 6, and their families as a top priority.
Why did we choose early communication as a focus?
The Success by 6 Leadership Council was intrigued by the findings of two researchers who wrote a book called, "Meaningful Differences in the Lives of Young Children" by Berry Hart and Todd R. Risley. A subcommittee was appointed to investigate the book, its findings and how they could be applied to Marion County. They reported these statistics:
q Verbal communication (the number of words a young child hears when they're at home) may be the most important predictor of a child;s future learning success.
q The difference in the amount of verbal stimulation received by children of poor families and those of the middle class is roughly 30 million (over the course of birth to age 3). This is termed, The 30-Million-Word-Gap.
q They found they could easily increase the size of the children's vocabularies by teaching them new words. But they could not accelerate the rate of vocabulary growth so that it would continue beyond direct teaching; they could not change the developmental trajectory. (Hart / Risley)
q 11 to 18 month-old children of professionals heard 642 utterances an hour (482 of those addressed directly to the children.) Children of welfare parents heard an average of 394 utterances per hour with only 197 of those addressed directly to the child.
q The children of professional parents heard more words of encouragement than the children of working-class families. The children of working-class parents heard more positive words than children of welfare families.
With these findings, we are setting about to establish a work plan to address the importance of early communication by working with new moms, soon-to-be-moms, church groups, hospitals and more. The working name of this project is, Beyond Baby Talk.
Primary Focuses for Program Year 2006-07:
Powerful Parenting
The Powerful Parenting Program is designed to provide parents of children ages birth through six years with resources, tools, information and positive parenting skills to enhance their parenting skills. The goal is to increase their children's school readiness skills and instill the philosophy that the parent is the child's first teacher. The project is delivered in the workplace setting during lunch periods or designated before and after work times. Parent education materials are also available for distribution to individuals, groups and businesses.
RAPP - Relatives as Parents Program
In partnership with the Marion County Public Library, Success By 6 will provide training and parent resource materials to participants in RAPP. RAPP addresses the growing numbers of grandparents (and other relatives) who have become the primary caregivers for their grandchildren. RAPP sessions include networking, community resources, activities addressing time and stress management, and adult-and-children time together. RAPP is funded through a grant from the Brookdale Foundation and is administered by the Marion County Public Library.
FACT Initiative - Families and Children Together
The FACT Initiative is designed to allow the Success By 6 Coordinator to participate in partnership with the Marion County Public Library as facilitator at the RAPP meetings, as well as providing learning and resource materials as necessary and participating in quarterly
How Can You Help?
Parents:
- Receive prenatal care.
- Use a car seat properly.
- Don't let children under 12 ride in the front seat.
- Quit smoking.
- Read, talk and explore with your child.
Employers:
- Hold Powerful Parenting training at your workplace.
- Be "Family Friendly" by offering flex time, daycare reimbursement, or on-site day care.
Civic Organizations:
- Educate your members on the needs of young children.
- Hold a book drive.
- Adopt a child care center.
- Call Success By 6 Speaker's Bureau.
We work closely with Marion County's elected officials to provide them with statistics and facts they need to help pass legislation to protect and help our children 0-6. Visit our list of partners.
The Success By 6 Coordinator is available for speaking engagements and training for your staff or any interested group. Parent education materials are available through the Early Learning Coalition office. For more information, please call (352) 369-2315 or visit www.elc-marion.org.
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