United Way of Anderson County Success By 6

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United Way of Anderson CountySuccess By 6
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WHAT IS
?
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Our MissionSuccess By 6 will strive to ensure
thatevery child enters school ready to
succeedby promoting positiveearly 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 childrens 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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• Success in Life
• Job Readiness
• Success in School
• Quality Early Learning

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Why know about the brain?
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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, childrens brains have twice
as many synapses as adults brains.
Upstate Alliance June 20, 2007
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Most brain growth is postnatal
1400
1200
1000
Brain weight (grams)
800
600
400
200
conception.
birth
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2
3
5
10
20
Age (years)
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Windows of Opportunity Optimum Times for
Learning
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 171 ROI
• (Longest running longitudinal study)
• ABCEDARIAN 71 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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Quality Development REDUCES Crime Rates Teenage
Pregnancy Welfare Dependency Job Training Costs
Special Education Cost Grade Repetition
Quality Development INCREASES Success in
School Graduation Rates Workforce Readiness 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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WHY DO YOU CARE?

• NC Statewide Child Care Industry Economic Impact
• Total economic impact of nearly 7.5 billion
• Gross receipts in excess of 1.5 billion
• 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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Distributed 28,000 free, age-appropriate books
to young children and their families.(since
Jan 2006)
Literacy Efforts
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Today a reader, tomorrow a leader. Marga
ret Fuller

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QUALITY CARE
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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)
Quality Care Efforts
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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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Participate in a tri-county ECE collaborative.
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.
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 countys or citys
  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
  CCRR partner in your community for
  immediate, local opportunities.

Upstate Alliance June 20, 2007
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Options for getting involved locally

• HERES 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