Did you know that the first 2,000 days of every person’s life are foundational? Studies show that a child’s experiences during those early years literally build the architecture of their brain. Making the most of every child’s 2,000-day journey from birth to Kindergarten is essential, and we know that all families can use support along the way to do this. Research proves that having at least 20 age-appropriate books in the home can improve a child’s educational success, and the Success By 6 ATX Coalition (SX6) is making bold moves to provide those 20-books to all families in ATX! United Ways of Texas recently helped us make headway on this goal by granting United Way ATX with an OMG Book Award! Together, with SX6 Coalition partner BookSpring we distributed 16,899 books to thousands of families in Austin/Travis County utilizing this grant! “Ninety percent of brain development happens within the 2,000 days from birth to Kindergarten, so an early childhood full of rich experiences is essential for happy, healthy children who are ready to succeed in school and in life.” – Cathy McHorse, VP of Success By 6. Today in Austin 34,000 children under six in Travis County live in households with low income, and 61% of those children do not enter Kindergarten ready for school. In 2019 our coalition launched version three of a strategic plan aimed at slashing that statistic. With our coalitions bold goal to ensure that all children in Austin/Travis County enter Kindergarten ready to succeed we […]
Read MoreFall Day of Caring 2015
Our annual Fall Day of Caring took place last week on September 11th, in conjunction with the National Day of Service and Remembrance. We could not think of a better way to remember this day than by giving back to our community, and neither could the hundreds of volunteers who joined us. This year, volunteers gave back what equates to more than $80,000 worth of work in just one day! More than 1,000 volunteers spent the day giving back at 40 projects across the city, including gardening projects, clean ups, assembling materials for our programs and sprucing up afterschool and Pre-K sites. Many of the volunteers came from our corporate partners, who utilized the day to not only give back but as a great opportunity for team-building. Team members from GM and UPS assembled materials for our Play To Learn program and loaded tablets for low-income families with educational apps and parent resources. Austin Coca-Cola assisted our funded partner BookSpring with sorting books. Rockwell Automation, PBK Architects, Aspen Heights, Build-a-Sign and Liquidation Channel teamed up to prep Creative Action for their variety of youth programs. Freescale employees worked on a variety of projects at Girlstart, the Empty Bowl Project and the Capital Area Food Bank. Farmers Insurance worked at Blackland Community Development Corporation. UWATX’s Women’s Leadership Council, a group of our most invested women donors dedicated to our early childhood education work, spent the day at El Buen Pastor organizing the resource room. JE Dunn and Advisory Board Company worked on improving the playground […]
Read MoreInternational Literacy Day 2015
Did you know that children growing up in homes with at least 20 books get three years more schooling than children from bookless homes, independent of their parents’ education, occupation and class? Today (September 8th) is International Literacy Day, and we are taking the opportunity to stress the importance of beginning to teach your children to read as soon as possible. Here are some classroom/home activities you can take part in while celebrating International Literacy Day, provided by internationalliteracyday.org: Scavenger Hunt Create a scavenger hunt where the answers are found in a book. This keeps your child active, engaged and critically thinking while making a game out of learning. Read-a-thon Encourage children to read as many books as possible within a certain time period (a day, a week, a month, etc.). Help them to track the books they are reading and monitor their progress on a chart to show how much they’ve read over time. Book Sale/Exchange Have any old books you want to toss out? Host a book sale/exchange at your school, or even in your driveway à la garage sale. This is an inexpensive way to not only find new books for your child to love, but spread the love of reading to even more children in your community. Writing Competition Host a writing competition within your family and provide a special theme. You can even make it more challenging by developing a list of required vocabulary words to include in the story. First prize? A trip to your local bookstore! Character Dress Up […]
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