Valley Impact

Building Our Youth for the Future

As I referenced in Arizona's Risk: The Early Childhood Education Challenges, the challenges that make up Early Childhood Education and Development are immense.  Over the last year, the Junior League of Phoenix had to decide where we were going to jump in without boiling the ocean or diverging too far from our mission.  We wanted to stay away from quick fixes, yet at the same time find opportunities that weren't bogged down in legislative or policy issues.  We wanted to make an immediate impact.  We have finalized where we are heading over the next fiscal year (May '08-April '09).  I wanted to share the path we are embarking down.

What is our Impact?  We are preparing children to successfully enter kindergarten

How will we do this?  By focusing on improving the quality of early education programs and addressing family literacy

How is the League impacting Early Childhood Education today?  By engaging the minds, muscles and imaginations of children as a founding member of Phoenix's first children's museum - Children's Museum of Phoenix; and by facilitating high quality educational opportunities for low-income families at Phoenix Day, a child learning center.

Where are we looking to expand our programming?

• Increase the use of curriculum based programming in early education centers
• Provide teacher/center director with skills training & resources
• Raise public awareness of what children need to be ready for kindergarten
• Increase parental involvement in educational opportunities
• Improve the quantity and quality of reading with parents at home

In the very near future we will ready a Request for Proposal (RFP) to send out to potential collaborative, resource and financial partners to develop and launch future programming with us.  In the meantime, I welcome any feedback on the areas we have carved out for our focused efforts.   I also welcome any potential partners beginning conversations around where we can join forces.  As Franklin D. Roosevelt said best, "We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future."  I look forward to building our youth together.

Celebrate: Week of the Young Child

April 13th-19th is the official Week of the Young Child. It is sponsored by the National Association for the Educatoin of Young Children (NAEYC).  This is an important week for us to take time to reflect on the state of early childhood education and development.  Research has proven that children who attend quality early education programs enjoy a better quality of life, more likely to graduate high school, attend a 4 year college, hold down higher paying jobs and avoid a life of crime.  What can you do to celebrate the young child and make a difference?

*  Support Literacy in Young Children and families:  Donate books to Southwest Human Development's Reach Out and Read program or better yet, volunteer your time to read for the program.

* Voice your input to your elected officials:  Children's Action Alliance makes it easy for you.  There is a website that tracks legislation that impacts children and allows you to send a note.

* Partner, volunteer or support The Junior League of Phoenix.  You can have a direct impact together with an organization of trained volunteers dedicated to improving the Phoenix community for the past 72 years.

What ways are you celebrating?

Arizona's Risk: The Early Education Challenges

Research shows that from 0 to age 6 is the most important time in a child’s development.    If care and feeding of the child’s development does not occur, then children are at a higher risk for needing remedial reading and delinquent behavior.  The potential future ramifications will be a burden on all citizens of Arizona. Studies have shown that the future issues can cost Arizona taxpayers and impact our economic future.  For every $1 invested in early childhood education, Arizona will save $6 - $17 in future costs. 

Currently Arizona ranks 36^th in overall child well being out of 50 states (Source: Children’s Action Alliance). Arizona kindergarten teachers report that 48% of all children entering school do not have essential skills to succeed (Source: Children’s Action Alliance).  What are the gaps? 

Lack of affordable & accessible healthcare

Currently there are 250,000 children who are uninsured living in Arizona.  Arizona has the highest rate of uninsured children (source: Children’s Action Alliance).  The Pew Charitable Trust notes that it is important for care to begin in the womb.  Prenatal care plus early health care implemented in conjunction with pre-k programs is essential for successfully development of young brains.

Lack of high quality early education opportunities

Only 17% of child care centers in Arizona are NAEYC accredited (Source: AZ Early Education Funds).  This means that high-quality early education opportunities aren’t widely accessible.  In addition, there is limited access to state funded pre-school programs.  Arizona only has 1-9% of four year old children in state funded school programs (Source: Pew Charitable Trust).  Adding to the low availability of high-quality early education is the growing challenge associated with the ability to draw and retain early education teachers and staff that have a strong educational and training background.  Arizona’s early education industry provides little incentive for teachers to remain in the field.  Successfully early education programs adhere to high standards of quality (i.e. accreditation) and employee teachers with bachelor’s degrees with training in early education.

Low levels of Family Literacy

Quality early education and development requires that children are exposed to extensive vocabularies, reading, writing and counting.  This is severely limited if within the family unit, there are low levels of literacy.  In Maricopa County’s Community Vital Signs Report it was highlighted that in particular, Latino children at a higher disadvantage.  Latino children in the greater metropolitan area have a high percentage of parents who have not completed more than 9^th grade and English is not the primary language. Avondale, Buckeye, El Mirage, Gila Bend, Guadalupe, Phoenix, Queen Creek and the Gila River & Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian communities are the most at risk communities. 

What the Junior League of Phoenix is doing

The Junior League of Phoenix has adopted Early Childhood Education as our new focus area.  We are working with community leaders to solidfy program areas we would like to invest within.  In future posts I will be outlining where the Junior League will make an impact.  I would love to hear your thoughts in the state of Early Childhood Education and what can be done to make a difference.  The jlp website has more information too.