World Forum – Global Leaders Conference

November 5, 2012

Investing Early Counts

Investing Counts

Need for engagement of the business community and it’s leadership in early care and education

Bevone Ritchie, Senior Program and Contract Manager Children’s Trust

Gladys Montes, Vice President United Way Center for Excellence

a. In the short term (by end of the project) Increase the number of Early Childhood Development presentations to local business leaders by Global leader and its community partners. Increase global leader involvement/ participation on business industry education committees and boards.  Engage in a high visibility community awareness campaign that brings attention to importance of Early Childhood Development and its workforce. The output would be the button campaign day.

.

What is the goal or outcome you hope to achieve?

b. In the long term (over time)Provide a vehicle to access dedicated source of private funding for Early Childhood Providers. Secure additional financial commitments for local Early Childhood Development organizations.

Educational Round Table 2011

Visit unitedwaymiami.org/WhatWeDo/Education

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=exfjdEeZKtQ

Process Planning and Results

Finding Synergy

• Alignment with a message that impacted the business community

• Fits within policy agenda of advocacy organizations advocating for school readiness

Process Planning and Results

• Synergy (We looked at what other local advocacy organizations were doing and how we could capitalize on all our efforts.)

• To what end (Original thoughts financial, then we focused family friendly business policies.)

Miami grows as a global city and United Way of Miami-Dade evolves as an international philanthropic agent.

Our volunteers, contributors, and citizens urge us to echo our diverse origins and rich heritage by stepping up to an inevitable international platform.

Latin America Initiative

• Juan Cento, FedEx Latin America president and United Way of Miami-Dade Board Member was recruited to chair the newly created Latin American Advisory Council, staffed by United Way of Miami-Dade.

• He recruited 42 Latin American CEOs to join the council.

• The council asked that a “Working Group” be created to look more closely at opportunities and to formalize efforts.

The Latin America Advisory Council

1. Foster collaborative knowledge-based exchanges regarding early childhood.

2. Create multi-national signature projects.

3. Broaden partnerships with international entities.

4. Develop cohesive international efforts.

5. Provide opportunities for corporations to expand in the area of social responsibility.

6.Maximize opportunities for collaborations with other organizations in our community working towards a similar goal.

• United Way of Miami-Dade

• The Children’s Trust

• Early Learning Coalition

• The Children’s Movement

Aspirations

Projects

Short Term Latin America

• Increase community awareness of the importance of the early years

o Born Learning

Miami• Increase parent knowledge

of the importance of the early years

• Parent Training Campaign

Long Term Goal/Signature Project

• Latin America and Miamio Play With a Purpose

Why Blocks?• From Froebel to Piaget, blocks have been recognized

as an important tool in the early education of children.

• Its features allow to adapt to an unlimited number of initiatives.

• They are open-ended educational materials. Blocks are essential in the areas of science and mathematics (eg. concepts related to size, shape and volume).

• Promote thinking in children and the opportunity to share ideas with others.

• The power to create and recreate the world is given to every human being at birth. How we use that gift depends in part on how it developed when we were young. Blocks are the means of creation, are the words we have to tell the story of the world. Without them our hands would be empty.

Update: Project "Play with a Purpose"Each country will decide whether a project with this approach would benefit the population they serve and whether this approach aligns with current initiatives.

•The United Ways will present a regional project to demonstrate the use of blocks in early childhood through a process of Request for Proposal (RFP). Nov. 2 – Nov. 12.

•Projects could include knowledge, awareness, education and distribution of materials.

•Information collected through this process will inform the institutions in the City of the level of funding needed to implement the project.

Update: Project "Play with a Purpose"

•A series of trainings have been developed based on the work of Ingrid Chalufour from the Education Development Center.

• Awareness

• Implementation Plan

• Coaching

• Feed Back

A communitywide initiative with the goal that all children read at or above grade

level by the third grade.

Reading at grade level by the third grade is the leading indicator of school success and high school graduation, but currently one-third of our third graders fail to achieve this critical benchmark. This pivotal year in a child’s life is when kids must make the shift from learning to read to reading to learn.

• School Readiness

o High quality early care and education learning environments give children an early start on being ready to learn

o Message stressed the importance of Early Childhood in impacting 3rd grade reading

• School Attendance/Chronic Absence

• Summer Learning Loss

• Parent/Family Engagement

Key

Areas

How did we get together…• Sought out and gained buy in as a community on the

Read to Learn campaign

• Literacy Summit

• Community workgroups (November 2011- February 2012)

• Literacy Action Plan Summit

• Presentation to Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce

Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce

9/24/12

Advocacy for Family Friendly policy and flexibility in the workplace and community asset building, such as:

•Adopt an early care and education center

•Employee workplace projects

•Volunteer policies and practices for employees

•Hosting brown bag lunches on topics that support the parent/caregiver relationships

Why the Future of Business Depends on Reading

Read to Learn Results

Focused on engaging, training and deploying volunteer “reading pals” in early learning centers and elementary schools to increase the number of students reading at grade level.

Offers both financial investment by the business community (Carol and Barney Barnett owners of Publix) as well as volunteer opportunities for businesses and individuals (led by United Way and The Children’s Movement of Florida)

Read to Learn Results

Focused on engaging, training and deploying volunteer “reading pals” in early learning centers and elementary schools to increase the number of students reading at grade level.

Offers both financial investment by the business community (Carol and Barney Barnett owners of Publix) as well as volunteer opportunities for businesses and individuals (led by United Way and The Children’s Movement of Florida)

Read to Learn Results

Read To Learn Book Club

Provides a free, book every month to every registered three-year old in Miami-Dade County by mail.

Developed by RFP that required 100% match of award supported by Target, Early Learning Coalition, &Healthy Start Coalition