Kids are always learning. At a time when so many things are new to them, there is opportunity to gain knowledge everywhere! A partnership between Valley of the Sun United Way, Helios, and Arizona Learning Institute brings families and caregivers the Readiness Basket program to make finding these opportunities easy.

Through 14 two-hour bilingual, interactive workshops at various Arizona schools and community sites, parents of children ages 0-5 discuss and are trained on issues critical to parenting and school readiness to help children enter kindergarten ready to learn and succeed. The Readiness Basket program promotes and strengthens the skills of parents as the first teachers for their children.

What makes the Readiness Basket different from other programs is the highly trained facilitators. During the program parents are able to actively discuss concerns about parenting skills, brain development, school readiness, playtime, and other areas with experts and peer parents. A case management support system exists to follow-up after each workshop, which allows individual participants to express their needs for additional services, clarification of training, and possible family goal setting.

Sometimes kids run into struggles with literacy after they’ve started school. Maybe they didn’t have access to books at home or couldn’t receive the one on one attention they needed to work on their reading when they were younger. For these situations United Way partnered with Read Better Be Better (RBBB), a program where 8^th grade students go through a training so they can tutor 3^rd grade readers. It offers 8^th graders a chance to learn about volunteering and gives 3^rd graders a one on one tutor to improve their reading skills. Here are some of the successes of the program:

• 46% of 3rd graders self-report that they now read at home and/or enjoy reading more since their participation in RBBB
• 79% of 3rd graders agree or strongly agree that reading is easier for them than it used to be before participating in RBBB
• 86% of 3rd graders agree or strongly agree that they understand what they read better than they could before participating in RBBB
• 1 in 3 Reading Leaders self-report that they now read at home with younger siblings

“You shouldn’t feel limited because you don’t have resources or because you don’t have the means to pay for an expensive preschool.” – Lucy Pena

Lucy has 3 kids and has participated in RBBB and the Readiness Basket program. See what a difference that made in her kids’ lives.

United Way is proud to be a part of improving literacy to ensure kids succeed in Maricopa County. You can be a part of it too and break the cycle of poverty with your donation. Click below to join the fight for kids.

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