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Phoenix, AZ – December 6, 2021 – In collaboration with Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education, and media company, and the Yale Child Study Center + Scholastic Collaborative for Child & Family Resilience, Valley of the Sun United Way recently released the School Success Kit, a collection of social-emotional learning resources for families to support their children’s development. At a time when learning opportunities have been disrupted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, these research-based kits, created for families of kindergarteners and first graders, will help to foster family engagement, support social-emotional and academic learning, and build resilience.
Inspired by the success of Scholastic’s School Readiness Kits designed to help prepare students and their families for preschool and kindergarten, the School Success Kit provides families with a tote bag packed with more than 70 engaging activities, available in English and Spanish, to support students’ learning and skill building across key academic content areas. The School Success Kit includes a bilingual family guide with milestones and activities to strengthen literacy skills and guidance for parents on how to communicate with their children’s teachers to form strong partnerships with schools. The kit also includes a student journal to encourage self-expression through drawing and writing, three bilingual picture books, digital songs, bookplates to foster a sense of book ownership, and more.
“While there is no such thing as an ‘easy year’ when it comes to raising or educating children, I think we can all agree these past few years have been especially challenging,” said Dawn Gerundo, Community Development Director at Valley of the Sun United Way. “We began building this tool before COVID-19 because we know the importance of providing resources that parents can use with their children. COVID has just made these tools more important than ever.”
“The School Success Kit is such a powerful tool for helping all families support their children’s social-emotional and academic growth,” added Karen Baicker, Executive Director of the Yale Child Study Center + Scholastic Collaborative for Child & Family Resilience, and Publisher for Family and Community Engagement at Scholastic. “Now more than ever, it’s critical we provide as much support as possible to families who are guiding their young children through school. Stories, increased opportunities for literacy, and strong school-family partnerships go a long way in fostering the resilience children and families need to have a successful school year and lifelong learning journey.”
The kits are available for purchase on the Scholastic Teacher Store Online for educators, the Scholastic Store Online for families, the Scholastic FACE Member store, and Scholastic Literacy Partnerships store, for $39.99. A portion of the proceeds benefit Valley of the Sun United Way. Volunteers at Valley of the Sun United Way will be assembling kits to donate as part of their MC2026 efforts, the organization’s five-year plan for creating Mighty Change in Maricopa County, which includes a focus on increasing literacy and education success.
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About Valley of the Sun United Way
Valley of the Sun United Way in Phoenix, Arizona, envisions a community where every child, family and individual is healthy, has a safe place to live, and has every opportunity to succeed in school, in life and in work. As we work with our community, corporate and nonprofit partners to implement MC2026, our five-year plan for Mighty Change, we will put all of our efforts toward reaching bold goals for Maricopa County in Health, Housing and Homelessness, Education and Workforce Development. We invite you to join us. www.vsuw.org
About Scholastic
For more than 100 years, Scholastic Corporation (NASDAQ: SCHL) has been encouraging the personal and intellectual growth of all children, beginning with literacy. Having earned a reputation as a trusted partner to educators and families, Scholastic is the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books, a leading provider of literacy curriculum, professional services, and classroom magazines, and a producer of educational and entertaining children's media. The Company creates and distributes bestselling books and e-books, print and technology-based learning programs for pre-K to grade 12, and other products and services that support children's learning and literacy, both in school and at home. With 15 international operations and exports to 165 countries, Scholastic makes quality, affordable books available to all children around the world through school-based book clubs and book fairs, classroom libraries, school and public libraries, retail, and online. Learn more at www.scholastic.com.
Media Contacts
Jennifer Franklin, jfranklin@vsuw.org, 602-558-5215
Stephanie Agresti, sagresti@scholastic.com, 212-343-7819
