United Way of Central Indiana's Ready to Learn,
Ready to Earn priority encompasses strategies that:

• Help young children get ready for school.
• Help school-age children and youth succeed in
  the classroom.
• Help all students graduate from high school and move
  on to postsecondary education and training or work.
• Help to reduce tomorrow's needs.

United Way of Central Indiana has programs, tools and initiatives that focus on early childhood development and elementary education.
The time and effort we invest today creates better outcomes for the future. United
Way is reducing tomorrow’s community needs by helping kids be ready to learn in
school and ready to earn after graduation.

   
Early childhood development

Success By 6

United Way’s Success By 6 works to ensure that all children from birth to age 6 have the positive and enriching experiences needed to begin kindergarten ready to succeed. Specific programs include:

• Born Learning
  United Way’s Born Learning provides parents and caregivers with the tools to promote early learning and turn everyday moments into teachable moments. When parents teach the things they see every day – colors, shapes, numbers – they’re preparing their children for school and readying them for a lifetime of learning.
• Early Readers Club
  The Early Readers Club provides high-quality books to children from birth to age 6. Families may register to receive 12 books per year until the child’s 6th birthday, providing countless opportunities to read together. Early Readers Club currently serves Boone, Hancock, Hendricks, Marion and Morgan counties.
• Kindergarten readiness
  United Way’s high-impact program helps preschool programs improve their curriculums and facilities, shows parents how to become their children’s first teachers, and encourages timely kindergarten enrollment. United Way currently focuses on Martindale-Brightwood and the Near Eastside, two Indianapolis neighborhoods with significant need.

 
Elementary education

• BackPack Attack
  When children don’t have adequate school supplies, they’re not able to fully participate in class and their chances of falling behind increase. The annual BackPack Attack drive collects school supplies for children in IPS as well as other schools in Marion, Hancock and Hendricks counties. Since 1999, we’ve collected more than 1.7 million school supplies for kids in need. BackPack Attack is a collaboration of The Children’s Museum, Indiana Members Credit Union, IPS, IUPUI, United Way of Central Indiana, UPS and YMCA of Greater Indianapolis.
• Bridges to Success
  Bridges to Success is a partnership between United Way and IPS that seeks to increase student academic achievement by increasing coordination of consistent, high-quality programs and services to IPS children and families and increasing community resources in schools.
• Mentoring
  Children who don’t have positive role models often see school as an uphill battle. Research shows that mentoring leads to success in the classroom and improvements in kids’ social and emotional development. United Way supports programs that recruit, screen, train and supervise mentors, matching them with IPS students in Martindale-Brightwood and the Near Eastside.
• ReadUP
  Children who can’t read are more likely to drop out. Through ReadUP, a collaboration between United Way and IPS, volunteer reading tutors can directly impact children’s academic success. ReadUP tutors spend one hour each week (or every other week, if they’re working with a partner) working with IPS fourth-graders who need help the most.
• School-based healthcare
  Illnesses and absences cause disruptions to children’s learning and to the classroom environment. United Way of Central Indiana is expanding health services to four IPS in Martindale-Brightwood and the Near Eastside to provide preventative and primary care to hundreds of students.