Quality Child Care

Children learn best in loving, nurturing relationships and through everyday experiences. That hard-wires the brain for future learning, especially in the early years. Whether children are at home, with relatives or friends, or in childcare, the quality of early education is key to later school success.

School Readiness

Children entering kindergarten with skills they need to succeed are more likely to graduate from high school and become productive workers. But almost half of America's kindergarteners are behind – those from low-wage households by two years. Most will not catch up

Academic Completion

With more than 1.2 million children dropping out each year, America faces a dropout crisis. The cost? More than $312 billion in lost wages, taxes and productivity over their lifetimes according to Communities in Schools, one of America's leading drop-out prevention partnerships.) These trends are reversible, but only when communities and public, private and nonprofit sectors work together. United Ways are funding mentoring programs and after-school initiatives, putting volunteers in classrooms and supporting dropout prevention programs.

Our Partners in the Community Focused on Improving Education

Tiffany's Story

Finally Tiffany can breathe a sigh of relief, but this wasn't the case even two months ago. For Tiffany, her three children and her husband, the lack of quality, affordable childcare for infants and toddlers in Indian River County was something they lived with each and every day. About a year ago, Tiffany's life changed when she adopted an orphaned baby boy whose mother had died unexpectedly. This put a strain on the young family who already had one in diapers and one in childcare. For several months, Tiffany's two youngest (ages 1 and 1 1/2 ) sat on the 424 deep waiting list for subsidized infant care. Tiffany's choices were limited -- she needed to continue working to keep food on the table. To keep her two youngest cared for, she had to pay $130 per week, per child for private care while they waited for a slot to open up. This "solution" she says is something that "almost crippled our family." Luckily, Tiffany's oldest was already enrolled in the subsidized childcare program through Childcare Resources which helped further her application and place her two youngest in its childcare program. Within a few months Tiffany's life has gotten a little easier. She says that "people need to know how hard it is and how necessary quality childcare is for kids. What would we have done without Childcare Resources?" Tiffany is just one of the hundreds of parents that find themselves with limited choices, stranded on a waiting list that is too long - waiting for too few spots for infants and toddlers. United Way of Indian River County is focused on giving all families the help they need to raise happy, healthy, successful children. And one of our goals is to make sure working families have access to quality childcare. That's why we support programs like Childcare Resources, because they focus on providing solutions to our communities most pressing problems. Solutions that work.