Achieving Results

Early Childhood Development is the Foundation of a Prosperous Community

Children need a strong start and a solid education to grow to be capable adults.  When children don’t reach certain early benchmarks, their likelihood of succeeding in life can fade to the point where they never recover.  Multiplied across a region, the stumbling blocks of individual children become the setbacks of an entire community.

People who care, like the members of the Women’s Leadership Initiative, are working with United Way to bring sustained and lasting improvements to our area's children.

When you join the Women's Leadership Initiative, you'll become a part of the movement that is elevating our community's future by supporting its children today!

United Way's Approach

United Way is the area's expert on researching the needs of the community.  It monitors and reports on indicators of healthy development (like the quality of available childcare or home environments). 
United Way funds programs and supports initiatives that are proven - through measureable outcomes - to provide the greatest impact on these key areas. 

And, United Way enlists the power of caring individuals to add their talent, resources, and advocacy to support this fundamental work.  That's how the Women's Leadership Initiative and United Way achieve results!

Last year, United Way supported programs that:

Provided over 3,600 children with quality child care and/or home visiting services

• Enlisted 39 childcare centers to participate in the Virginia Star quality rating and improvement mentoring program.

• Helped over 1,300 children improve their grades and increase their attendance.

The literacy skill scores of Kindergarten students (as measured by PALS) are going up.

• Third Grade SOL reading scores have massively improved.
• Instances of abuse and neglect are going down.
• And fewer teens are giving birth.

 Source: Report on Indicators of Community Strength

These trends reflect the great work of United Way and its partners, who are utilizing the support of caring individuals like you to make this impact.  Still, the effort to improve early childhood development needs more people in the community working to keep this positive momentum going. Please lend your support and join the movement today!

Learn More About:

A Regional Network of Women
Supporting Early Childhood Development
Advocating for the Future
Becoming a Member

For more information about the Women's Leadership Initiative, please contact Beth Tyson - Phone: (804) 771-5826.