United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania

Community Impact

Success Stories

ADVANCING THE COMMON GOOD… EDUCATION for Children

United Way works to advance the common good by targeting its strategies at those critical passages in life that can present opportunities for individuals and families to dramatically increase their chances for long term success. This approach maximizes United Way’s effectiveness, because it allows us to improve lives and communities not just in the short term, and not just on the surface, but in a lasting and meaningful way.

Community Level Goal

Preparing Children for Success in School and in Life

Priority Area

Success By 6

Delaware Valley Association for the Education of Young Children

Our Investment:

Children need a strong foundation of early education experiences from which to grow. However, by not being enrolled in a quality pre-school program so many young children in our community are behind before they even reach kindergarten. United Way is investing in the Delaware Valley Association for the Education of Young Children (DVAEYC) because of their commitment to improving educational opportunities for young children throughout the region.

“United Way has been a long-time advocate of early childhood education. Their investment in our agency is not only a vote of confidence for the work we’ve been doing, but even more it will allow us to achieve greater results by bringing resources to the fingertips of providers and educators for the years to come. United Way believes in our work, and we believe that with their support we can provide more children in our region with the high quality early learning experience they deserve.”

- Sharon Easterling, Executive Director

Results for our Community:

Jacob sits with a small group of children at a table in the center of the classroom focusing on the lump of clay before him. He waits his turn to tell the teacher what he would like to build with the clay, and then calmly sets to work. When Jacob first arrived at pre-school a year ago, a scene like this seemed impossible. His bad tempter and frequent outbursts were disruptive to the class and his teachers were having problems controlling him.

“Many of the children who come to our school have mental health issues. Without the help of DVAEYC our teachers wouldn’t be able to provide them with the extra help they need and by the time they got into kindergarten, they would already be a step behind.”

-Sherry Bohm, Director, Project Rainbow

A Quality Improvement Manager from DVAEYC was able to provide Jacob’s teachers with strategies to combat his anger issues. She taught his teachers that dividing up the classroom into small work stations would provide Jacob with the personal attention he craved. Jacob will be starting kindergarten in the fall, and all of his teachers are confident that he has all the skills he needs to start down the path to future success.

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