2015 UWCNCT Where We've Been Where We're Going

United Way’s Progress and Our Community’s Future Where We’ve Been In 2008, United Way of Central and Northeastern Connecticut committed to accomplishing a set of goals for children and families in our community. We’ve made progress, but there is more work to be done. Based on research, work groups, discussions with community members, and our own experience of success, our United Way has identified opportunities to deliver greater, longerlasting benefits to children and families throughout our region.

The following represents our previous education and financial-security goals, the progress we made, and the opportunities we’ve identified for even greater success in our community:

Our Goals

Our Results

1

Increase the number of children who reach developmental milestones necessary for kindergarten.

Between 2008-2014, we more than tripled the number of children in United Way-supported programs — from 850 to 2,560 — who achieved critical milestones.

2

Increase the number of children who improve academic skills.

Between 2008-2014, the number of children whose academic performance improved increased from 2,000 to 3,165 with a consistent achievement rate of roughly 80%.

3

Increase the number of people who are financally secure.

With assistance from United Way-supported programs and initiatives, more than 28,000 people were connected to resources like childcare subsidies, public health care, and rental assistance programs to help make ends meet between 2008-2014.

Additionally, more than $150 million has been returned to more than 56,000 tax filers in our community through United Way-supported free tax-preparation services since the 2008 tax season.

Where We’re Going United Way is a champion for working families.

United Way brings people together to solve community problems and connect the essential building blocks of education, financial security and health while providing access to basic needs, such as food and shelter to build a strong foundation for families.

Moving Forward, We’re Focusing On Ensuring...

1 4th-Graders Read at Grade-Level We’ll do this by...

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Connecting children from pre-k to grade 3 with quality opportunities to develop reading skills.

Identifying and addressing challenges with reading skills as they emerge.

Supporting a coordinated community-wide system for early reading skill development.

Why It Matters Children learn to read up to age 8 and are expected to read to learn after that. If this critical benchmark isn’t met, it has implications for success or failure in high school.

The Facts • • • •

Children who are not able to read proficiently by the end of third grade are four to six times more likely not to graduate high school on time.

For every 50 children who don’t learn to read in kindergarten, 44 will still have trouble in third grade.

Children from lower-income families are more likely to enter school lacking skills necessary to succeed than their higher-income peers.

Low grades and high absenteeism rates by third grade are predictors of high school dropouts.

2 9th-Graders Are On-Track for On-Time Graduation We’ll do this by...

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Providing effective supports and opportunities for academic skill development.

Early identification of academically-struggling students.

Supporting a coordinated community-wide system for academic skill development.

Why It Matters Middle School is an active period of brain growth and development; it’s also a time when many students disengage from academics. Students with the greatest academic decline are most likely to drop out.

The Facts • • • •

Middle-grade students who are held back are seven times more likely to drop out.

80% of students who repeat a class more than once are more likely to drop out as well.

High school graduates have average lifetime earnings of $1.2 million, approximately $260,000 more than a drop out.

Other consequences of high school dropouts include higher rates of incarceration, poor health, increased public supports and decreased tax contribution.

3 Adults and Families Become Financially Secure We’ll do this by...

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Helping adults get on a path to family-sustaining employment.

Providing adults with financial management resources and tools.

Connecting adults and families to income supports.

Why It Matters While working to make ends meet, many local households are forced to make difficult choices, such as foregoing preventative care, accredited child care, healthy food or insurance. These households are ALICE, a United Way-coined acronym meaning Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed, and the tough choices ALICE households face limit their opportunities to succeed. The success of children and adults in ALICE households is critical to our entire community’s success. We all win when children succeed in school, families are financially-secure, and everyone has immediate emergency access to basic needs like food and shelter.

The Facts • • •

One in four households in our community are ALICE, living above the Federal Poverty Level, but struggling to afford life’s basic necessities.

In our community, a family of four would need full-time work with an hourly wage of $32.34 (more than $64,000 a year) to afford basic necessities.

Research shows that providing support that includes a combination of job training, financial coaching and income supports produce long-term benefits to families and individuals.