Illinois Poverty Report Part 3: Education statistics

At United Way of Elgin, we have three impact areas, Education, Income and health. We see the need to focus on education because even beginning with kindergarten, a person’s future success depends on a quality education. Our goal is to ensure that the families in our community have the capacity to act as primary caregivers, with particular focus on creating home and school environments where children and youth have every opportunity to become literate, secure, and prepared for productive adulthood.

According to the recently released report from the Heartland Alliance, the need for education impact programs is great.

The non-graduation rate in 2008/2009 was 12.9%. It’s important to reduce this number, as education level has such a direct correlation to unemployment. See the graph from the report.Other education stats from the report:

• 84% of the need for English as a Second Language courses in Illinois is not being met.
• 54% of working age adults in extreme poverty have only a high school diploma or less, compromising their marketability in the job market and ability to earn a family-supporting wage.
• Illinois’ Preschool for All program will expire in the summer of 2010 without legislative action; consequently 20,000 children will lose access to quality preschool

To see how we are working on Education in Illinois, visit our website.

Volunteer to help Elgin-area education programs

We at United Way understand the importance of education. As we pointed out last week in our Education Highlight, it’s one of our three main focus areas, and we have several education impact programs and initiatives directed at helping children and youth achieve their full potential.

The recent district education budget cuts are disheartening for all involved, and have truly aimed a spotlight on available education opportunities in our community. We just want to acknowledge that, while the district is currently struggling, a lot is happening in the community to improve education and help children continue to succeed. With the budget cuts, some of the programs United Way of Elgin supports will be needed more than ever. Read up on those education programs we support here.

If you’d like to get involved and volunteer for various community education programs, here are a few current opportunities:

• Help kids with their homework at the Boys and Girls Club after school program.
• Tutor elementary students at the Salvation Army
• Teach basic reading or English as a Second Language at the Literacy Connection
• Be a classroom assistant for One Hope United

You can also donate $30 to sponsor free books for one child for a year through our Dolly Parton Imagination Library.

Education Highlight: Helping kids achieve their potential

Because we’re dedicated to making your community investment achieve lasting results, United Way of Elgin approaches community issues using “Community Impact.” By bringing everyone around a set of collective issues and priorities, the United Way can better serve the long-term health and welfare of our community.

We’ve identified and formed impact councils around the following issues:

• Education: Helping children and youth achieve their full potential
• Income: Promoting financial stability and independence
• Health: Improving people’s health

Because all of our programs are focused on these three issues, we thought we’d highlight for you some of the work we’re doing in these areas. This week, we’ll focus on Education.

Our Education initiative ensures that the families in our community have the capacity to act as primary caregivers, with particular focus on creating home and school environments where children and youth have every opportunity to become literate, secure, and prepared for productive adulthood. Our programs in this area focus on everything from day care for low income families to tutoring to promoting family engagement with their children’s education. Some of our programming focuses on programs offered by individual agencies, and some are collaborative between agencies or even driven by our own impact council. A few to highlight:

• Parental Engagement Program at Highland Elementary. This program encourages parents to be actively involved with their children’s education. It encourages parents to attend conferences, volunteer in their child’s classroom, and educates parents on important opportunities for their child to learn and grow.
• Getting Ready for Kindergarten Calendar. Children are far more successful and more likely to stay in school in their older years if they enter kindergarten ready to learn. So our Education Impact Council developed a “Getting Ready for Kindergarten Calendar” to help parents of 4 and 5 year olds prepare their children to enter school. The calendar is available to download online in English and Spanish, and contains ideas for fun activities that develop a variety of skills, kindergarten registration and other school information, recommended books, local resources and useful websites.
• Dolly Parton Imagination Library. Reading to children from a young age is another way to prepare them to enter Kindergarten ready to learn. So we brought this program to the Elgin area so every child has their own library of books. The program sends free books monthly to children from birth to age five in Elgin, South Elgin, Hampshire, Burlington, Pingree Grove, and La Fox. Parents can find out how to sign up here.

You can see the rest of our current education impact initiatives on our education impact page. We are currently in the process of evaluating new programs for 2010 and 2011.