Why it matters:

Children are better able to achieve success in both the classroom and in life when they enter kindergarten ready to learn, spend quality-learning time with their parents, attend structured after-school programs and have positive goals for their future.

United Way response:

United Way invests in programs and initiatives that provide comprehensive child care for preschool-aged children through high school-aged youths. Ensuring that children are ready to learn when they enter kindergarten, Smart Start Georgia, a United Way public/private partnership, works towards systemic change in the early child care industry, improving the quality of early learning across the state. As youth grow older, United Way-funded programs provide them with positive guidance and opportunities through investment in safe, structured out-of-school opportunities, internships, and post-secondary education savings programs.

2004-05 investments :	$13,934,067
Affordable, quality preschool and child care	$4,089,952
Safe, productive, structured activities out of school	$8,173,239
Parents involved in their children's education	$60,063
Positive aspirations for the future	$1,610,813

Some results:

	9,596 children are attending quality child care programs
	277,005 youth are in safe, structured after-school programs

Did you know.

Ninety percent of brain development occurs by the time a child is 3 years old."

Children in quality child care programs have 26 percent greater HS graduation rates, are held back 35 percent less often and are 60 percent less likely to have a juvenile arrest."

One-half of all juvenile crime occurs between the hours of 1 p.m. and 4 p.m., the hours where kids are most likely to be own their own and not under adult supervision

Students who spend 1-4 hours per week in supervised extracurricular activities are 49 percent less likely to use drugs and 37 percent less likely to become teen parents.

United Way invests in proven strategies, insuring that children and youth develop to the best of their potential.