Helping Children Succeed
Success By 6®

Success By 6® is the driving force behind United Way's focus on children from birth through age six and their families.  Success By 6® is the nation's largest network of early childhood coalitions, focused on improving school readiness through community change.  In more than 350 communities across the country, United Way Success By 6® coalitions are changing the way things work so that young children can go to school ready to succeed.

At United Way of Morris County, the Success By 6® program brings together volunteers, early childhood educators, and United Way staff to identify, develop, and support programs that will foster positive early childhood development and meet the needs of young children and their families:

Child Care Scholarship Program
Through Success By 6®, over 570 children from low-income families in Morris County are given the opportunity to attend an array of quality child care options in an affordable way.  Our member child care centers provide a high quality, diverse, and enriching environment for very young children.  And, our member child care centers are staffed by well-trained professionals; many have received extensive training in child development through the CDA Training and Scholarship program, which provides extensive training in child development.

CDA Training and Scholarship Program
The CDA Training Scholarship program is enhancing the level of quality at child care centers in Morris County by providing training and nationally recognized certification to all levels of child care staff. The program helps child care professionals attain the Child Development Associate (CDA) credential.  This credential is so important because it is a reliable and recognized demonstration of a child care professional's ability to meet the needs of children.  To help centers retain quality child care professionals, graduates of the CDA program who stay with their child care centers for six months upon completion are also awarded with a retention bonus from United Way.

Preschool Mental Health Initiative
This pilot project is taking a new, innovative perspective to the problem of managing children with extremely challenging behaviors.  The program's two-part approach will provide early childhood educators in United Way partner centers with an unprecedented level of instruction and support to help them better meet the needs of children in their care.  The first part will provide intensive staff training and skill-building in early childhood development and mental health for 25 select child care staff.  The second part will provide on-site mental health intervention support at child care centers for children with disruptive behaviors.

Success By 6® is achieving real results.  In 2005, 95% of eligible children in our partner child centers demonstrated readiness to attend and succeed in kindergarten.  The results achieved by United Way and its partner child care centers far exceed national averages, as recent studies estimate that more than 40% of America's new kindergartners are not fully prepared or "ready" for school.

To find out more about Success By 6®, please email Kathy Kwasnik or phone 973.993.1160, x.130.