United Way Focuses on Early Grade Reading
United Way of Southwest Wyoming (UWSW) was chosen to be a part of United Way Worldwide’s Early Grade Reading (EGR) Mobilization Group. This peer action-learning community was designed for United Ways that are mobilizing people and organizations to improve early literacy in their communities.
“Studies have shown that students who are not reading at grade level by fourth grade typically don’t catch up. This can lead to bad grades, poor behavior, “checking-out” from school – and eventually dropping out. One of UWSW’s goals is to invest in our children and youth to help them become healthy and productive citizens. Focusing our work on early literacy is a natural place to start. United Way applied to be a part of the EGR mobilization group because we believe this will help the children of our community,” said Suzanne Zutter, UWSW executive director.
By participating in the EGR Mobilization Group, UWSW will receive individualized coaching and connection to external experts and resources. Zutter stated that UWSW is getting in on the ground floor with this unprecedented effort. This will allow UWSW to deepen and accelerate change while working with local systems to support the critical issue of early grade reading.
Moving towards this early literacy initiative, Zutter stated that UWSW plans to expand volunteer engagement. “There are great programs in place in our communities, United Way’s job here is to bring these entities together for the common good and help recruit more volunteers for these programs,” said Zutter. UWSW will be enlisting and enrolling caring adults as volunteers around early grade reading, whether that’s as reading buddies, tutors or mentors. UWSW will also be striving to harness resource development practices to support early grade reading strategies by presenting the issue at workplace campaigns.
“United Way wants to take our early childhood and early grade reading strategies to the next level, to ensure the school readiness investments the community has made are continued as young children begin school, through high school graduation and beyond,” said Zutter.
UWSW has started tackling early literacy by bringing Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library program to the Southwest Wyoming communities. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a program that delivers expert selected books to the homes of children between birth and the age of five at no cost to the parents. Dollywood Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Dolly Parton’s organization, pays for the books and UWSW covers the shipping and handling charges through charitable donations and grants.
“Currently there are over 800 children enrolled from Sweetwater, Uinta, Lincoln and Sublette Counties. The demand for this program has been exceptional and it continues to expand across the region,” said Zutter.
Parents can enroll their children online for this program by going to www.swunitedway.org and click on the “Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library” icon located on the right side of the screen. From there, parents should select the “Sign Up Your Child Online” option and enter the appropriate information in the provided fields.
For more information contact Zutter at the UWSW office or by email at director@swunitedway.org.
