Becoming a K-Ready Community

working together to transform early child care and education

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Our future depends on Gina. Will She Be Ready?

HOW YOU CAN HELP

We are looking for community and business leaders, parents, educators, and citizens who care about our kids and the future of our community! Let us know if you are interested.

GET INVOLVED

Your donation will help to fund the work of our collaborative teams to develop solutions to transform early care and education so that every child in Orange County starts Kindergarten ready!

Donate

why this is important

90%

of brain development occurs in the FIRST FIVE YEARS

Yet Over a Third

of children in Orange County enter Kindergarten NOT READY.  


In poor neighborhoods, over 60% are NOT READY

And Over Half

of third graders are NOT READING on grade level, a key development milestone


60% of poor children and 

80% English learners

WHY THIS IS A WISE INVESTMENT

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13% Return on Investment in Early Education

"Investing in comprehensive 0-5 childhood education is a powerful and cost-effective way to mitigate negative consequences of poverty on child development and adult opportunity." James Heckman, Nobel prize-winning economist

Break the Cycle of Chronic Poverty

Children who are NOT READY for Kindergarten and NOT READING on grade level by 3rd grade are 4X's more likely to drop out of school and more likely to...


Live in Poverty...

Have Poor Health...

Become Incarcerated...

Increase Workforce Participation

70% of non-working parents say they do not work because of lack of childcare

26% of parents say they left their job because of childcare issues


Fiscal Cliff -- Parents avoid job advances to keep childcare subsidies

Prepare Tomorrow's Workforce

Starting early is the best way to prepare our future workforce to fill a widening skills gap.


60% of jobs will require degree or certification by 2025

48% of workers have degrees or certifications now

Almost half of jobs in Central Florida will be replaced or will require high-tech skills by 2039

ABOUT US

What We Do

"Becoming a K-Ready Community" is a 3-year collective-impact initiative that is engaging leaders from all sectors to ensure an equitable, accessible, responsive, and accountable early child care and education system. 


Diverse sectors of the community are working together to achieve one goal: ensure all children in Orange County are ready for kindergarten, ready to read, and ready for success.

How We Do It

"Becoming a K-Ready Community" seeks to transform early child care and education in Orange County through focused collaboration, realignment, and use of resources by all sectors of the community.


Collective impact shifts from a focus on individual programs to a more disciplined and full-system approach to achieving dramatic, large-scale social change and impact. It engages affected citizens and leaders from all sectors to create a common vision, understand and solve problems, and create systemic change.

What We Will Achieve

Vision -- All children in our community have access to high-quality early child care and education


Impact


Better education results -- 

Kindergarten-Ready, reading on grade Level by 3rd, graduation and education attainment


Reduced levels of poverty and disparity


Reduced workforce skills gap

Our Sponsors and Supporters

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Contact Us

Learn about kindergarten readiness… Become a champion… Join a Leadership Team… Contact us to find out more.

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"Becoming a K-Ready Community" is a project of

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