Success By 6
Mission Statement: Ensuring children are ready to learn and succeed by age 6.
Vision Statement: Success By 6 coordinates with local businesses, community agencies and faith-based organizations to provide optimal services for parents in Marion County with children birth to age 6 to increase their knowledge towards enhancing their child’s development.
SUCCESS BY 6 is the nation’s largest network of early childhood initiatives, focused on increasing school readiness through community change. In the fiscal year 2007-2008, more than 460 children and their parents in Marion County benefited from Success By 6 Initiatives including parent education, dental and health information, books for increasing early literacy, early learning and other resources on child development.
Success By 6 initiatives focus on the challenges facing local families with children birth through age 6 and facilitate creative solutions in collaboration with community and corporate partners.
Did you know that children from birth to age 6 learn more in less time than adults? That is why it is important to provide the right stimulation and learning environment for young children. Success By 6 helps inform parents and decision makers about this window of opportunity in a child’s life and makes early childhood education a priority in Marion County. Since parents are a child’s first teacher, Success By 6’s activities are focused on supporting the parents and caregivers of children.
The Early Learning Coalition of Marion County serves as the lead agency for Success By 6 in partnership with the United Way of Marion County. This unique partnership, created in 2005, was a first in the United States for Success By 6. The local initiative is governed by a Leadership Council comprised of community leaders.
In Marion County, Success By 6 provides an array of services and resources for parents including:
- Powerful Parenting Seminars
- A Lending Library
- Resources and Information on Safe Sleeping Environments for Babies
- Free children’s books through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library
- Information on Childcare, VPK and Kindergarten Readiness
Through various grants and funding sources, Success By 6 continues to increase the services and resources parents are able to utilize to enhance their child’s development, thus improving kindergarten readiness in Marion County.
For more information, contact Success By 6 Coordinator, Geraldine Lochren, at the Early Learning Coalition of Marion County, (352) 369-2315.