Success By 6

Born Learning

What happens in a child's early years matters - for success in life and for school readiness.  Yet many parents and caregivers don't know exactly what actions to take to prepare young children for school, or they feel like they don't have the time to do what's needed.  Born Learning is an unprecedented national public engagement campaign of advertising, parent education and community impact to help parents, caregivers and communities take action to provide quality early learning opportunities for young children.  More information is available at www.bornlearning.org.

The Born Learning campaign is focused on creating early learning opportunities for young children.  Created by United Way, Civitas and the Advertising Council, it includes almost $30 million of donated media - including TV, radio, newspaper, billboard, magazine and web ads this year - and $7 million worth of education materials.

Its web site (www.bornlearning.org) and material is based on the latest early childhood development research and offers educational tools for parents, grandparents and caregivers - including tips to encourage learning; answers to help care for young children; fact sheets on a child's ages and stages; and checklists to simplify parenting.  The ads and website are also in Spanish, as is most of the material.

In conjunction with Born Learning, United Way of Southwest Minnesota works to connect parents with additional local resources.  We are working to make long-term community change to help children come to school ready to succeed.

Born Learning Trails

In September, 2007, volunteers joined together to install Born Learning Trails with activities to build early learning opportunities for children in this area. These were installed in Canby, Minneota and Marshall. This was the fifth Day of Caring for the area and it was also the kick-off to the annual campaign.