Onward860: United to End Poverty 
Addressing Child Literacy Issues 

Children are the future of our communities. They deserve access to child care, healthy food, education and health services and exposure to diversity to help ensure their well-being, equity and quality of life.  

During early childhood, children’s cognitive, social, emotional and independence skills should be nurtured. This is a critical time for them to develop cultural awareness, creativity and imagination.  

How can we best support the children in our communities when these challenges exist: 

Access to Quality Child Care – A significant shortage of child care facilities exists in the Greater Hartford region, with accessibility and affordability creating additional hurdles for families. 

Access to Healthy Food – The 2023 Connecticut United Ways ALICE Report found that many households, especially those below the ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) Threshold, struggle with food insufficiency, impacting children’s nutrition and overall development. 

Access to Child Literacy Resources – The ALICE report also revealed that a significant portion of students in our United Way’s service area aren’t reading at grade level—which impacts their ability to achieve developmental and academic milestones. 

Access to Preventative Care – Cost and transportation barriers often cause households living in extreme or working poverty to postpone their children’s health care appointments, which can affect their long-term well-being. 

Access to Diversity – Fostering diverse learning environments—those with diverse teachers, adults and peers—positively impacts students. The DataHaven 2023 Greater Hartford Community Wellbeing Index unveiled that, although student and educator populations in Greater Hartford public schools are becoming more diverse, a disparity still exists. 

By working together, we can address these issues and strengthen education—particularly literacy—in our communities. 

“The key is ensuring that we’re working with providers and working within systems, including community health centers and medical providers,” emphasizes John Prescod, Director of Education Initiatives at United Way of Northeastern and Central Connecticut.  

 “We’ve developed cross-sector partnerships to ensure that mothers and families are receiving the resources they need as their child is preparing to be born,” he says. “And, once the child is born, ensuring they have developmental screenings and they’re in quality child care or home daycare programs.” 

 John shares about the Incubator Program initiative – operated by YWCA New Britain with support from United Way – which provides funding for home daycares for training, certifications and paperwork processes. 

 “The initiative also provides resources home daycares need in place to provide quality care to the children. They need to participate in activities and receive social-emotional engagement that will stimulate the neuroplasticity, which helps the brain change through growth, and the development of the proper cognitive pathways,” explains John. 

Encouraging Child Literacy 

United Way of Central and Northeastern Connecticut has several initiatives to encourage child literacy, including the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which provides free books to Hartford children from birth to five years of age. 

“The overarching onus of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is to get books in the hands of families, so that families are reading,” shares John. 

“The reading piece is critical,” he underscores, “but there’s also the family engagement, the social-emotional and the role playing and acting that occurs while you’re reading with the child and engaging the larger family structure in this process.” 

The United Way Readers program, with support from Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, is the next step in the continuum. It addresses children who are behind in their literacy skill attainment—emerging readers who are still gaining their reading skills. For example, recent migrant children coming from other countries and children where English is not their primary language or the primary language spoken in their house. 

“Data indicates that if a child is not on reading level by the time they finish third grade, they have a greater chance of not graduating high school on time—or at all,” stresses John. 

“Another study indicates there’s a higher chance that if a child isn’t at a grade-level-appropriate reading capacity going into third grade they are more likely to be incarcerated in the future,” he adds. 

“Up until third grade, children are learning to read. After third grade, they are reading to learn—they’re still learning how to read, but at the same time, they’re learning how to decode text for information,” John explains.  

“If children aren’t at reading level, they can exponentially fall behind, unless they receive a significant intervention,” he says. “It’s like a big puzzle. Children are graduating without the necessary academic levels, critical thinking, processing and soft skills needed they need to function in the workforce or higher education.” 

John continues, “The focus is to support quality, affordable child care, not only so the parent can become gainfully employed and support the household economically, but also so the child is ready. They’re potty trained, they know their basic colors and numbers, and they have the social interaction pieces to be able to enter pre-K and be successful.”  

If those milestones aren’t being met, it can create a ripple effect because the child won’t be prepared to continue moving on to the next stages. 

Promoting a Joy of Reading 

United Way of Central and Northeastern Connecticut participates in two national literacy initiatives John refers to as “literacy pep rallies.” 

Read for the Record® takes place early in the school year to promote a joy of literacy and reading with the hope it will continue through the year.  

“The program focuses on the importance of building early literacy and language skills to help children successfully enter kindergarten and be reading proficiently by the beginning of fourth grade,” he explains. 

Read Across America Day typically takes place in the late winter. 

“We work with corporate and community volunteers in our major K-to-3 school districts, and we have a pep rally in advance where dignitaries and school officials will speak about the importance of reading,” describes John.  

“Volunteers from that event visit different sites to read a designated book to a classroom and then they’ll do an activity that’s tied to the book. Again, it’s promoting a joy of literacy in our children,” he emphasizes. 

The Solution: Onward860 

Together with your support, United Way of Northeastern and Central Connecticut is co-creating a better future for our region. Our process includes: 

• Aligning community, corporate, government and philanthropic partners to end poverty 

• Leveraging 100 years of experience, expertise, data, community voice and resources to deepen impact 

• Connecting people with resources and opportunities to make a difference 

• Transforming the future with game-changing solutions and partnerships 

Recognizing and Supporting Our Vision 

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