The adults in children’s lives during the early years are their first teachers. Heart of Indiana United Way has long recognized the pivotal role early learning plays in shaping the trajectory of a child’s life. When babies grow into kindergarteners, it is important to Madison County’s future that they have the strongest foundation for learning success. 

Families who are working hard but still struggling to make ends meet face obstacles with accessing affordable quality childcare and having the resources they need to support their children’s early learning. We help families embrace their power in raising readers. We mobilize local businesses and volunteers to build systems of support that nurture early learners and support their families’ success. Soon, two exciting programs will launch exemplifying our approaches. 

Talking is Teaching helps families and communities maximize learning opportunities in everyday moments to boost brain development in babies and toddlers. Thanks to the Indiana Department of Education, an Early Years Initiative Grant from Early Learning Indiana, and Heart of Indiana United Way’s donors’ support, this program is expanding to all five counties we serve! 

Through this initiative, we will help surround families with resources to support them as their children’s first teachers. We will expand our public awareness “Talking is Teaching: Talk, Read, Sing” campaign, and engage trusted messengers to help get the word out, using tools and resources parents and families value. We are also partnering with locations where families are already going to transform those spaces into fun learning environments.  

Another critical benchmark in children’s development is their ability to read at grade level by the end of 3rd grade—when children transition from learning how to read into becoming students who read to learn. To help ensure children master foundational reading skills, we developed a targeted tutoring program to provide students with focused, personalized academic support.  

Read United pairs children with volunteers once a week for 30 minutes each time. Students receive one-on-one tutoring. This fall, Read United is coming to Anderson Community Schools. Nearly 70 volunteers have raised their hand to help tutor 2nd grade students across all six Anderson elementary schools.  

Volunteers commit to consistently serving at the same time weekly. Over the hour they volunteer, each adult will work with two students separately to improve children’s reading. Students are eager to read with their volunteers—and so are the adults who volunteer for this transformational experience.  

The number of students served in this program depends entirely upon the number of volunteers who can consistently show up for them. If you are interested in joining this cohort of volunteers, please sign up to attend one of two volunteer informational meetings on October 30th and 31st from 10 am – 11:30. RSVP at HeartOfIndianaUnitedWay.org/ReadUnitedVolunteer or contact Brad Meadows at Anderson Community Schools at 641-2035 or bmeadows@acsc.net. 

If you are interested in supporting Heart of Indiana United Way, please visit HeartOfIndianaUnitedWay.org/WaysToGive.