Success After 6 will be piloted at Youngstown Community School

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley today will unveil its new early-childhood initiative at Youngstown Community School, where it will be piloted.

The Success After 6 initiative will bring together school and community resources to focus on academics, health and social services, as well as social and emotional development, said Bob Hannon, president of the United Way chapter.

“Our United Way is moving to the Community Impact Model, in which we are evolving from our very strong roots as a fundraiser to an organization that develops community-based, collaborative strategies to create sustainable community impact,” Hannon said.

This initiative will provide tutoring, supplemental programming and after-school support for kindergarten through third-grade students.

The United Way will hire a Success After 6 coordinator to work closely with school administrators and teachers to monitor the students’ progress and connect what is occurring in the classroom with the after-school program, Hannon said.

Success After 6 program comes as a follow-up to United Way’s Success By 6 program aimed at preparing preschool children for kindergarten.

Participation in Success By 6, which started in 2009, is for four weeks, four hours a day and four days a week. It is designed to improve language, social/emotional development, cognitive thinking, physical skills and overall knowledge, United Way officials said.

“We hope to move the needle with our Success After 6 initiative and help the students reach their full potential,” Hannon said.

The United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley is following the lead of United Way Worldwide in making this move to the Community Impact Model, Hannon said.