Hilltop Receives $23,000 Grant From United Way Success by 6 Program

sb6-23000Hilltop Neighborhood House receives a $23,000 Grant from the United Way Northwest Indiana Success By 6 Regional Initiate for their Kindergarten Readiness Program and Path to Quality Advancement Plan.

Today, there are 59,000 children under the age of six in Northwest Indiana in Lake, Porter, and LaPorte Counties. Sixty-one percent of those children, ages 0–6, who are not yet in kindergarten, receive some form of child care on a regular basis from persons other than their parent.

United Way Northwest Indiana Success By 6 Initiative works to create powerful synergies to improve the lives of these young children by engaging with multi-sector community partners: including parents, early childcare providers, business, health and human services, education, government and community groups. Their focus areas include: influencing public policy, creating greater public awareness, quality early care enhancement, parenting education, literacy, family resource centers, and health care.

SB6 engages key community stakeholders in developing a formula for school readiness and that will ensure that all children have the opportunity to succeed by: identifying at risk families and children, identifying gaps in programs and services, identifying barriers to success Initiating programs and services to fill the gaps and remove the barriers.

Hilltop Neighborhood House’s Kindergarten Readiness Program serves over 100 children each year from a mix of needy and working families. Each child who attends is exposed to not only a solid educational program but a diverse setting as well. Hilltop has partnered with over 10 college and universities to have additional work study students and interns assist them in providing individual and group learning times that is well beyond what a young learner might be exposed to in a traditional setting or even in the home. Early Childhood Education Advisory Committee Member Sue Carter has been volunteering at Hilltop Neighborhood House for 10 years and has also served on the Board of Directors. Carter states, “Thanks to the additional resources from United Way Success By 6 our children have access to a learning environment rich with diversity and infused with high yield learning activities they might not otherwise be afforded.”

For more information about Hilltop Neighborhood House visit their website at www.hilltopneighborhoodhouse.com