For the second time, the United Way of Greater Charlottesville has been named lead of Ready Region Blue, which coordinates early child care and education services.
The United Way of Greater Charlottesville has been reconfirmed as the lead agency for Ready Region Blue Ridge, an effort focused on setting up children of low-income families for success through early childhood care and education programs.
The Ready Region network is an initiative of the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation, a public-private organization dedicated to forging partnerships and policies that seek to provide healthy development opportunities for young children throughout the commonwealth.
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Launched in 2022, the foundation divided the state into nine regions and holds a "rigorous competitive process" every three years in order to identify a lead agency for each region. This marks the second time the United Way of Greater Charlottesville has been selected to lead the Blue Ridge region, which includes 21 cities and runs from Frederick County in the north to Buckingham County in the south and Louisa County in the east to Augusta County in the west.
"We're proud to partner with the Virginia Department of Education, continuing to strengthen Virginia's nation-leading, public-private early childhood care and education system," President of the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation Kathy Glazer said in a statement. "Each Ready Region lead agency demonstrated readiness and a deep commitment to leading their region's early childhood progress. We look forward to working collaboratively with the regional lead agencies so Virginia families and children can thrive."
Each region lead is charged with establishing relationships among school divisions, building out a network of social services among other educational and child care programs and increasing access to those relationships and services for all families.
In the designated Blue Ridge area, around 44% of children enter kindergarten without the skills -- in literacy, mathematics and self-regulation -- necessary to succeed, according to data gathered by the Virginia Department of Education.
This discrepancy is likely exacerbated by the fact that the region is lacking more than 8,000 child care slots in order to meet the need, which makes it difficult for "many families to maintain financial stability and set their children up for success in school and life," according to a statement from the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation. National census information also indicates that the Blue Ridge region has missed out on close to $130 million in business revenue due to "inadequate child care."
The United Way of Greater Charlottesville is well-situated to address these shortcomings given its extensive work in the child development space throughout Central Virginia. For more than 40 years, the nonprofit organization has operated a scholarship program to offer funding for low-income families to finance "high-quality early childhood care and education."
The Charlottesville United Way works closely with The Daily Progress as well as Charlottesville radio station WINA every year to coordinate the Santa Fund for Schoolkids campaign, an annual fundraising drive founded by The Daily Progress in 1894 providing vouchers to Central Virginia families to purchase the essentials their children need but too often go without. As of Jan. 13, the drive had raised $250,775.28, surpassing its 2024 goal of $225,000.
"Our goal with each initiative we oversee at United Way of Greater Charlottesville is to help all families in our area thrive," President of the United Way of Greater Charlottesville Ravi Respeto said in a statement. "Being able to continue serving as lead of Ready Region Blue Ridge and collaborate with likeminded partner organizations helps us work towards making that a reality."