2025 Annual Report - Flipbook - Page 18
READ TO SUCCEED
Launched in 2001, United Way’s Read to Succeed initiative has provided 11 local, nonpro昀椀 t child care centers
with the resources to support parents in the workforce, strengthen the capacity of our community,
and provide safe, high-quality learning in which more children are meeting their developmental milestones
and entering kindergarten with the foundational skills necessary to be lifelong learners.
499 1,000 94% 96% 94%
children
assessed
children
enrolled
met socialemotional
benchmarks
met literacy
benchmark for
kindergarten
readiness
of 3- and 4-year-olds
met their overall
developmental goals
RAISING READERS NASHVILLE
In Tennessee, our educators and families regularly face challenges to the literacy skill development of our
children in the form of low literacy pro昀椀 ciency rates, learning loss, limited access to quality out-of-schooltime programming, and changing policies that affect programming effectiveness and the ability to make
data comparisons year to year.
In our role as a convenor, Raising Readers Nashville (RRN) gathered partners providing summer and afterschool programming to develop strategies for strengthening and aligning programs citywide, including
increasing participation and data sharing among partners. These partners developed action plans based
on research that tells us that the conditions that can have the greatest impact on academic outcomes in
our out-of-school-time programs include program structure (speci昀椀 cally attendance, program duration
and dosage), teacher expertise, aligned curriculum and instructional materials, and family engagement.
In 2025, RRN launched a pilot of two strategies with nine area out-of-school-time providers and 昀椀 ve
elementary schools to increase skills of our out-of-school-time providers and better connect our families
with their children’s learning environments.
We’ve had more than 60 after-school providers trained so far with 昀椀 ve additional training courses
planned. Approximately 65% of the providers indicated they read aloud with children prior to receiving
the training, with that number rising to 100% post-training. All participants indicated they felt more
con昀椀 dent reading aloud, and nearly 89% said they would increase the number of times they read aloud
with the children in their programs.
18
300+
200+
students in afterschool programs
are being impacted
families around Davidson
County are learning to work
on building reading skills
with their children at home
