September 2007

Spotlight on school success

It’s easy to focus on what’s not working with public schools and closing achievement gaps, but perhaps it’s more useful to highlight what is working—in this case, Wrap-Around Services, a pilot project at Lake Hills Elementary School in East Bellevue.

Wrap-Around Services is a great example of how United Way of King County is collaborating and investing strategically to help kids prepare for and succeed in school. Like many public schools, Lake Hills Elementary serves a diverse population with many students who enter school with special needs, such as language barriers, developmental delays and poor nutrition due to poverty. These barriers can cause a child to fall behind in school, and studies show that once children are behind, it’s very difficult to catch up. Some never do.

About two and a half years ago, United Way of King County partnered with the City of Bellevue and the Bellevue School District to figure out how to work together to enhance school readiness and academic achievement by creating a pilot project in one of the most diverse neighborhoods in East King County. The result was a social services support network, housed at Lake Hills Elementary, for children and families in the neighborhood.

“This is one of the most exciting projects I’ve worked on because it consolidates and integrates best practices and makes it easy for people to get the services they need,” says Doug Whalen, Community Impact Manager for United Way. “We remove many of the social and health obstacles to school success. More than 500 kids and about 350 families from the Lake Hills neighborhood are benefiting from Wrap-Around Services this year, and at least 100 of those are from our school readiness efforts.”  

• Download a brochure about Wrap-Around Services.
• Contact Doug Whalen, Community Impact Manager for Untied Way, to learn more about Wrap-Around Services and how it might be replicated in your neighborhood.
• Read our tips on how to make sure your child gets off to a great start at school.
• Visit our Web site for upcoming events, recommended reading and more about getting kids ready for school.

Together we have the ability to change our community
for the better in fundamental, lasting ways.

For more information on why United Way of King County cares so much about kids and what we're doing to promote early learning in our community, visit our web site. If you have specific questions or needs pertaining to early learning, please contact earlylearning@uwkc.org

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