By Wilford Shamlin III Tribune Staff Writer
An investment firm working to improve quality of life for Philadelphia families has pledged $600,000 toward an initiative that would help with kindergarten readiness.
Omar Woodard, executive director of the GreenLight Fund Philadelphia, said Monday that they have partnered with the Parent-Child Home Program, a nonprofit organization with a 50-year track record of helping families prepare young children for kindergarten and for higher levels of academic achievement. The decision follows a year long, national search and vetting of high-quality nonprofit organizations working in early childhood education.
“We want to match that social innovation with community need,” said Woodard, noting universal pre-kindergarten for three- and four-year-old children was a priority in the Mayor Jim Kenney administration. “We want to make sure when kids get to pre-kindergarten, they’re ready.”
The program plans to work with 50 families from the city’s Sharswood section in North Philadelphia and 50 families from Southwest Philadelphia starting later this year. Parent-Child Home Program (PCHP) has based its practices on successful early literacy, school readiness and parent engagement, in turn, producing positive, long-term results.
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