SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY: United Way Receives $200K for Early-Childhood Health
The Bank of America Foundation has awarded United Way of San Joaquin County $200,000 for early-childhood health and development programs, the largest of eight such grants to local United Way chapters. The Stockton Record reports that the "foundation announced it will award a total of $50 million in grants disbursed over five years to support and develop an existing United Way nationwide project called Success by Six," which focuses on providing early-childhood health and development support. Pat Patrick, interim president of San Joaquin County United Way, said, "The goal is to try to get kids healthy, motivated and attentive when they start to school. There's a lot of research that says the first years of a person's life are crucial. Just getting those little kids off to a good start nutritionally, making sure they've got all their shots ... those are some of the barriers Success by Six hopes to try to remove." Bank of America CEO Hugh McColl added, "An investment in early-childhood development will ensure a brighter future for children, families and the nation. In my opinion, there is no more effective way for us to strengthen our communities and our country." Other California areas in which grants were awarded include the San Francisco Bay Area, the greater Los Angeles area, Sacramento, San Luis Obispo, Fresno, Santa Cruz and the Sonoma/Mendocino/Lake area. The awards are either "planning grants for up to nine months [or] one-year grants to expand or increase the capacity of existing early-childhood initiatives" (Spence, 2/5). Click early childhood for previous coverage of these programs.
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