AVANCE (ah-vahn-ceh) applauds President Obama for voicing his commitment to expand early childhood education during his annual State of the Union Address. AVANCE is determined to serve more families with our proven, dual-generational, Parent-Child Education Program (PCEP) and were encouraged when the President strongly endorsed early learning proposals.
During the speech, he proposed working with states to make high-quality preschool available to every child in America and explained that by boosting graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy, and even reducing violent crime there is a $1 to $7 dollar return on early learning investments seen in the long-term.
Explaining to about 38 million TV viewers and an audience of peers, the President said, “Study after study shows that the sooner a child begins learning, the better he or she does down the road. But today, fewer than 3 in 10 four year-olds are enrolled in a high-quality preschool program. Most middle-class parents can’t afford a few hundred bucks a week for private preschool. And for poor kids who need help the most, this lack of access to preschool education can shadow them for the rest of their lives.”
The AVANCE Inc. model is governed by the principles that intervention must begin in the home, must be community-based, comprehensive in scope, preventative in nature, and provide sequential services for parents and child(ren). AVANCE builds on the love a mother has for her birth to three-year-old child. This is accomplished through supportive integrated, collaborative and continuous services to both parents and children. Other principles include door-to-door recruitment, hiring people from the community, and treating people with dignity and respect.
“The President reinforced the fact that early childhood education is critical to our country’s success,” said Richard J. Noriega, President and CEO of AVANCE. “With strong leadership in this area by the President and some wonderful national partners we are confident that more children can enter kindergarten ready to succeed.”
AVANCE is currently operating the “Unlocking America’s Potential” research project with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which has extended the PCEP to 10 states and the District of Columbia. New partnerships with New Profit, Inc., the Bezos Foundation, the Social Impact Exchange and WGBH-TV, are geared to expand AVANCE’s reach and impact.
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