UNITED WAY OF SOUTH MISSISSIPPI

During fy 2023, united way of south mississippi worked to develop and implement long-term solutions to address school readiness and grade-level reading. According to the annie e. Casey foundation 2020 kids count data book, 48% of 3 and 4 year- olds in mississippi are not enrolled in a preschool program. In addition, the same study indicates that 68% of fourth graders are not at grade level proficiency in reading. Uwsm believes the community's most critical resources are children and families, and the organization invested in those resources through several education initiatives. Initiatives included dolly parton's imagination library, which distributed 24,668 free books to our area's children; united way readers, which paired adult volunteers with children to provide reading practice; the little library program, which promoted neighborhood book exchanges through free, public bookcases; and prek4ward, which offered free preschool to 180 area children across nine classrooms. Additionally, uwsm funds the nourishing place's enhance after school tutoring program, which provided 147 area children with needed tutoring services.