ABOUT US
Ready for School, Ready for Life is dedicated to ensuring every child in Guilford County enters kindergarten prepared for success, regardless of their background. Our mission is to collaboratively build a connected, innovative system of care for our youngest children and their families.
We facilitate and coordinate the work of a wide range of partners, including educators, healthcare providers, social service agencies, and families to create a comprehensive support network. Focusing on early childhood development allows us to have the greatest impact on individuals and communities, since 90% of a person’s brain develops before the age of five. Every child deserves a great start in life, but not every child starts from the same place, so addressing the critical needs of children and families beginning prenatally helps children reach their full potential.
Through this work, we and our partners are creating a system of care that gives every child the opportunity to thrive, setting a strong foundation for lifelong learning and success.
Ready Ready is a 501(c)(3) organization. Our focus is ensuring all children in Guilford County and their families get the resources they need for healthy development. We want every child born in Guilford County from 2023 and beyond to enter kindergarten developmentally on track in five key areas:
Physical
Language and communication
Social-emotional
Cognitive
Approaches to play and learning
From the very beginning, we asked families in our area to help define our work and our voice. Family voice informs our work and we share our learning with residents and community stakeholders. We also work with more than 100 community partners in Guilford County and North Carolina to create this system of care. As a backbone organization, our goal is population-level change. We know it won’t be easy or quick, but we’re in it for the future of our county, our state, and our country.
Ensuring every child born in Guilford County enters kindergarten on track, regardless of their background, is an ambitious goal requiring solutions to many complex problems. One organization working alone could not possibly find and implement all those solutions. To accomplish our mission, we work with a wide range of partners to pursue collective impact. If you’re not familiar with collective impact, this video quickly explains what it is and why it works.
OUR STAFF
We are dedicated to Ready Ready’s mission, values and principles.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Committed and enthusiastic volunteers serve on our board of directors. Their unwavering support for early childhood system-building and improved outcomes for children and their families has helped build out our backbone organization.
Careers
If you are passionate about early childhood development and education, and creating a better life for Guilford County children, Ready for School, Ready for Life has a variety of opportunities. Keep an eye here for open positions.
FAQs
We are a nonprofit organization with 501(c) (3) status. We are considered a backbone organization, which means that we support proven programs and other organizations in our community. Through this partnership, we offer vision, strategy, direct support, and help coordinate efforts to provide resources to Guilford County families and their youngest children. Learn more about our work.
Ensuring our youngest children have the resources they need to develop and enter kindergarten on track is the path that will best help them succeed by third grade. Research has shown that learning success in third grade is the best predictor for high school graduation, life-long learning and earning potential, and success in the workforce. Our focus is helping children get Ready for School, Ready for Life.
More than 110 programs, organizations, businesses and foundations are contributing to the system-building work of Ready Ready in a variety of ways, including participating on our Board or a workgroup. See our Community Partners, Board of Directors, and Funders.
Our work began with the input of 250 families, and families have been involved ever since. Currently, the Guilford Parent Leader Network (GPLN) is an integral part of the decision-making structure. Families who participate are valued consultants, partners, and change agents who work on priorities that are important to their own families and families in Guilford County.
Guilford County Schools has been supportive of the early childhood system building work and engaged in teams focused on early literacy, equity strategies, data, and pre-K to Kindergarten transition. Superintendent Dr. Whitney Oakley serves as a member of the Ready Ready Board of Directors.
Leaders within the Chambers of Commerce have been engaged in Ready Ready work since the beginning and have participated in public will building efforts. They have hosted events supporting early childhood as an economic development strategy for the workforce of today and tomorrow.
By the end of 2021, more than 80 professional-wage jobs will have been created in Guilford County through Ready Ready. This includes additional nurses and supervisors serving the Family Connects and Nurse-Family Partnership programs, child development specialists and supervisors in the HealthySteps program, Navigators who will serve in obstetrics and pediatric practices within Guilford County, and Ready Ready staff members.