SPRINGFIELD (AP) - Springfield is embarking on a 10-year community effort to ensure that every child starts school ready to learn.
Leaders unveiled the effort, called The Every Child Promise, last week after months of community meetings and work by several committees. The goal is to reduce the number of children who enter kindergarten unprepared to learn. Between 400 and 500 a year aren't ready now.
"To those 500 children in our community whose parents cannot afford quality preschool every year, this is for you. To those 5,200 children under the age of five in our community, in Greene County, that are food insecure - that don't know where their next meal is going to come from and what it will be, this promise is to you," said Todd Parnell, co-chair of the Every Child Promise. "To those 385 children, under the age of 5, in foster care, this promise is to you. To those 186 children under the age of 5 who have documented cases of child abuse, this promise is to you.
The plan includes expanding early child care programs, providing good pre-kindergarten education, and ensuring access to safe environments, proper nutrition, and adequate health care. Organizers say efforts will be tested and changed as part of pilot projects during the next three years.
The pilot projects are expected to cost about $1.2 million, with more than half of that amount already raised, mostly through private donations and grants.
The Every Child Promise started a year ago after the News-Leader published a public service journalism project that exposed critical issues facing Springfield's children including poverty, child abuse, poor nutrition, and - in partnership with KYTV - lack of school readiness.
The group has commissioned a study called "The Cost of Doing Nothing" through Missouri State University and will report progress back to the community. A group of local leaders that served as a steering committee will become an executive board, with implementation committees to guide the pilot programs.
Tim Rosenbury, former chairman of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, said the effort is important to the community's future.
"All of our community's children, whether or not they're living to their full potential, are the next generation of our community's workforce," he said. "Everyone benefits from a community where citizens have more money to spend and where families strive to ensure that the next generation will have a better quality of life than they did."