Orange County United Way recognizes the critical role that education plays in an individual’s ability to attain self-sufficiency and greater overall success in life, beginning with quality early childhood education and moving forward through high school graduation, post-secondary education, and life-long learning.

The Need:

• There are an estimated 319,403 children ages 0 to 13 with parents in the labor force and only 75,260 licensed child care slots in Orange County (True Cost of Quality Early Care & Education Report 2008)
• In Orange County, for every 20 ninth-grade students, only four will graduate from college and only two will secure high-skill, high-wage jobs (OC Workforce Development Report)
• The high school dropout rate among minority groups is over 20 percent in Orange County (The Education Trust) 

Strategic Approaches:

Early Education: Investments support programs that provide quality early childhood education and school readiness activities, improvements for early childhood education centers, and tuition assistance for low-income working parents to access high-quality early education for their children. Investments also support resources, technical assistance and advocacy aimed at increasing the number of early education facilities in Orange County. More on early education.

Youth Development: Investments support youth to graduate from high school on time and prepared to purse a college education.More on youth development.