By the Way: We're Giving a Strong Start to Lebanon County Children

Giving a Strong Start to Local Children

At United Way of Lebanon County, we know how important it is for our children to succeed in school. A solid education is the path to self-sufficiency. We are proud to invest in programs such as The Palmyra Health and Education Collaborative, who are hard at work every day ensuring that children, and their families, have access to what they need to learn and grow.

Kyle, age three, started at the Collaborative’s Little Explorers Early Learning Outreach class last fall. At first, he struggled to sit still for a story or focus on activities and crafts. He would run around until he was redirected back to the task at hand. Week after week, his dad and the librarians worked with him by encouraging and praising him when he showed appropriate classroom behavior. He began checking out library books from each session to take home to continue developing his literacy skills, and Kyle’s dad brought him into the library between sessions too.

When the winter session began in January, Kyle’s improvement was greatly improved from when he initially started the Little Explorers class. He is engaged in the stories, asks and answers questions, and responds to the plot and characters with comments or laughter. He loves the activities and crafts and is building his kindergarten readiness skills while doing them. Chelsey Weibley, Executive Director at Palmyra Public Library said, “We are excited to see how Kyle has grown in just six months and cannot wait to see his progress over the next sessions!”

By partnering with the Palmyra Health and Education Collaborative, United Way of Lebanon County is helping to ensure all local children have equal opportunities to succeed. Little Explorers Early Learning Outreach classes, offered through the Palmyra Public Library, are available to children ages three to five and provide literacy, STEM, motor skill development and social interaction skills as well as free lunch. In collaboration with The Phoenix Youth Center, after school homework assistance and informational workshops for children grades three through eight are offered along with a healthy snack. One-to-one tutoring is also provided free of charge during the summer months to help prevent the summer slide.

Your support of United Way of Lebanon County helps to improve academic performance, provides access to local resources and increases family security. You are making a real impact for our local families like Kyle's. 

211 By the Numbers

In 2021, over 4,300 Lebanon County residents reached out to 211 to get connected to social services such as housing, food, utilities and more. Over 200 of these contacts stated that their need was directly related to COVID-19.

At United Way of Lebanon County, we're proud to bring 211 to our communities so that anyone who finds themselves in need has a resource that can truly support them by connecting them to agencies that can help them recover and find stability.

We've Moved! 

United Way of Lebanon County's new office is located at 22 W. Main Street, 2nd Floor, Annville. Please note that our phone system isn't up and running, so if you need to reach us as we get settled in, please reach out directly to Julia, Alyssa, or Flame. 

Questions or comments about this newsletter? Contact Flame Vo, Director of Marketing & Communications.