PUBLIC Version

From Ready by Five: 

Friends,

In February we celebrated the launch of Ready by Five, a campaign to ensure local public funding for early childhood education in St. Louis County. We planned to spend the months of March through May collecting the signatures needed to get a modest sales tax on the ballot for our youngest children. Today, in the midst of a global pandemic, we are even more committed to ensuring sustainable resources for our region’s kids, families, and providers.

We have all spent the past two months responding to this crisis in our organizations, communities, and families. Our hearts and minds are with the families of our region’s essential workers, with those who are suddenly facing significant financial hardship, and with the children and providers of our region’s early childhood education system. We hope you will join us in ways shared below in the coming weeks and months to ensure ready kids, families, and communities.

Committed to Our Goal

We continue to be committed to establishing local public funding for early childhood education in St. Louis City and County. 

• Signature collection is no longer a viable path to a November vote in St. Louis County.
• We are advocating for our proposed ballot initiative to be put on the ballot by the County Council as an integral part of the health, humanitarian, and economic recovery of our region. We will know by August if this path is viable.

Responsive to Our Community

In response to COVID-19 and its lasting impact, there are many ways our community can rally around our youngest children and the adults who care for them.

• Forward this email to any provider, parent, or advocate for young children. We will be sending out regular updates and resources for all regional efforts to respond to COVID-19 in the early childhood education community.
• Sign-up to join Ready by Five and PrepareSTL on Thursday, May 14th at 6pm to be trained and then participate on May 15th or 16th in canvassing the most impacted neighborhoods of St. Louis City and County to provide health information and protective equipment to families and providers.
• Donate to Ready by Five to support the immediate and long-term system change early childhood education needs of our region.

As we care for our communities together, but physically apart, we thank you for your continued commitment to our region’s youngest children. We look forward to when we can gather in person again, and we will be in touch soon with additional resources and opportunities to support regional efforts.
 

Thank you,
Ready by Five