THE MIDLANDS LITERACY INITIATIVE AND ITS PARTNERS
Success by Six

In the late 1990s, the MLI formed a partnership with Success by Six (SX6), another initiative of the United Way of the Midlands. SX6 strives to prepare children to be healthy and ready to enter school at age six. In the Midlands, SX6 obtains and distributes grants to build community-based childcare centers in neighborhoods where children are at risk. MLI and SX6 share the responsibility for implementing family literacy programs with these new centers. Currently there are three centers, including Tender Years in Hopkins, and they plan to build more in the future.

For the adults, these programs incorporate many aspects of the MLI employment training, such as courses on interviewing, creating resumes, and developing basic job skills. These courses are combined with SX6 services for children and other activities for the whole family. The goal is for each center to serve approximately 50 families each year.

SX6 relies on partnerships, including the close collaboration with MLI, to build family literacy programs. MLI brought expertise and resources in workplace literacy and adult education, and Success by Six brought assets in early childhood learning, preparation for school, and family literacy to the effort. One of their first joint projects was the New Horizon Family Care Center.