Nurture 15 At-Risk Atlanta Preschoolers for a Year

Greetings!

There are so many great causes you could support, so we are grateful that you have chosen to invest your charitable dollars in Sheltering Arms.  We often talk about the "heart" reasons for supporting our work:  Adorable children who will succeed in life because you helped make a great beginning available to them.  Hard-working parents who keep their jobs secure and their children safe because they can now afford child care.  Neighborhoods that are turning around decades of hopelessness to become safe communities that offer residents opportunity and a promising future.

But there are "head" reasons to give, too.  Over and over, research has proven that quality early education programs like Sheltering Arms bring economic benefits to communities.  For every $1 a community spends on these programs, as much as $17 has been shown to be saved in reduced public spending on incarceration, public assistance, and remediation.  At-risk children who had access to early education have been shown to earn more as adults than their counterparts who did not have that advantage. 

Sheltering Arms works hard to be a good steward of your investment in us.  For every dollar you've donated to Sheltering Arms, 92 cents has gone directly to serve children and families.  Each year, our children meet and exceed research-based developmental milestones and school readiness standards.  We are reviewed many times each year by outside funding and accrediting agencies and consistently receive the highest marks for outstanding management of our finances and our programs.

One of those annual reviews is done by investment volunteers of the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta.  We just finished that review last week, and we shared the attached "virtual tour" with the review team.  We thought you might like to see it, too.  You'll see Sheltering Arms through a child's eyes, but in the fine print you'll see our educational and family support motives behind the "fun and games."

Thank you again for your loyal support of Sheltering Arms!

Sincerely,

Paige

P.S.  A virtual tour is nice, but we'd love to have you come in person!  Mark your calendar to join us for Operation StoryBook as one of our volunteer VIP Readers on September 15 & 16.  There's more info at the link below.

Links:

• Operation StoryBook Volunteer Sign-Up
• Virtual Tour of Sheltering Arms