How Are the Children?


“How are the children?” This is the traditional greeting of the Masai tribe in Africa—and Ellyn Cochran, United Way of Greater Atlanta’s senior director of Early Learning and Development, says all Get Georgia Reading Campaign communities need to rethink this question when assessing children’s well being.

“Do we know that we’re impacting our region?” Cochran asked. “Do we know the investments we’re making are where they are supposed to be in our region so that wherever a child is born, we know they are born into a thriving community?”

Cochran stressed the importance of Get Georgia Reading Campaign communities having a wide range of partners at the table to align investments with the Campaign’s four pillars and dive deeper into increasing school readiness, reducing chronic absence, reducing summer learning loss, and reducing preterm birth.

“Every community has its’ own story—its’ own assets, barriers, and partnerships to build on,” said Cochran. “We’re not only looking at school data but also health data, housing data—what’s happening in a community that’s influencing third-grade reading—so we can start to have a long-term discussion about what our partnerships can mean.”

Get the full recap of the Beyond 2020 Get Georgia Reading Summit that brought together a unique cross-section of community leaders and statewide decision-makers to stimulate innovative, scalable solutions that will create the conditions essential for all children to become proficient readers by the end of third grade.

Follow our Get Georgia Reading Vimeo channel and subscribe to our YouTube channel.