Save The Children

Charity Overview

Save the Children strives to invest in childhood – every day, in times of crisis and for their future. In the United States, Save the Children child experts work to ensure that the nation’s most underserved children have the best chance for success. The charity ensure children are protected when crisis strikes and advocate to guarantee children’s voices are heard and their needs addressed at local, state and national level. Save the Children is committed to reducing the impact of disasters on children through effective response and recovery. Since 2005 in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the charity emerged as a national leader in emergency response serving more than one million children affected by U.S. disasters.  Last year Save The Children’s U.S. programmes and emergency responses helped nearly 220,000 children, families and caregivers across America. This included the critical need for quality early education programmes, funding for underserved school districts and helping families and communities protect children before disasters strike.

Project Summary

ICAP New York’s donation supported Save the Children’s Early Steps to School Success programme. Early Steps to School assists young children ages 0-5 with language, social and emotional development; equips parents with the skills and knowledge to successfully support their children’s growth; and develops strong home-school connections. In partnership with Head Start and Early Head Start (a federal early childhood development programme) the aim is to promote school readiness and social and emotional development for young children from low-income families. Two-year-old Neveah and her sister three-year-old Paiscience pictured above participate in Early Steps to School Success. Through home visitation and coordinated parent child playgroups, the programme is focused on early literacy and social-emotional development, empowering parents to be their child’s first teacher.

With support from ICAP Charity Day 2014 in New York Save the Children has been able to extend its important work programmes

Through its Literacy programme, Save the Children provide children in kindergarten through to 6th Grade (ages 5-12,) with the tools they need to develop reading skills and the guidance and support they need to grow as readers. Second grader Wendy, seven (pictured above) looks through the books available during her guided independent reading program (GIRP) as part of Save the Children's in-school literacy programme at her elementary school in California’s Central Valley. Also pictured here two-year-old Aliyah and her mum, Emma, are part of Save the Children’s home visitation programme.  Coordinator, Victoria, helps monitor Aliyah’s progress, while sharing with her mother strategies that support Aliyah’s development helping to build a strong foundation for early literacy. 

Thanks to ICAP, we’ve been able to give thousands more of the nation’s most vulnerable children a chance to reach their full potential and to protect them at times of crisis
Natalie Vega O’Neil, acting vice president for Save the Children’s U.S. Programmes

ICAP’s donation also supported a Healthy Choices programme, provided during and after school which exposes children aged 5-12 to healthier ways of living with regular physical activity and balanced food choices. Pictured above second graders from south Carolina participate in the "Healthy Choices" module as part of the Save the Children’s school programmes.  Children are engaged in nutrition education and regular physical activity to help promote healthy growth. 

The donation has allowed Save the Children to ensure the most underserved children in America are ready to learn by the time they begin school, so they can enjoy and maximise their school life.