A lot of excitement has been generated during the past year, thanks to Colby’s interest in a public/private partnership downtown. The chance to build on what we have and to make it better is energizing.
While the work of strengthening Main Street progresses, the work of developing our human resources by strengthening pathways out of poverty has been progressing, too.
For the past year, several groups of community stakeholders — from individuals to people from schools, the library, social service organizations, city officials and business owners — have been creating strategies to address challenges to achieving academic excellence, good physical and mental health, and moving out of poverty. Regardless of our political leanings, these stakeholders understand that we are less strong when we allow one part of the community to fall behind.
Starting early in a child’s life is critical to overcoming our challenges. It’s why Thomas College President Laurie Lachance and I invited a collection of diverse stakeholders in 2014 to envision a community where 80 percent of our third-graders were reading at grade level by 2020. With a 42 percent poverty rate for children younger than 5 living in Waterville, that seemed like a reasonable goal. With solid reading skills, students are more likely to stay in school and graduate on time, stay out of the juvenile justice system, live healthier lives and earn more money as adults.
[For more of this story, written by Karen Heck, go to https://www.centralmaine.com/2...-stronger-community/]
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