PNC shares details of GREAT month campaign for local preschools

PNC Chicago recently partnered with Metropolitan Family Services (MFS) for the month of April to give back to local early education centers through PNC’s philanthropic initiative Grow Up Great.

To get a comprehensive look at the program and its impact on the greater Chicago community, Chicago Star spoke with PNC and MFS representatives on their partnership and efforts.

How PNC helps the community through Grow Up Great

How does PNC hope to make an impact with “GREAT Month” in 2023

• For GREAT Month 2023, our PNC employees around Chicagoland are on  track to log over 1,000 volunteer hours, have an impact on over 75 local preschool classrooms and engage with over 1,000 preschoolers.

Will any aspects of the outreach program differ from previous years?

• The importance of our program is that it is consistent year-over-year.

• In addition to volunteering in the classroom, our employees are also collecting essential supplies for classrooms throughout the month April.

What made PNC want to partner with MFS specifically for this campaign?

• MFS has the ability to connect with the local community and engage directly with parents and families and has enabled PNC to bring  vocabulary and reading to the classroom – to reinforce the importance  literacy.

• In addition, our PNC branches in the region are collecting vital school classroom supplies so that teachers have additional resources they need.
  
  
• We know that the earliest years are the most impactful in a child’s  trajectory for success in school and life.

Metropolitan Family Services partnership with PNC

What made Metropolitan Family Services want to partner with PNC for this project?

• Metropolitan Family Services’ Learning and Wellness Center – and Metropolitan’s Early Learning programs in general – have been extremely fortunate to partner with PNC over the years. PNC’s commitment to providing early learning literacy and development resources to families has made a real difference in the lives of the children and families we serve, including through this recent “GREAT Month” event.

What educational material will PNC representatives be covering with the preschoolers?

• PNC provided each of our Learning and Wellness Center classrooms with a book of our teachers’ choice, and they gave $250 in gift cards to each of our teachers to purchase additional learning resources for their classrooms. In addition, each of the children got a school-readiness kit – containing materials their parents can use to help teach their children socio-emotional development skills, recognition of numbers, and literacy.

How has Grow Up Great been able to positively impact the greater Chicago community throughout the years?

• Grow Up Great has helped us at Metropolitan with school readiness resources and strategies. The program has better equipped us to teach  families about how important school readiness is to their children’s future school success. That includes instructing parents in the things they need to do to help their children reach developmental milestones

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