For many of the hard-working parents in Marshalltown, knowledge of early childhood development, strategies to promote school readiness, and even an understanding of the educational system is limited. With many parents working long hours, time to develop knowledge and skills can be limited. The skills needed to reach out for such information may be nonexistent.

Marshalltown has been identified as a Pacesetter community by the Grade-level Reading Campaign. In 2012, it was one of the 13 All America Cities for Grade-Level Reading identified by the National Civic League and the national Grade-Level Reading Campaign.

Marshalltown also enjoys a unique spirit of collaboration. It has a history of decades of collective impact-like projects that were made possible and succeeded due to agencies, civic groups, business, education, the faith community, and many others' willingness to share the work and the resources needed to make change a reality in any number of quality-of-life arenas. This history instills confidence in the community when it comes to tackling its issues and also has allowed leadership to be developed at many levels and in many places in the community.

Children, from their first moments, are capable of enormous growth and development if:

• We recognize parents are the first and most important teachers of their children.
  
• Parents are provided information and skill building — through methods most appropriate to their own knowledge, culture and language — to foster early development.
  
• A community has created a climate where early childhood development is well understood and fostered at many family touch-points.
  

Further support for the efforts of parents to create great early childhood environments can be found in consistent, high-quality resources located throughout the community, as well as available, sufficient resources to provide early education supportive services to all that are in need, creating the network of support needed by children and families to succeed. By doing these things, children will have greater developmental opportunities, will be able to grow to their full potential, and will enter school prepared to learn and succeed.

We believe, and experience has shown, that parental aspirations for their children are always high, no matter the situation the family may find itself in at this time. In a door-to-door survey of the poorest neighborhood in Marshalltown, when asked the question, “Do you want your children to go to college?” 100% of parents responded "Yes."

We can assist parents in finding the path that changes aspiration to reality. We have seen time and again that if parents have information regarding the importance of certain key activities and are given the skills and resources to engage in those activities, they will do so.

All families contain assets that can be utilized for the development of their children.

Our community can and will work together for the betterment of our children's future.

It is possible for children to make the gains needed to experience success in school, no matter their current circumstances.