Our Partners

PNC Grow Up Great has initially partnered with nationally renowned early education experts Family Communications, Inc., Head Start, PBS KIDS' Ready to Learn and Sesame Workshop to help pilot the program and advise us on how we can make a meaningful contribution to preparing children for school and life.

Having trouble getting your child to go to bed at night? Are you anxious about placing your child in day care for the first time? The University of Pittsburgh's Office of Early Childhood Development has provided the PNC Grow Up Great program with the following tips to assist parents and caregivers in these situations.

As part of PNC Grow Up Great, the corporation has convened an advisory council of some of the nation's most highly respected authorities within the early childhood field. These experts will help shepherd and guide the growth of PNC Grow Up Great. Among their many roles, they will stand with PNC to advocate for the issue, help identify opportunities for strategic alliances and work to evaluate the success of various outreach efforts.

All the partners have several characteristics in common: they are all leaders in the field of school readiness, focused on children from birth to age five, and are nationally recognized for their work.

Family Communications, Inc.

Family Communications, Inc., producer of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, is a not-for-profit company that creates a wide range of multi-media materials dedicated to young children, their families and those who support them.

PNC will work with FCI to develop customized training workshops for directors and staff of early child-care and education programs to help them effectively use volunteers in high-quality programs for children. We will also develop workshops for PNC employees teaching best approaches to participating in school readiness programs such as Head Start.

- Click here to visit the FCI website

Sesame Workshop

Sesame Workshop, creator of Sesame Street, is a nonprofit educational organization making a meaningful difference in the lives of children around the world by addressing their critical developmental needs. The Workshop develops innovative and engaging educational content for television, radio, books, magazines, interactive media and outreach.

PNC will sponsor Sesame Street broadcast programming and the development of new, interactive school readiness content. Together, we will provide school readiness kits (complete with an educational DVD) and custom publications to parents and children.

- Click here to visit the Sesame Workshop website

Head Start

Founded in 1965, Head Start is a comprehensive, nonprofit child development program for children, from birth to age five, and their families. Head Start's mission is to prepare young children from low-income families to succeed in school and give them the basic skills necessary to succeed in life.

As a pilot component of PNC Grow Up Great, The PNC Foundation is working with Head Start programs in Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio to establish PNC Grow Up Great Demonstration Projects. For this, The PNC Foundation will provide grants for Head Start Demonstration Projects that will stand as models of achievement in areas including language development, literacy, math, science, creative arts, social and emotional development and physical health.

In addition, PNC will develop a robust volunteer program to extend support to all Head Start programs in communities served by PNC. PNC is working to give over 25,000 volunteer hours in the first year of PNC Grow Up Great.

PNC also plans to work with the National Head Start Association and the Head Start Bureau to develop programs that allow access to additional funding, volunteerism, leadership and in-kind resources to enable Head Start to strengthen its existing programs and ultimately extend services and learnings to all young children and caregivers in their communities.

- Click here to visit the NHSA website

PBS Member Stations

PNC Grow Up Great is working with a PBS member station in each of the markets we serve.

PBS KIDS' Ready to Learn is public broadcasting's ongoing contribution to help children arrive at school ready to learn. They offer a block of educational children's programming with accompanying interactive online resources for children, their parents and their caregivers, along with free local workshops teaching adults to use television as a positive force in children's lives.

PNC will underwrite blocks of regionally based PBS KIDS programming and will sponsor a series of Ready to Learn workshops for parents and caregivers in communities served by PNC.

- Click here to visit the PBS website