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PNC Grow Up Great

For nearly 20 years, PNC has championed high-quality early childhood education through PNC Grow Up Great, a multi-year, bilingual initiative to help prepare children from birth to age 5 for success in school in life. When the company accelerated its growth journey in Orange County last year, local PNC leaders placed a pronounced emphasis on collaborating with nonprofits such as Pretend City Children’s Museum to help bring its commitment to early childhood education to life locally. PNC’s support for Pretend City has helped deliver the Good to Grow program to local families and children. Good to Grow is a series of early childhood development classes for low-income parents and children, funded by a grant from the PNC Foundation.

Good to Grow classes educate families about five areas of early childhood development: communication, gross motor, fine motor, problem-solving and personal-social skills. Through informative presentations, parents gain valuable insights into their child’s developmental milestones and receive practical tools to support their growth. Additionally, Pretend City offers specialized parenting classes, including “mommy and me” and “daddy and me,” giving parents the knowledge and tools they need to effectively navigate the early stages of their children’s lives.

In just its first year, Good to Grow is already producing positive outcomes for participating families. Caregivers that are part of the program reported a significant increase in understanding of and regular engagement in behaviors that support early development, including vocabulary building techniques like singing songs and practicing words and sounds. Additionally, those same caregivers indicated they formed strong relationships and community, an aspect which provides dividends to both the children and the adults that care for them.

Studies show that supporting high-quality early childhood education can generate up to a 13% return on investment. Not only does supporting high-quality early childhood education make good economic sense, supporting children’s educational attainment plants the seeds for the dynamic workforce of tomorrow. This is one of many reasons why PNC is committed to investing in impactful programs, like Good to Grow, that provide long-term benefits for early learners in Orange County and across the country.

Working together, PNC through its Grow Up Great initiative, and Pretend City, can help move Orange County families, and the greater Orange County community, forward into their bright futures.