Fresno Area Strive partners with First 5 Fresno County, striving for academic success

First 5 Fresno County partners with family focused organizations providing resources for kids, students and families. As part of our Family Focus series we take a look at how the Fresno Area Strive connects with First 5 Fresno County and how they continue to strive for success.

Fresno Area strive serves people in the community who are facing challenges. Eric Johnson with Fresno Compact says it’s a national movement focusing on cradle to career network, looking at the whole spectrum with a single goal: help kids and adults to succeed.

Fresno compact and Fresno Area Strive work closely with First 5 Fresno County, their goals are to prepare children for school, support them in and out of school, promote a healthy lifestyle and focus on higher education and career training. "Seeing a need to work with education to again improve education outcomes to be able to hire workers to be able to advance the economy," said Johnson.

Experts say, academic success often times comes down to strong support systems for all children and families. Preston Prince, President of Fresno Housing Authority works with many educational organizations in the county, he knows first hand that education starts in the home.

"What First 5 is helping us do is not us be the teacher of the parents but work with the parents so that they can learn the skills from each other so it’s a comprehensive and thoughtful approach," said Preston Prince, President of Fresno Housing Authority.

It’s something Fresno County continues to strive for. "First 5 really reminded us to partner with school districts to partner with our parents… partner with community members… partner with volunteer organizations and through those partnerships our children are going to do just better," said Prince.