The environment for a child matters. The advantages and disadvantages children inherit from their families, neighborhoods, early care and schooling will either support or deny them the opportunity of attaining later success.

On almost every measure of well-being for which data are collected, poor children in America fare worse than more affluent kids. Often, those with difficulties in childhood see them persist in adolescence and adulthood.

Opportunity gaps lead to achievement gaps. While good schools can make great strides toward helping poor children achieve more, educational inequity is rooted in economic distress and social dysfunction too deep to be solved by schools alone. Heaping all of the burdens of poverty upon the school system dilutes its mission of high-quality education.

To counteract these structural barriers to learning success, other institutions are demonstrating replicable interventions with impressive results. Mobilizing institutions that are integrally tied with family and community supports, early childhood and after-school programs are part of the critical equation for improving prospects for “this army of otherwise lost children,” Susan Neuman, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Elementary and Secondary Education, writes in her 2009 book Changing the Odds for Children at Risk.

In Columbus, myriad programs provide support to disadvantaged kids where they live. These are our community health clinics, libraries and mobile reading vans, settlement houses and youth centers, community centers and outreach programs, neighborhood early-learning centers, mentorship and after-school programs. This network eases the complexity and challenges around living and learning for families at risk.

An example is Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Pediatricians and other specialists at its 10 primary care centers treat low-income children in their neighborhoods. Two mobile units visit Columbus schools with needy student bodies, providing primary care, including screenings for vision and hearing, asthma, dental caries, iron deficiency, diabetes and sexually transmitted diseases. Undiagnosed and untreated health problems, found in greater abundance among poor and uninsured children, increase classroom absences and hinder academic achievement.

“You’re reaching kids before their medical conditions get really bad for them,” says Dr. Olivia Thomas, chief of ambulatory pediatrics at Children’s and medical director of the hospital’s Reach Out and Read program.

Children’s Reach Out and Read is one of the nation’s most successful, involving nearly 70 pediatricians at its primary care centers and main hospital. Youth from 6 months to age 5 receive new books during their routine well-child visits. Pediatricians use the books to assess developmental milestones while promoting literacy at a young age.

Libraries are singularly important in poor communities, sometimes the only source of literacy for families. At Columbus Metropolitan Library, Executive Director Pat Losinski says the library is there to support schools.

“We work with the school system so it’s not the schools doing everything on their own,” he says.

The library developed a Young Minds Continuum several years ago to frame its work with children, segmenting programs for before school, during school and when youngsters are out of school. Its signature Ready to Read program works in targeted communities, such as Weinland Park and Linden, where reading readiness assessment scores are low. The library provides literacy workshops for at-risk parents and caregivers and deploys bookmobiles to childcare sites, Head Start centers and pre-kindergarten classrooms in six at-risk neighborhoods. Homework Help centers in each of the library’s 21 branches helped 52,000 students last year.

After-school programs – such as those offered by the Short Stop Youth Center, YMCA’s Y-Club and Hilltop Teen Program, YWCA Family Center, Communities in Schools, Boys and Girls clubs, Columbus Urban League, St. Stephen’s Community House and Central Community House – serve as beacons of hope for hundreds of Franklin County children every year, breaking the cycle of disadvantage that lies outside the influence of the school day. In study after study, effective after-school programs deliver the greatest benefit for children in urban, high-crime neighbor- hoods, helping them develop social skills, improve school effort and improve behavior. Enrolling children in their early years, particularly kindergarten through third grade, yields the strongest influence on academic performance.

All of these efforts point to the need for integration of community services with our schools. Programs must be funded based on what provides solid returns over time. Learn4Life, a coalition of businesses, nonprofits, education and civic groups, is aligning the community agenda into a framework that will focus on the Columbus urban center and the children residing there from cradle to career. Involved in Learn4Life are American Electric Power, Battelle, Crane Group, JPMorgan Chase, Nationwide, Columbus City Schools, Columbus Metropolitan Library, Columbus State Community College, Directions for Youth and Families, Kidsohio.org, Ohio State University, Columbus Foundation and United Way.

By 2018, it is estimated 57 percent of jobs in Ohio will require post-secondary education, according to a Georgetown University study. To achieve success at the post-secondary level, a singular focus on high school reform or mentoring programs, for example, isn’t enough. Learn4Life will focus on the journey – from kindergarten readiness to essential literacy, school transitions, high school achievement and college readiness – relying heavily on data and facts. With its community partners, the coalition will consider the effects of health and wellness, social- emotional issues and community factors that contribute to learning success. In the process, gaps and duplications likely will be discovered. This group’s work will be to identify best practices and bring the support of the community to those programs for greatest effectiveness.

The question our community must continue to ask of any program that works is whether it can be developed to improve systemwide success in our city schools. Only then can we reach the goal of educational success for the child, family and community.

This is the final part of a three-column series by LINDA KASS, chairwoman of Champion of Children, an initiative of the United Way of Central Ohio.