Mountain America and the Arizona Coyotes Continue to Support Early Childhood Development Through the "Guiding You Forward" Program

The first five years of a child’s life are critical for development. Providing young children with adaptive equipment and promoting early literacy help lay the foundation for future successes. As the largest early childhood development nonprofit organization in Arizona, Southwest Human Development offers critical resources to 140,000 children, their families and professionals each year.
 
The “Guiding You Forward” program was developed to encourage early childhood development and help children live their best lives possible. For the second year, Mountain America Credit Union and the Arizona Coyotes Foundation will present a $50,000 check to Southwest Human Development to support the following initiatives:
 

• The Virtual Little Free Library expands literacy opportunities for families throughout the community, giving parents access to hundreds of high-quality children’s books for free. 
   

• The MAKERS of Change Assistive Technology Challenge provides high school STEM students the opportunity to support Southwest Human Development’s ADAPT Shop, creating life-changing equipment such as seating supports, custom wheelchairs and walkers for young children with disabilities. This year, teams worked remotely to develop software projects that demonstrated their gained knowledge about the practical application of technology solutions to support those with disabilities.

 
This season’s $50,000 donation to Southwest Human Development brings the total program contributions to $100,000.

To commemorate Read Across America Day on March 2, community members can make donations to the virtual book drive.