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Ready Region West

We are proud to have been selected as the lead organization for Ready Region West.

As a Ready Region lead organization, we are part of a statewide network bringing strategic leadership and coordination of early childhood care and education (ECCE) services and resources to prepare all children and families for success.

Our footprint

Ready Region West oversees early education programs in communities that extend past United Way of Virginia’s Blue Ridge primary footprint.

United Way of Virginia’s Blue Ridge service area

Botetourt, Craig, Franklin, Roanoke City, Roanoke County, Salem

Ready Region West covers the following as well

Alleghany, Bath, Buena Vista, Covington, Henry, Highland, Lexington, Martinsville, Patrick, Rockbridge

As a Ready Region lead organizations, we focus on:
Strengthening Quality

We will ensure all components are in place to coordinate quality measurement and guide improvement in publicly funded classrooms as part of VQB5.

To prepare all children for kindergarten and in response to state law, Virginia has developed the Unified Virginia Quality Birth to Five System (VQB5) to measure and help improve the quality of all publicly-funded birth-to-five classrooms and support families to choose quality programming across program types.

All publicly-funded birth-to-five early childhood programs are required to participate in VQB5 on an annual basis. Programs that do not receive public funding have the option to participate. Details available on the VQB5 Participation Requirements webpage.

VQB5 Quality Profiles (with information about early childhood program performance on quality measures and other topics of interest to families, policy makers, and the public) is available at EarlyChildhoodQuality.doe.virginia.gov

Ready Regions coordinate and support participation in VQB5 for early childhood care and education (ECCE) programs in the region.

To enroll in VQB5 contact:
Denise Ellis | dellis@uwvbr.org | (540) 777-4206

The Virginia Department of Education administers VQB5 as established by the Virginia Board of Education. To learn more, visit the VDOE Quality Measurement and Improvement website or e-mail vqb5@doe.virginia.edu. 

Building Relationships

We will engage with leaders across the region to facilitate buy-in for shared accountability and benefit.

Ready Region West is committed to partnering with other organizations and stakeholders to implement this work.

Increasing Access

We will administer Mixed Delivery programming in the region, and coordinate enrollment to help parents learn about and access ECCE services that meet their needs and preferences, while helping ECCE providers connect with and serve more families.

Ready Region West identifies high quality child care centers and home-based child care to participate in Mixed Delivery.

VECF’s Mixed Delivery program provides public funding for ECCE services for eligible children, birth to five. It helps address the growing demand for full-day, year-round ECCE services that meets families’ needs and preferences. Mixed Delivery also tests strategies to solve the tough issues that site leaders and families face, including increasing teacher salaries to improve recruitment and retention. To learn more about Mixed Delivery visit VECF’s website.

Quality early learning experiences are essential for preparing children to succeed in kindergarten and beyond. This impact is life-long – research has shown that children who participate in high-quality early childhood care and education (ECCE) programs are more likely to finish college, be gainfully employed, and be healthier later in life. The Mixed Delivery program provides publicly funded ECCE services in licensed (non-faith-based), private ECCE settings for eligible children. It funds full-day, year-round ECCE services for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, meeting growing demand for publicly funded ECCE at private sites that meet varied needs and preferences of families.


Ready Regions is working to coordinate enrollment across publicly funded ECCE programs in the region, such as child care centers and home-based child care (including those participating in VECF’s Mixed Delivery program), Head Start, Virginia Preschool Initiative, and others to:

  • Help parents easily learn where there are available spots for their children, what they qualify for, and information such as cost, hours, and location. Visit our VA Ready to Find Child Care Marketplace
  • Help ECCE providers keep enrollment numbers high, communicate when they have spots available, and be able to cover the true costs of quality services.
Engaging Families

We will support a Family Council, made up of families from across our region to ensure the early childhood system is designed to work for families.

Our Family Council provides input on early childhood design and decisions, and helps our Ready Region understand and better meet families’ needs.

Families must be engaged in designing an early childhood system that works for them. To do this, Ready Regions will connect with families and communities to better understand and provide the ECCE programs that meet families’ needs.


To learn more about our Family Engagement Council and how to get involved, contact: families@uwrv.org

For more information about child care supply and demand, and child child and family outcomes in our region and in Virginia, visit the Ready Region ECCE Supply/Demand Dashboard.

Child Care Start-Up & Expansion Resource Guide

This start-up and expansion resource guide is for funding, licensing, workforce & business support for child care providers across United Way of Virginia’s Blue Ridge – Ready Region West region.

Find resources in your area
  1. Select your location from the drop down menu.
  2. Select the resource type and focus area.
  3. Select a website from the menu.
  4. Click the button to generate a live link.
Childcare Support Inventory
Start Over
Patrick Martinsville Franklin Roanoke City Salem Henry Roanoke Craig Botetourt Lexington Rockbridge Alleghany Highlands

A unique approach to early childhood systems-building in Virginia

Learn more about Ready Regions and how the program is designed to bring unprecedented levels of coordination, accountability, and family engagement to early education in every community in the Commonwealth in the podcast below!

A Unique Approach to Early Childhood Systems-Building in Virginia – Early Childhood Policy Matters

In this episode, we explore Virginia’s unique “Ready Regions” program, designed to bring unprecedented levels of coordination, accountability, and family engagement to early education programs in every community in the Commonwealth. Host Laura Kassner joins leaders from the state and regional levels in Virginia to discuss the program, developed with support from the Preschool Development Grants Birth-To-Five initiative, and their recommendations for early childhood leaders in states across the country. Guests include Kris Meyers, Associate Director of Quality Measurement and Improvement with the Virginia Department of Education; and Catie Sumner, Preschool Development Grant Coordinator with the United Way of Roanoke Valley. Early Childhood Policy Matters is supported by the National Technical Assistance Center for Preschool Development Grants Birth through Five, funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Child Care. For episode transcripts and more information visit: https://childcareta.acf.hhs.gov/resource/early-childhood-policy-matters-podcast  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript is available and can be found here.