United Way, Subway Partnership to Help Young Children

Seven United Ways serving 10 Upstate counties launched a new partnership with Upstate SUBWAY® Sandwich Shops today to help maximize the early learning potential of young children and expand efforts to provide quality learning activities for parents and children.

The partnership with SUBWAY® is a significant addition to Born Learning Upstate SC, a public engagement campaign that aims to help parents, caregivers and communities provide young children with quality learning opportunities. The campaign is built around research that shows children are “born learning,” with the first three years of a child’s life proven to be an especially critical time. 

“This is when that brain is truly a sponge,” said Lisa Williams, board member of United Way of Oconee County and Lieutenant with the Seneca Police Department. “We as parents, grandparents, educators, police officers—all of us—must do what we can to ensure they’re soaking up the right things.”

One of the components of the campaign has been the installation of Born Learning Trails across the Upstate. These trails include fun, engaging activities designed to boost language and literacy skills, and encourage children and their families to be active physically and mentally. Trail locations can be found on the Born Learning Website, BornLearningUpstateSC.org, or by calling 2-1-1, United Way’s statewide, 24-hour resource line. 

“When we started this regional partnership in 2013, we launched with 15 trails across the region,” said Paige Stephenson, CEO of the United Way of the Piedmont. “I am excited to be able to announce today that we now have 40 trails throughout our communities in the Upstate of South Carolina. These trails are an important United Way strategy to foster quality parent-child interaction and help children along the path to school readiness.” 

In celebrating the 40 Born Learning Trails, the United Ways of the Upstate are launching a unique partnership with local SUBWAY® Sandwich Shops. Participating SUBWAY® locations will be offering Fresh Fit for Kids meal coupons to users of the trail.  There will be a SUBWAY® sign with a QR code somewhere along each of the 40 trails. When trail users find the sign, they can simply scan the QR code, answer a very brief survey and receive a SUBWAY® coupon.  This effort not only helps promote early learning and trail usage, it will also help local United Ways track the number of trail users. This will be used in planning for future trails. 

The announcement comes as a precursor to the 2016 Week of the Young Child (April 10– April 16), where child-friendly, educational activities are being held by United Ways and partner organizations throughout the Upstate throughout the week. A list of events can be found on the Born Learning Upstate website, BornLearningUpstateSC.org.

Born Learning Trails are located in the following locations in Anderson County:

Watson Park - 2005 Brookview Drive, Anderson, SC 29621 

South Main Chapel and Mercy Center - 2408 South Main, Anderson, SC 29624 

Anderson Civic Center - 3027 MLK Jr. Blvd., Anderson, SC 29625 

Mineral Springs Park - 121 West Main Street, Williamston, SC 29697