PROVIDENCE — Providence is one of six cities selected by the National League of Cities and the United Way of America to receive technical assistance to help child-care providers do a better job of preparing children to succeed when they enter kindergarten.

With backing from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, this initiative will strengthen the city’s efforts to support informal child-care givers and help other cities promote school readiness by developing practices that can be duplicated elsewhere. As part of the Promoting School Readiness Initiative, Providence will create a care providers’ business plan and integrate child-care providers within the city’s early education system.

“United Way and city leaders can work together to create a local infrastructure designed to prepare young children with the basic skills needed for academic success,” said Niña Sazer O’Donnell, director of national strategies for the United Way’s Success by 6 Campaign. “This type of collaborative model will go far toward [ensuring] that all children are truly prepared and ready to succeed when they go to school.”

The National League of Cities Institute for Youth, Education and Families will provide practical advice, information and networking opportunities to elected officials in Providence to help them develop more effective pre-school programs.

“We want to ensure that all young children are in sound early education experiences,” said Tonja Rucker, the league’s senior program associate for early childhood development, “and that they are exposed to literacy and sound cognitive development, whether it’s in a formal or informal child-care setting.”

Rucker said that Providence was selected because of the city’s commitment to early childhood education. The other cities participating in the program are Atlanta, Denver, Des Moines, Nashville and San Antonio.

In early 2003, Ready to Learn Providence, a program of The Providence Plan, set out to examine and document the well-being of the city’s young children and their readiness for school. The committee identified the most important issues that affect a child’s readiness for school and developed ways to measure those issues.

According to Ready to Learn’s research, Providence has the third-highest rate of child poverty in the nation among cities with a population of 100,000 or more. In three neighborhoods, Olneyville, Upper South Providence and the West End, fewer than half of all adults have completed high school. Median family incomes are as low as $11,000 in pockets of some neighborhoods.

Children living in poverty are more likely to have health and behavioral problems — and experience difficulty in school — than those who do not.

With the high cost of housing, health care, food and utilities, even families whose income is 100 percent higher than the federal poverty level find it difficult to meet all of their basic living expenses, according to Ready to Learn’s report, How Ready is Providence?

lborg@projo.com