How does ICM’s childhood education program live up to our core values?

Childhood education which is Focused, Effective, Efficient and Scalable.

Every child deserves to walk into their first day of school ready to learn. But for families living in extreme poverty — surviving on less than $0.65 a day — that first step can feel impossibly far away. Without early childhood education, the poorest children fall behind before they even begin. And once behind, catching up becomes harder with every passing year.

ICM’s Family Academy was built to change that. In just ten weeks, it equips the most vulnerable preschoolers with the math and phonics skills they need to thrive in school — while training their parents to become their child’s first and most important teacher.

In everything we do, ICM aims to live out our four strategic values: Focused, Effective, Efficient and Scalable. Here’s how our Family Academy education program is perfectly aligned with these values.

Focused: Reaching the Children Who Need It Most

Family Academy doesn’t cast a wide net. It goes directly to ultra-poor communities — the families most likely to be left out of traditional education systems — and delivers learning where children actually are: at home, within their own communities, through local churches.

Volunteer coaches trained by ICM lead the sessions, meeting parents and children in their own neighborhoods. This keeps costs low and trust high. Families who might never walk into a formal classroom open their doors to a coach they already know.

The program is currently active in the Philippines, Uganda, and Guatemala, with materials available in three Philippine languages, Luganda, and Q’eqchi’ — because education only works when it speaks your language.

Effective: Proven by Oxford University

Family Academy isn’t built on good intentions alone. A randomized controlled trial conducted with Oxford University confirmed that the program significantly improves educational outcomes for children in ultra-poor households.

The results speak for themselves. In the Philippines, children who completed Family Academy showed a 49% increase in math scores and a 156% increase in phonics scores. In Uganda, the gains were even more dramatic — a 392% increase in math and a 5,900% increase in phonics. Across the board, 58% of children demonstrated measurably improved learning skills, and 60% of parents developed new skills to support their child’s education at home.

Oxford researchers also found that Family Academy outperforms 80% of the 200 high-quality early childhood education interventions they examined globally. For a program serving families in some of the world’s most challenging conditions, that is a remarkable result.

Efficient: $95 to Change the Trajectory of a Child’s Life

The full Family Academy program costs just $95 per child. For that investment, a child gains the foundational skills to enter school ready — and research shows that children who start school prepared are far more likely to stay in school, perform well, and break the cycle of poverty their families have known for generations.

Because Family Academy runs through ICM’s existing network of local churches and trained volunteer coaches, it requires no heavy infrastructure. When our partner Nomura came alongside the program in the Philippines, the number of children served grew threefold in a single year — from 1,963 to 5,792. That kind of scale doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because the model was built to multiply.

Scalable: 22,000+ Children Across Three Countries and Growing

What began in the Philippines has now reached Uganda and Guatemala. More than 22,000 children have graduated from Family Academy ready for kindergarten — each one a child who entered the program at risk of falling permanently behind.

The secret to this scale is simple: local ownership. Volunteer coaches carry the program forward long after ICM’s initial training. They are mothers, fathers, and community members who have seen the results firsthand and want the same for their neighbors. This is not a program that depends on outside experts. It belongs to the communities it serves.

A Future Worth Investing In

Family Academy is one of the clearest examples of what strategic philanthropy can accomplish. The evidence is peer-reviewed. The cost is measurable. The impact is permanent.

When a child walks into kindergarten ready to learn, something shifts — not just for that child, but for their family, their community, and the generation that follows.

We are grateful for every supporter who has made this possible. And we believe the best is still ahead.

Want to help more children take their first step? Donate now.