Columbia/Marion County Excel By 5

Welcome to Columbia/Marion County Excel by 5!

Our journey began in 2016, with a vision from Lisa White to bring Excel By 5 to our community. Through many obstacles including but not limited to natural disasters and COVID we have persevered and reached the goal of becoming a certified early childhood community!!! We became officially certified in August 2022, thanks to outstanding  leadership of our Steering Committee Chairperson, Ms. Ryda Worthy and Certification Manager, Libby Aaron.

Excel By 5 is a community-based certification program designed to improve a child’s overall well-being by age five. It is the first of its kind in the United States. This program emphasizes the important roles communities play to ensure that our children in Columbia/Marion County are happy, healthy, and ready to learn when they reach kindergarten.

Columbia/Marion County Excel By 5 provides resources for our children and parents in our city/county. We are accomplishing this by partnering with our awesome public library system, our child care centers, school districts, and the Marion County Development Partnership.  

Thanks to our coalition members who persevered with us throughout the journey and are continuing to work with us to carry on with meeting the needs of our Columbia/Marion County community.