Bank of America Announces $200,000 in Grants to Support United Way in Chicago's Success by 6 Initiative

5/8/2002

From: Jim Kales of the United Way, 312-906-2393

CHICAGO, May 8 -- Bank of America Foundation has announced $200,000 in grants to United Way in Chicago's Success By 6 initiative. The two-year grants are part of $10 million being contributed to 112 United Ways across the country. The funds will bring together community stakeholders to help ensure that all children enter school ready to succeed.

"This partnership among Bank of America, United Way in Chicago and Success By 6 focuses on helping children in Chicago succeed in their early years," said Terry Perucca, president of Bank of America, Illinois. "Children's issues are complex and vary greatly from community to community. The ability to customize the initiative to meet our local needs is highly beneficial."

This is the fourth phase of a $50 million Bank of America commitment to United Ways in support of Success By 6, the largest commitment the Foundation has ever made and one of the largest corporate grants in history. Success By 6 works to ensure that all children develop the emotional, social, cognitive and physical capacities and skills they need to enter school ready to succeed.

"In Chicago, a key Success by 6 goal is to improve the quality of child care services for economically disadvantaged families," said Paul Snyder, chair of United Way in Chicago's Success by 6 Initiative and managing partner, KPMG. "By providing training, mentoring and accreditation assistance to Chicago's child care providers, more of our young children will be nurtured in quality environments."

Early childhood development has reached a critical crossroads in our country. In the United States, more than 12 million children -- one out of six -- live in poverty. High-quality child care is difficult to find. Recent research shows that a child's brain grows to more than 80 percent of its adult size by age 3, and that early environmental influences can have a lasting impact on development, affecting the way connections between brain cells are made.

About Bank of America

The Bank of America Foundation directs charitable giving on behalf of Bank of America. The Foundation provides grants to nonprofit partners that use creativity and imagination to help America's children succeed in life, neighborhoods flourish and communities prosper.

One of the world's leading financial services companies, Bank of America is committed to making banking work for customers like it never has before. Through innovative technologies and the ingenuity of its people, Bank of America provides individuals, small businesses and commercial, corporate and institutional clients across the United States and around the world new and better ways to manage their financial lives. The company enables customers to do their banking and investing whenever, wherever and however they choose through the nation's largest financial services network, including approximately 4,400 domestic offices and 13,000 ATMs, as well as 38 international offices serving clients in 190 countries, and a web site that provides online access for more than 3 million active users, more than any other bank.

Bank of America stock (ticker: BAC) is listed on the New York, Pacific and London stock exchanges. The company's Web site is http://www.bankofamerica.com. News, speeches and other corporate information may be found at www.bankofamerica.com/newsroom.

About United Way in Chicago

Through a family of 412 local agencies, United Way works across the metropolitan area to create stronger and healthier communities. The United Way system in metropolitan Chicago consists of two partners: United Way in Chicago and the United Way of Suburban Chicago, a federation of 52 community United Ways.