More than 200 people involved with improving the lives of Leon County’s kids and their families attended the community’s Ninth Annual Children’s Summit at the Turnbull Center on Wednesday, Nov. 29. A focus of the event was better collaboration and cooperation among the area’s various government and non-profit resources.
The problems facing too many kids and their families are well known: poverty, lack of educational readiness and health care, along with high crime environments. But the conference had an optimistic voice from the get-go. Keynote speaker Dipesh Navsaria, is a noted child development expert from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
“We should be able to tailor our interventions when we have a good eco-system of supports that we as a society are willing to fund and do. AND that are possible. We don’t need to throw up our hands and say, ‘We’ll never be able to solve all this!’ We have the solutions. We just need to decide if we’re going to invest in them in a clear and convincing manner.”
And investing more in children and family well-being efforts isn’t just an exercise in altruism. Florida Chamber Foundation Vice President Kyle Baltuch argued that there are cold, hard economic reasons for putting more resources into those programs. He said there’s a solid link between Florida’s shrinking work force and the lack of affordable and accessible child care.
“And what we find is that the number one reason that parents of children under the age of 5 are leaving the workforce. In fact, 28% of Florida parents of children under the age of 5 have left their job in the past year due to child care challenges.”
One summit attendee who believes those extra investments should come as soon as possible in a child’s life is Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil. He said the county’s detention facility is full of people whose childhood traumas became adult criminality.
“We’ve got to get more resources on the front end. But first of all we’ve got to get our community - and I love the conversation we had today - dealing with social issues, but the economic impact on us as well and that’s the thing I think is getting most people’s attention today.”
Three years ago, Leon County voters approved the creation of a property tax-supported Children’s Services Council to concentrate and coordinate programs for kids and their families. In response to those who say they haven’t seen much in the way of results, CSC Executive Director Cecka Rose Green said, “Be patient.”
“So we would just ask that our citizens partner with us, give us that space to really get things turning and moving and know that it’s an iterative process. But with consistency, we will start to see things change in a positive direction for our children, youth and families.”
This was the ninth annual local children’s summit. A straw poll of participants seemed to suggest that next year’s event be changed from half-a-day to a full-day to allow more interaction among the dozens of organizations.
