The first five years of a child’s life can have an extraordinary impact on their future. Whether kids possess certain “readiness skills” by the time they step into a kindergarten classroom—things like being able to listen and follow instructions, count to 10, hold a pencil, use the bathroom independently, or share and take turns—not only determines how well they’ll do academically and socially by the time they hit eighth grade, but also predicts their ability to problem solve, manage their time and get along with colleagues once they enter the workforce.
These readiness skills aren’t hard-wired at birth though—they’re cultivated during a child’s early years by families, caregivers, communities and educators. But not all families have the time, support, finances or resources to ensure their kids get access to the high-quality early care and education programs that will prepare them for kindergarten. And in fact, every year, 40% of children start kindergarten one to three years behind.
Suzan Gage, executive director of the Early Learning Coalition of Northwest Florida, understands this all too well. Since 2005, ELCNWF has been helping families in seven mostly rural counties in Florida’s panhandle find and pay for child care, early education services, developmental screenings, and referrals for additional services that suit their unique needs, ensuring that as many kids as possible start kindergarten with their backpacks full of the tools they need to succeed in school and beyond.
“Affordability and accessibility are big issues—not just here in our area, but across the state and across the country,” Gage says. “We have to make sure that not only can working families afford care, but that facilities meet their needs, with many working odd hours or second or third shifts.”
ELCNWF’s mission is to make sure that every single child in their region— regardless of their economic or personal circumstances—starts kindergarten ready to learn. But accommodating the varying needs of the nearly 1.5 million people who live in the Florida panhandle can be overwhelming. Gage and her staff at ELCNWF realized they needed support and took a chance on applying for a grant from Voices for Healthy Kids.
“Every family is so different. It’s a little bit like trying to hit a bullseye every single time,” says Gage. “I thought to myself, how wonderful would it be if we could be selected by Voices for Healthy Kids to gain really experienced communications, networking, legal and project management wisdom from an organization that has done this kind of work already across the country? They’re a place that has the infrastructure to support entities like ours. So, we took a shot and wrote our grant application, and we were selected, which floored me!”
She says that the Voices for Healthy Kids’ grant has allowed her organization to “dream big” without the usual restrictions that come with such funding.
“It’s really unheard of for a funder to come to you and say, ‘Hey, Suzan, dream up something, and we’ll help you bring it to life.’ The fact that they believed in us was huge—they believed that an entity in a rural area could make a difference. They were willing to take a chance and to pass their incredible expertise and connections on to us. Having Voices for Healthy Kids work with us this year allowed us to see possibilities that we were hesitant to even dream about before.”
After only a year, ELCNWF has already begun to reap the rewards of Voices for Healthy Kids’ deep well of knowledge. Gage says that being able to tap Voices for Healthy Kids’ experience in everything from communicating in conservative environments to obtaining specific demographic data about the panhandle’s rural counties to better understand the nuances of advocacy, lobbying, and policy work have been a game changer. “We had the opportunity to attend the Voices for Healthy Kids Summit, which brought us together with others in the field to exchange ideas and learn how other organizations all over the country are tackling similar challenges. It was so empowering and encouraging to be brought into the fold of all this incredible expertise, to bring our strengths together for a common cause.”
For Gage and ELCNWF, there’s still a lot of work to be done, but having Voices for Healthy Kids on their side is huge.
“Voices for Healthy Kids could have just said, ‘Here’s the grant, good luck, we’ll come back to you.’ But that’s not how it works—they check in with us constantly, asking how it’s going, have we considered this or that, are we interested in this opportunity. I think it’s the embodiment of what collective working together is, and it’s incredible.”
She sees this partnership as a win-win, not just for the organization, but for all the families in the Florida panhandle.
“Our area is a great place to live—it’s rural, it’s coastal, it’s so many beautiful things. I’m so grateful to Voices for Healthy Kids that they’re helping us to ensure that the seven counties we serve are some of the best places for families to live and that young children here can be on the path to a successful, healthy future.”