Organization of the Year
Nominees
Children’s Home Society was founded in Jacksonville in 1902, and is currently one of the oldest social service agencies in Florida.
The Children's Home Society of Florida (CHS) Intercoastal Division operates multiple programs that deliver a unique spectrum of social services designed to protect children at risk of abuse, neglect or abandonment; to strengthen and stabilize families; to help young people break the cycle of abuse and neglect; and to find safe, loving homes for children in Broward County. This holistic approach of addressing child abuse from both the prevention and intervention side utilizing best practices is one of the many ways we have been able to sustain for so many years.
The Intercoastal Division assisted more that 1,800 children and families during the fiscal year 2010-2011.
One of Children’s Home Society’s biggest strengths is 109 years of working within the child welfare system with a statewide collaborative effort. Through the generosity of and partnership with the Broward County Partnership Division and Children’s Services Council an agency assessment was completed early in the year. The senior members of the CHS management team prepared an analysis of the division, strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats (S.W.O.T ). This S.W.O. T. was then used to develop an internal strategic plan to help ensure program integrity, staff development and training and fiscal viability.
As a private non-profit organization, The Children's Home Society of Florida is committed to the delivery of the most effective and socially conscious services possible. The economic reality of doing more with less is a constant balance between worrying about the finances and ensuring our staff has the resources, training, and ability to continue to provide needed services.
Jack and Jill Children’s Center
It is the mission of Jack & Jill Children’s Center to break the cycle of poverty for children of low income hard working families by providing family oriented child care services and family intervention and support. Jack & Jill Children’s Center provides high quality early childhood education using a curriculum which supports the cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development of children using age-appropriate methods. Our focus is to enable children to grow in a safe, caring environment while also serving the needs of working parents and embracing and supporting not only the child, but the entire family. Over the last year, Jack & Jill has served more than 200 economically disadvantaged children ages 6 weeks – 5 years of age. The economic downturn has had the greatest impact on low-income, single mothers affecting almost 90% of the children and families we serve.
Our family education series was expanded to include a Financial Literacy and Work Empowerment courses in addition to our Abuse and Neglect Prevention Parenting Course. 42 families completed the parenting course which resulted in the risk for abuse and neglect decreasing from 51% to 21%. 15 families completed the 5 week Financial Literacy course which included topics such as creating a budget, establishing savings and understanding their credit. Through the Work Empowerment course, parents learned valuable skills such as resume writing and interview techniques. Thanks to these two programs, between October 1, 2010 and September 30, 2011, 64% of our families experienced an increase in their income.
Through our holistic approach involving quality early childhood education, family support, nutrition, health and preventative services, Jack & Jill reverses the staggering consequences of poverty on children, stabilizing their fragile families and assisting parents in raising children who become productive, welfare-free citizens of our community.
Leadership Broward Foundation
Leadership Broward Foundation, Inc. (LBF) is celebrating 30 years of leadership development training programming in Broward County. LBF offers six core leadership training programs: Leadership Broward adult program (LB), Youth Leadership Broward (YLB), Emerge Broward young professionals (EB), Senior Executive Orientation (SEO), Encore! Leadership Broward (Encore!) for people 55 and older, and Follow the Leader in You (FLY) for at-risk youth.
LBF board of directors and staff recognized that diversity is essential to success. All of LBF leadership programs are open to anyone who wishes to apply. Applicants reflect the diverse backgrounds and cultures reflective of our Broward County community and the make-up of the LBF class participants reflect that diversity as well. In the event the applicant pool (for adults and youth) is not diverse enough, additional outreach is conducted by notifying our community partners and colleagues to request their assistance in identifying additional candidates. We recruit participants all year long and we do include a check off box for ethnic background as part of the application to ensure we are reflecting our diverse population.
LBF has not just been involved in addressing one specific need/issue in our community, but many over our 30-year history. We provide opportunities for our community project teams to engage in collaborative problem solving who become change agents and community transformation agents.
A recent emerging issue that LBF identified as an opportunity to address by collaborating with other community partners was the 55+ adults (baby boomers) who were beginning to retire or who wished to pursue a different career path. LBF rolled out our first Encore! Leadership Broward Class to address the needs of this segment of our community in January 2011. Community outreach is currently underway to recruit participants for our fourth Encore! class scheduled to begin in January 2012. A key goal of the Encore! program is to serve as a “connector” and provide classes for life-long learning and volunteer opportunities for this emerging population.
