In
ENGAGING READERS THROUGH STORYTELLING WITH REGIONAL PHILANTHROPY LEADERS
TRENDS IN SERVING CHILDREN AND FAMILIES IN SARASOTA AND MANATEE COUNTIES
Conversation
ON SERVING CHILDREN AND FAMILIES IN THE REGION A CONVERSATION WITH PHILIP TAVILL, PRESIDENT & CEO OF CHILDREN FIRST
PHILIP TAVILL serves as President & CEO of Children First, Sarasota County’s exclusive Head Start provider, where he is celebrating 30 years of leading the organization. He obtained a baccalaureate degree in psychology from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in 1989. He returned to Sarasota and was appointed Executive Director of the Loveland Center in 1991. Subsequently, at Case Western Reserve University, he earned a Master of Nonprofit Organizations from the Weatherhead School of Management and a Master of Science in Social Administration from the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences. Mr. Tavill has worked in the human services field in both direct service and management capacities for more than 36 years. In 2022, Mr. Tavill received the Mandel School Alumni Association Nonprofit Leadership Award. Most recently, he was recognized with the Billy J. McCain, Sr. Excellence in Community Service Award from the National Head Start Association and the Sargent Shriver Community Service Award from the Florida Head Start Association for his impact in elevating excellence across the Head Start community.
THIS YEAR MARKS TWO REMARKABLE MILESTONES—65 YEARS OF SERVICE FOR CHILDREN FIRST AND YOUR 30TH ANNIVERSARY AS CEO. WHAT DOES THIS MOMENT MEAN TO YOU PERSONALLY, AND WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT THE ENDURING MISSION OF THE ORGANIZATION? PHILIP TAVILL I have this incredible opportunity to do such important and significant work with such an incredible agency and that is truly a gift for me. I believe that our celebration of a 65th anniversary is rooted in several things. The first one is that we are just extraordinarily true to mission. Everything that we do is through the mission lens. That’s from governance, to our staff, to our volunteers, to our community partners and to our donors. I have a little plaque on the windowsill behind me that says, “Many hands
make light work.” And it’s very clear that while I’m so fortunate to celebrate my 30th as the head of the organization, it’s many hands making light work of what, on some days, is incredibly heavy lifting. And we’ve just been so consistent. We’ve been so persistent. We are all about the mission. We’re all about partnerships. When people choose to be involved with Children First, it really is with their whole heart. That means so much in terms of why we’ve had this longevity. LOOKING BACK OVER SIX AND A HALF DECADES, HOW HAS CHILDREN FIRST EVOLVED? TAVILL I’ll start with what has stayed the same. Very simply, we began with a group of visionary women from what was then the Junior Welfare League—now the Junior League of Sarasota—an
all-volunteer group who asked a simple but powerful question: How do we help families with very young children so parents can work and support themselves? Their answer was to establish the Sarasota Day Nursery. That core mission hasn’t changed. We serve children well, we serve families well and we empower families—just as those women envisioned when they founded us in May of 1961. What has changed is the world around us. Life today is far more complex. Take social media, for example—the interconnectedness brings both opportunities and challenges. And when you think about Sarasota County today compared with when I moved here 47 years ago, the pace and complexity of life have grown dramatically. Now imagine navigating that world as a single parent—which describes nearly two-thirds of our families— trying to succeed economically,
sometimes pursuing education at the same time, while raising a very young child. In addition, early care and education have become significantly more expensive. Families certainly faced challenges in 1961, but the complexity today is different. We see single-parent households, grandparents raising grandchildren and rising expectations for what young children need to succeed. Because of that, our program has continually evolved. We adapt our planning every year— often month by month—to meet emerging needs. Over time, we’ve grown both broader and deeper in the services we provide. For example, we now have family advocates—what many organizations would call case managers—who work directly with families. When I first came to Children First, there were six staff members in those roles. Today we have eleven, all with
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