In
MAY 2023 EDITION
Conversation
IN CONVERSATION WITH ORGANIZATIONS SUPPORTING CHILDREN AND FAMILIES. INTERVIEW BY WES ROBERTS EDITED BY BARBIE HEIT
LET’S START OFF WITH A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOURSELVES AND WHAT YOU DO. BRONWYN BEIGHTOL: I’ve been with United Way for 15 years, but I’ve been working in the nonprofit sector for more than 25 years now, and I’ve had the privilege of focusing mostly on early education in that work. From the United Way Suncoast standpoint, we believe that everybody deserves equitable access to opportunities to create the lives they imagine. We act on that belief by partnering with businesses, nonprofits, media, government, and our community to focus on early education. PHILIP TAVILL: We are an early childhood comprehensive provider and family strengthening program serving Sarasota County.
BRONWYN BEIGHTOL, CHIEF IMPACT OFFICER UNITED WAY SUNCOAST
HOW DOES YOUR ORGANIZATION CONNECT WITH CHILDREN IN OUR REGION AND WHAT ARE THE SPACES OR ENVIRONMENTS IN WHICH YOUR INFLUENCE IS FOCUSED. BEIGHTOL: I’d like to think that we intersect with children and families in most of the ways that children and families live their lives. So from a partnering perspective, we’re involved with the nonprofits in our community, bringing alignment, collaboration, and strategic focus in particular areas. If we’re talking about early education, in just the past few years, we’ve started focusing on our Quality Child Care Initiative, which is making sure that there are quality childcare opportunities for families that we refer to as ALICE– Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed– basically in our community, more
than half who are working hard every single day trying to make ends meet, and realizing that the cost of childcare can cost as much as a year’s worth of tuition at USF. The Quality Child Care Initiative is making sure that our childcare centers have what they need to provide services for our families. And that can be anywhere from educational materials, to professional development support, to behavioral health support, and to making sure that our centers have the materials that they need to be successful. One quick story that came to light even moreso after this latest hurricane, is that a center can’t function, can’t operate if it doesn’t have the necessary equipment or safety protocols in place. So we had a center that lost a fence and lost some of their outside toys and they couldn’t open up without having that available. You
PHILIP TAVILL, PRESIDENT AND CEO CHILDREN FIRST
would think if the inside is okay, everything’s going to be alright. It’s not. So we worked with our Early Learning Coalition, which is another wonderful partnership. This was in DeSoto County, and we made sure that they had what they needed and got that sorted out so that they could get opened up as soon as possible, and serve our communities and families. Because again, families needed to go to work. And our children still needed to be in an early educational environment, for more reasons than just families going to work. TAVILL: We have multiple sites throughout the county from North Port to Newtown. And our connection with children is really year-round. Infant and toddler care, beginning with services to pregnant moms, taking babies into our care at six weeks of age, and working
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