Community Voice

Water Safety

Water Safety is an important skill that we should be teaching ourselves and our youth. Living so close to several large bodies of water, it is a goal of ours to make sure that we are properly educating our kids on the dangers of drowning!

There are many steps that we can take to make summertime safer and some of those include:

Learning to swim
Teaching your kids to swim
Removing toys from pool areas
Installing fencing and/or alarms around pool areas

For more information on staying safe this summer, please view ounce.org's page on prevention!

Summer Slide

The Summer Slide, or Summer Learning Loss, is the phenomenon in which children lose some of the knowledge that they learned in the previous school year.

This learning loss disproportionately affects children of lower economic groups. The video linked above gives a detailed explanation on who the summer slide mostly affects. Visiting libraries, reading, journaling, and so many more activities can be done over the summer to lessen the slide.

Children's books are tax-free in Florida until August 14th!

Mental Health Amongst LGBTQ+ Teens

As we celebrate Pride month, we would like to highlight the new imi app that was created to support LGBTQ+ teens with mental health issues, explore their identities, and more. Click the icon below to go to their website!

The Importance of Juneteenth

Celebrate Juneteenth this year on Sunday, June 19th! Juneteenth, also known as "Freedom Day," is celebrated nationwide as the true ending of slavery. In observance of this federal holiday, the Escambia Children's Trust will be closed on Monday, June 20th.

Our first ever RFP was released last month, and we are very excited about the response that we received from the community. Congratulations to the two proposers that were recommended for funding and approved by the ECT Board: Potential Preschool Academy and ReadyKids! FL.

Our latest RFP just went live, and we are thrilled to share it with you! Proposers are invited to develop a campaign that highlights one or both of the following topics: the importance of water safety and/or the importance of early childhood education. This is the perfect opportunity for members of the community to collaborate and brainstorm some incredible plans to get these messages out there.

Click the button below to view the full RFP!

Public Education and Outreach RFP

What is Family Reunification?

Family reunification is the end goal of a long and difficult process that many families go through to keep their children in their homes, create safer environments, and prevent their kids from going into the foster care system.

So, for the month of June, we recognize it as Family Reunification Month to honor those efforts that families all over the country put forth to make sure that their families stay together.

To get more information, or resources, or to find a way you can help these families, click the button below.

Family Reunification Month

Welcome, Dr. Kimberly Krupa

June has been an extremely busy month for the Trust including the hiring of our Director of Programs & Performance, Dr. Kimberly Krupa. We are so thrilled to have her on our team!

Kimberly Krupa, Ph.D.

Director of Programs and Performance

Dr. Kimberly Krupa is a frequent speaker and consultant on topics in collective impact and community change; racial equity and racism; data, evaluation and continuous learning; facilitation and design; implementation science; and education and youth.

She earned her master’s and doctorate in urban sociology from the University of New Orleans and is currently working on a book about community change on the Gulf Coast.

Dr. Krupa was lead organizer for the successful Escambia Children’s Trust ballot referendum, a 5-cent property tax increase that passed with 61% voter approval on November 3, 2020.

Tax-Free Florida

The Florida Department of Revenue has announced the latest tax-free items and their timeframes. The full list can be viewed here, but you can find a few below:

Children's Books

Now - August 14, 2022

Diapers & Clothing

July 1 - June 30. 2023

Back to School Supplies

July 25 - August 7, 2022

Stay up to date with ECT

Have you checked out our new website? Click the button to be taken to our site and see all of the changes we've made!

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