Good Afternoon,

 

I hope you had a good week. It was another busy week for us. We said goodbye to Deon and welcomed a new temporary fiscal employee, Jeannine. If you stop by, please say hello and welcome her. I received a call yesterday that may be promising fiscal assistance until the new director is hired. I will update you next week. Chair Pinkoson and I will be meeting with the County on Monday afternoon to discuss the agenda for our Joint meeting on May 6. If you have any suggestions for the agenda, please email them to me.

 

Here’s this week’s update:

 

• Programs & Finance & Staffing: 

 

• Finance Team: Finance completed their usual weekly check runs, reviewed and approved new vendors, reviewed invoices, purchase orders, changed orders, and bank reconciliations, and continued to work through the FY24-25 budget process and fund balance analysis. We met with the Finance Committee to review our preliminary draft, and they provided feedback and guidance. The auditors are working to finalize the audit. We have completed our part, and they are now reviewing and preparing the final statements. I hope to have this by the May meeting, but it may not come in until after.

 

• Programs Team: Interviews for the contract manager position were held, and second in-person interviews with the top candidates are planned for next week. We had a Literacy Meeting this week with the full committee and Lastinger. Committee members were broken out into groups/sectors to discuss gaps and began to create a list of resources from their sector. Lastinger led the discussion on literacy past, present, and future resources and access to data containing our area's scores and assessments. Staff met with the Manhood Foundation to discuss funding opportunities, grants, the needs of small nonprofits, and community support. A training calendar has been forwarded to all providers so they can access the workshops. The staff prepped for the two Bidders Conferences next week was completed. Staff attended the Family Resource Center quarterly meetings and provided updates regarding TeensWork Alachua, the summer bridge program, and volunteer opportunities with the RFP review teams.

 

• Communications: The summer programs guide flyers were shared online and distributed. Staff is working to have summer information translated into Spanish. FACCT communications professionals met to share information, and we picked up several ideas that we can tweak for our community to increase visibility. Planning for the Fanfare 4th of July event continues, where CTAC will host the Kids Zone.   

 

• Community Engagement: Confirmed plans for Lights on Afterschool with the Boys & Girls Club (it will co-host this year). Staff participated in the UF College of Education Stakeholder’s Day to learn more about partnership opportunities, attended the Safety Net Collaborative meeting, and will represent the Trust at Saturday's Child Abuse Prevention event, Celebrate the Child at Westside Park.

 

• Additional Meetings & Emails:

 

• HEAT Meeting – THE HEALTH EDUCATION AND TRAINING CENTER OF GAINESVILLE, INC. (H.E.A.T.) -Met with the ED to learn about their services. It is a holistic wellness center for low-income minorities within the Eastside of Gainesville. They offer classes/ courses streamed live or pre-recorded online. They also offer guest speakers that come into classes and facilitate health education classes. Classes focus on the following areas: sexual health, community health, mental health, sexual health, physical health, diabetes/ high blood pressure management, resume writing, and career planning. They offer a diaper distribution in East Gainesville. They are seeking funding and support. They currently partner with Well Florida and Humana.

 

• PRIDE Center Meeting – I joined Commissioner Alford at the Pride Center for a meeting to learn more about the needs of youth in this community. The Director, Deb, shared information about programs offered and the need for more youth to know they are supported. We spoke with another person who works with the GAL youth, and he suggested there were many needs for foster kids from the LGBT+ Community. He thought all the organizations in the county should be working together to ensure LGBTQ+ foster kids who may be double traumatized due to being displaced from their families and not treated well by fosters are supported. We discussed better training for foster families, and I suggested they speak with Partnership to understand what they are doing for youth in this community and the training provided to foster youth. I also agreed to support what we can to ensure these youth are heard and have access to resources. I will also meet with another Board Member (director) to receive more information.

 

• Junior Achievement – I met with Shauna Dykes and Brenda Cesar-Banales about JA and the new program coming online at Eastside in the Fall – 3DE. 3DE is implemented in 12 public high schools across Florida, serving over 3,300 students between Hillsborough, Pinellas, Polk, Orange, Osceola, Palm Beach, and Broward County. The program experienced an average reduction of chronic absenteeism by 22.5% and increases in math proficiency (+55.2%) and reading proficiency (+81.3%) when comparing 3DE students to their non-3DE peers. They also had a 33.6% avg. increase in graduation rates in those schools that have had graduates. JA has partnered with the school district to incorporate the program into Eastside, beginning with next year’s freshman class. They are looking for community partners and will be on one of our upcoming agendas to present to the Board. I’m excited about this program and its potential to make a difference at EHS.

 

• Gun Violence Initiatives – I received an email about a community-led pilot for a program called Cease Fire in the Hood to address the gun violence crisis. They contacted all the organizations that can fund/partner (city, county, trust, community foundation, etc.). They said, “Strong-Minded Mentors has teamed up with Pleasant Street Civil Rights and Cultural Arts Center to respond to the call and combine our efforts to build connections with justice-involved youth and to bring resources that address the social determinants of health together to make a positive impact.” More will be coming as they are asking to be on the agenda for the county and the city. I’ll follow up next week to see what collaboration is required and how we may be involved.

 

• ELC Match for ALICE Population Funding Updated – I heard back from FACCT on Wednesday that we should NOT fund the match program in the way we wanted. FACCT CEO Michele Wilson spoke directly to the DEL folks and called me as she left the meeting to state once again that the program's intent is not to move children from one list to another if they do not qualify. Staff and I will return to our original discussion with ELC to determine the number of children/families we can fund entirely on the list and bring that recommendation/update to our May meeting.
  
  

I hope you enjoy your weekend!

 

Marsha