Blog Archives - Page 9 of 17 - Children First

Children First Blog

May 21, 2020

Tampa Bay Newswire: Community Members Bring Meals to Families

May 21, 2021 | Tampa As part of the agency’s efforts to address continued food insecurity amongst its families, local members of the community teamed up with Paradise Grill restaurant in Nokomis to bring chef-prepared meals to each of the children and families who attend Children First, Sarasota County’s exclusive provider of Head Start and [...]
May 13, 2020

Scene Magazine: Local Community Keeps Children First Working on Front Lines and Serving Families

May 13, 2020 | By Scene Children First announced that 330 members of our community came together to raise $85,010 during the 2020 Giving Challenge, hosted by the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. All giving is inclusive of a 1:1 match provided by the Patterson Foundation, and a $30,000 ‘match on top of the match’ [...]
May 6, 2020

The Nurturing Father’s Podcast: An Interview with Jack Baker

 May 6, 2020 Mark and Corey talk with Jack Baker,  Families First Institute Manager at Children First, about his career and passion for early childhood development and how it led to his involvement in The Nurturing Father’s Program. They also discuss some important things to consider as a father while spending more time at home [...]
April 18, 2020

Children First Named 2020 Best Children’s Nonprofit

April 1, 2020 Thank you to all who voted for Children First in SRQ Magazine’s ‘Best of SRQ Local’ 2020 competition! Our agency was chosen as the Platinum winner in the ‘Best Children’s Nonprofit‘ category and as a Bronze winner in the ‘Best Nonprofit‘ category. Children First also received a second platinum designation this month with the [...]
April 13, 2020

Herald-Tribune: Census 2020 – Critical component for Head Start funding

Children First, the Head Start grantee for Sarasota County, believes it is vitally important that the 2020 Census is as accurate as possible. Our mission is serving our community’s most economically vulnerable families with very young children, from pregnancy through age 5. We provide high-quality, early-childhood and development-programs and comprehensive family-strengthening services. We help children and [...]
March 25, 2020

WEDU 2020 Awards- Be More Involved Winner

Children First volunteer Tom Cook was presented with the Be More Involved Mason Dixon Award for Volunteerism at the 15th annual WEDU Public Media Be More Awards. A steadfast supporter, Mr. Cook became a finalist in the volunteerism category after receiving an outpouring of online votes and was selected as the ultimate winner by Mason [...]
July 15, 2019

Children First Chosen to Lead Literacy Effort

Children First has been selected for a matching grant through the Reading is Fundamental (RIF) literacy network for its commitment to lifelong learning. Books for Ownership is RIF’s flagship reading program that enables children to select new, age-appropriate books to take home and is supported by resources for educators, caregivers, and volunteers in order to [...]
September 30, 2019

Herald-Tribune: Children First Named a “Best Place to Work!”

October 22nd, 2019 – What Makes a Best Place to Work? Residential and commercial services, insurance, health care, social services, manufacturing services and a hair salon. The Herald-Tribune’s 2019’s list of Best Places to Work in Sarasota and Manatee contains quite a variety of workplaces, from larger companies to small and medium-sized companies alike. And ‘alike’ is the operative [...]
November 22, 2019

Children First Receives a $1.25M Grant to Amplify Family Strengthening Services

Dropping your child off at a safe and reliable preschool should ease nerves for most parents, but for many, the challenges of the day are just beginning. Financial trouble, food instability, reliable employment, and access to education are struggles many families in our community face. That’s why Children First has to be so much more [...]
December 30, 2019

Guest Editorial: Sarasota County’s children need you for a friend

By Reverend Brock Leach – Director, Children First Board, Chair Emeritus 2013-2015 In a world of big, future-threatening problems, how should we invest what poet Mary Oliver calls “this one wild and precious life”? I want to make the case for kids. As a minister who works to strengthen communities, I’ve become convinced that what fundamentally ails [...]