Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation recently received a $7,500 Parent Leadership Grant from the Community Foundation of Sarasota County to support the First 1,000 Days Suncoast initiative at Sarasota Memorial Health Care System. The grant will support a regional Parent Advisory Committee, providing stipends for parent participation in monthly Parent Advisory Committee meetings and community events.

“We are so grateful for this grant from the Community Foundation,” said Healthcare Foundation president Stacey Corley. “The First 1,000 Days Suncoast is funded entirely by private donations which are essential to ensuring Suncoast families have the social, medical and mental health services they need when their child’s critical development occurs.”

The Community Foundation’s Parent Leadership Grant was created to encourage a commitment to ensuring the parent perspective and expertise to inform program and organization development. The funding will help support monthly English and Spanish-speaking parent advisory committees led by Family Navigator Tina Wilson at First 1,000 days Suncoast.

“Our initiative is built on the belief that parents' dreams, struggles and insights must be at the forefront of the solutions the initiatives create,” said First 1,000 Days Suncoast manager Chelsea Arnold, DNP, APRN.
“These parents will be seen as experts, leaders and visionaries for our partner network and support development of programs for other nonprofits.”

First 1,000 Days Suncoast is a partnership of more than 90 nonprofit organizations and healthcare providers, along with parent leaders, with one shared purpose: break the cycle of poverty and offer families the resources needed to give their children a healthy head start.

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