Published in the July magazine, In Conversation with Non Profit Leaders features a roundtable discussion among representatives from local non profit organizations. Below is an excerpt from the conversation in which Kristie Skoglund of The Florida Center for Early Childhood shares insight on the successes of community collaboration. 

WHAT ARE THINGS THAT WE’VE GOTTEN RIGHT OVER THE PAST YEAR?

I would like to highlight how our community has come together. There are so many non-profit leaders that I knew of but did not know well  and now because of COVID we are on work groups together or attend the COVID convening calls. It felt very collaborative and as Veronica mentioned, the funders, the foundations and their wisdom and just caring about the non-profits in the community just feels amazing. I just had my 24th year anniversary at the Florida Center and I started as a mental health clinician as my profession. I can tell you when I started here the mental health needs are nowhere near what they are now and what we are hearing and what we are seeing. Our mental health team is probably one of the largest programs we have here at the Florida Center, and the stories that we’re hearing are crazy and the stress that our staff are feeling as a result of managing those kinds of issues are beyond words and so as an organization. We have created enhanced systems to support our team and the workers because otherwise people are going to burn out and quit, or just stress themselves until they have health issues. We also answered the call to the community when there was a need for preschool teachers and directors to have the same kind of group because preschool directors and preschool staff, they feel it and they’re dealing with it and all of the extra safety protocols they have to put into place. We have established reflective groups to serve these needs. Those kinds of things are amazing-coming together to support each other, and just work- ing as a large community team really and not just being in our own little world of our own non-profit. 

This is an excerpt from the In Conversation with Non Profit Leaders published in the July 2021 edition of SRQ Magazine. Click here to see the full article. 

Read More From In Conversation Here