Bud and Loranne walk with Sheriff Lou Roberts and Commissioner Jeremy Branch in Marianna.

One of the long-running projects of The Lawton Chiles Foundation has been Whole Child Florida, a philosophy that uses strategic planning, web-based technology, performance measurement and broad-based community engagement to build communities where everyone works together to make sure children thrive.

This week Bud's walk brought him to our newest Whole Child community in Gadsden County, where he visited with Loranne Ausley and state Rep. Alan Williams while promoting the upcoming launch of Whole Child Gadsden. Earlier that day, One Million Steps for Florida's Kids came through Jackson County, where we met Jackson County Sheriff Lou Roberts and Jackson County Commissioner Jeremy Branch.

Sherry Van Landingham, a member of the Gadsden Community Health Council and vice-president of Premier Bank, told the Tallahassee Democrat she volunteered to be on the leadership council of Whole Child Gadsden because she believes an initiative like this is needed in her community.

"From my experience, people are not embarrassed to ask for help, but they just don't know who to ask," she said. "Whole Child will be able to expedite the process. That's what they're all about."

Screenshot courtesy of News4Jax.com

News4Jax.com caught up with Worst To First last week at the Hope Haven Children's Clinic and Family Center, a non-profit organization that serves children, young adults and families with educational, developmental and mental health needs.

Many thanks to Laurie Price and the entire staff at Hope Haven for making time for us in their day, and for helping News4Jax put together a terrific story highlighting One Million Steps for Florida's Kids.

Photo courtesy of jacksonville.com

On Thursday the Worst To First team found hope in Jacksonville among the people working to create a safer and healthier place for children. Our visit came on a day when hope was badly needed, as the entire community mourned the tragic loss of a child.

Bud and Geoff Chiles were joined by dozens of children and adults in downtown Jacksonville as they walked from the Salvation Army Child Development Center to the Davis Center of Community Connections of Jacksonville, two places that help kids get quality early education, and that help families with child care. Folks there couldn't help but smile as the kids counted out their steps, bringing us a lot closer to our goal of One Million Steps For Florida's Kids. Susan Main, executive director of the Early Learning Coalition of Duval, joined us for most of the day, helping introduce us to the good work being done in Jacksonville.

Later that day, Worst To First visited the Hope Haven Children's Clinic and Family Center, enjoying our time with a great staff dedicated to helping children and families with special needs. We were also honored to join Communities In Schools of Jacksonville in highlighting its TEAM UP program at Reynolds Lane Elementary as part of the 10th National Lights On Afterschool campaign. Finally, we finished the day in Jacksonville's Springfield neighborhood at The Bridge of Northeast Florida, seeing how a dedicated group of community volunteers are making a difference in one of the city's most impoverished neighborhoods.

In his interview with the Florida Times-Union, Bud said said he found the group of child-care providers he met in Jacksonville "by far the most enthusiastic group of advocates. I am encouraged by what is going on here."

Photo courtesy of staugustine.com

Walking one million steps is a lot easier when you've got friends to help you on the way. Yesterday in St. Johns County, Bud was fortunate to get an assist from a great group at the St. Augustine campus of the St. Johns River Community College. As the headline in the St. Augustine Record said, this is a group that walks the walk. Phi Beta Kappa members Aubrie Simpson and Shawna Petrollo, fresh from the Lawton Chiles Leadership Corps conference in August, organized a walk with Provost Glen W. Moore from the campus into St. Augustine, where Bud spoke to the Rotary Club and met with Superintendent of Schools Dr. Joseph Joyner. Read the write up in the St. Augustine Record here.

One Million Steps For Florida's Kids is picking up momentum. Next up is Jacksonville on Thursday, Oct. 22. Interested in walking a few steps with Bud? Drop us a line!

Florida's education funding is heading for a cliff in 2010, as one-time stimulus money from the federal government runs out. An editorial in today's Orlando Sentinel calls attention to the serious consequences that will have for Florida's Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten Program, which voters created by constitutional amendment in 2002. Now funded at about $367 million, the VPK program is also getting about $38 million in stimulus cash that runs out in June 2010.

More than 154,000 kids will receive VPK services this fiscal year, with enrollment growing. That's good, because research shows that pre-K education is working in increasing the school readiness of Florida kindergarteners. Unfortunately, lawmakers this year cut payments to VPK providers. If providers give up the program, it would shrink the pool of private, public and faith-based providers, meaning less choices for parents and lower quality programs.

We know that investing in our children pays dividends for the rest of their lives, but short-sighted budget cuts are threatening that vision for the future. Florida can and must do better to support early education.

Budd Bell, photo by www.tallahassee.com

Florida has lost one of its true heroes. Budd Bell, a passionate advocate who helped establish Florida's first early learning and subsidized child care programs, died Friday morning at age 94, her family said.

Budd's accomplishments are an inspiration to all of us. Among her many successes, she founded Kids Incorporated of the Big Bend in 1972, using space in a church basement. The organization is thriving today, serving more than 5,000 children and families. She was a founding member of the National Association of Social Workers, and in 1974 started the Clearinghouse on Human Services, an advocacy group that now has more than 200 members and is largely responsible for passage of legislation that helped establish federally and state funded daycare centers throughout Florida.

Her family is requesting that in lieu of flowers memorial gifts be made to the Budd Bell Early Learning Endowment Fund for Kids Inc. of the Big Bend, or the William G. and Budd Bell Endowed Fellowship at the Florida State University Foundation.

The children in Florida's child welfare system are some of the most vulnerable in our state, many times horribly abused and neglected by the very families who are supposed to care for them. Now a new report shows that our state is one of the worst in meeting our collective responsiblity to care for these children.

The Tampa Tribune reports on a new study from First Star, a nonprofit group that litigates and advocates on behalf of children, and the Children's Advocacy Institute at the University of San Diego School of Law that shows Florida is one of only seven states that get an "F" rating for how it protects the legal rights of abused and neglected children in foster care and dependency proceedings.

One of the report's co-authors told the Tribune that Florida got low marks in part because state mandated guardians ad litem are not required to be attorneys, and Florida law does not mandate case loads for advocates or expressly require specialized training for advocates in all cases.

Nearly a month and five counties into the Worst To First Journey of One Million Steps, and we've seen plenty of evidence that Florida's uninsured families are struggling. Now an updated ranking from The Commonwealth Fund released last week shows Florida's children still suffering from a lack of health insurance, bucking a national trend toward gains in children's coverage as a result of national reforms.

Florida was 50th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in the percentage of children who are uninsured, with nearly 19 percent of Florida children without health insurance, compared with a national median of 8.6 percent. As the Palm Beach Post reported, Florida also ranked 48th for the percentage of adults under 64 who were insured, 47th for the percentage of children who had access to mental health care when needed, and 45th for the percentage of children who had seen a dentist and had a checkup in the past year.

Today's Gainesville Sun highlights some recent efforts that are making an impact, but that aren't doing nearly enough: "Florida ranks near the bottom in too many categories affecting our children — child abuse deaths, prenatal care, violent crime, education spending and graduation rates, for starters — so we cannot say we are surprised that our state is 50th in the number of children who are uninsured. It is just one more indictment of a state that time and again takes its children's well-being too lightly. That is a shame we all share and one we should all lament."

Worst To First was founded on the principle that we can turn Florida's embarrassing performance around -- if we work together. We're collecting one million pledges to make this a better place for our children.

Bud Chiles’ walk brought him to Southside Center in Crestview on Oct. 7, where he visted a pre-kindergarten facility that also works with children with learning disabilities. The Crestview News Bulletin was there to cover his visit with the kids and administrators from Okaloosa County Schools.

Among the issues we saw, Title One pre-kindergarten coordinator Pam Meadows told the newspaper she has seen an increase in the amount of out-of-pocket money pre-k teachers are spending buying supplies for their classrooms since the state began experiencing multi-billon dollar budget shortfalls.

While $9 million in federal stimulus money has helped the district pay teachers, the situation for next year is more uncertain. And because the state Legislature has shifted more costs to local districts, county residents are paying $21 million more this year in school property taxes while the Okaloosa School District's budget this year is roughly the same amount as was budgeted in 2005.

“As state revenues go down, they are pushing that burden down to the property owners,” said Rodney Nobles, assistant superintendent for Okaloosa County Schools.

A teen violence prevention program in Milton. A free community health clinic for uninsured families in Crestview. Pre-K education in Okaloosa County. A team protecting children from abuse. A neighborhood for foster kids that lets siblings stay together. An early learning center and afterschool program in Panama City.

These are just a few of the places we visited, and stories that Worst To First will be bringing you from Bud's most recent walk in the Panhandle from October 5 to 8. The media in Panama City came out to cover our trip through Bay County, and you can see some of the coverage here and here.

Drop us a line and let us know if there's a story that Worst To First can tell about what's happening in your community, and if you haven't already, please take the Pledge For Florida's Children.