In order to recognize the collaborative efforts taking place in communities throughout Florida, United Way of Florida and The Lawton Chiles Foundation hosted the Children's Week Community Innovation Awards to kick off Children's Week 2010. Keynoted by Carmen Nazario, Assistant Secretary for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, awards were presented to four Florida communities.

The recipients of these community collaboration awards include: Pinellas County's Kinship Service Network, Palm Beach County's Quality Counts, Duval County's Healthy Jacksonville Childhood Obesity Prevention Coalition and Orange County's Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children Teen Xpress Program.

Over the next few days, Children's Week community innovation award winners will be in the spotlight along with more information about lead and collaborative partners in these child-centric endeavors.

United Way of Miami-Dade President and CEO Harve Mogul joined Lawton “Bud” Chiles III, son of late Governor Lawton Chiles and president of the Lawton Chiles Foundation, in a meeting that brought together community leaders and advocates from leading local community and educational organizations to discuss Florida’s investments in early education.

Following the meeting, Chiles toured the United Way Center for Excellence in Early Education before retracing a portion of his father’s historic walk for children, accompanied by advocates, parents and partners.

The walk, which began at the Center, is part of “One Million Steps for Florida’s Kids,’ an ambitious campaign launched by the Lawton Chiles Foundation in 2009 to push for better investments in health, education and the well-being of Florida’s children.

At Girls Inc of Sarasota County, a local affiliate of the national non-profit organization, girls are inspired to be strong, smart and bold. Serving girls ages 6 years and up, Girls Inc. has designed a program that emulates a small community or micro-society where girls are assigned specific roles. In acting out these particular roles, the girls learn to live confidently and capably whether vigilantly patrolling the hallways as "police officers" (to ensure good citizenship) or responsibly passing out micro-bucks to community members as "bank tellers."

During a recent visit to Girls Inc. of Sarasota County, the Worst To First team got to experience firsthand the day to day operation of this created micro-society. To start, money was given out by an 8-year old bank teller. With money in hand, the team then spent their money on a few of the goods and services offered and produced by the girls themselves. Eventually, after some wise spending, the Worst To First team met the mayor, a few chefs, a gardener and even the local television crew.

At Girls Inc., every girl has their place. As a result, the girls learn about responsibility and community while developing lifelong skills to help them succeed in their micro-society and in the macro-society we call the real world as well.

Among the savings cited: $220-million to schools because fewer students repeat grades and there is less need for special education; $584 million less for programs for juvenile corrections, child abuse, welfare and unemployment, and more work productivity when the children enter the workforce; and $347 million less in social costs as a result of less crime and substance abuse, and more income for their parents. Read more>>

In recent days the topic of debate in regards to public education has been Senate Bill 6.

We dedicate this space for healthy dialogue on your thoughts about the bill and its impact on the future of Florida's children. Click here to submit your comments.

Today, almost one year from the start of the statewide Worst To First campaign, Bud Chiles, President of The Lawton Chiles Foundation and founder of Worst To First, marched down Adams Street in Tallahassee with one target in mind, the state Capitol. With over 1,000 parents, teachers, school superintendents, community leaders, advocates and students gathered at the Capitol for the second annual Florida PTA co-sponsored Rally in Tally, the Worst To First group was greeted by a very enthusiastic crowd upon their arrival there.

As the group of marchers inched their way toward the Capitol, Bud was joined by Leon County's own Rickards High School Drumline, National PTA President, Chuck Saylors, Florida PTA President, Karin Brown, Dave Lawrence, President of the Early Childhood Initiative Foundation and a host of other dedicated advocates unified for one reason, to stand up and speak out for Florida's children.

In addition to Florida PTA, rally co-sponsors included: Fund Education Now, Marions United, 50th No More, Save Duval Schools, Citizens for Strong Schools and Worst To First.

Nancy Noonan, President of Marions United for Public Education, is speaking out for education. In an article on Ocala.com, Ms. Noonan responds to an editorial written by House Speaker, Larry Cretul, in which he says hard choices will have to be made regarding Florida's budget shortfall. Ms. Noonan, focused on a real solution instead of the continued slash and burn budget practices of legislators past and present, asks our state leadership a question. Will the hard choices made continue as they have been, balancing Florida's budget on the backs of children, teachers and schools? Or, will our leadership do what we elected them to do, lead?

To Ms. Noonan, and a host of others including myself, the solution is simple. Florida must generate revenue. One way to accomplish this is to close major tax loopholes and crack down on special interest groups. But, will those be the hard choices made or will 50th in per capita funding for education continue to be acceptable to our leadership? Without stimulus funding, Florida can't get any lower than it already is.

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This week the public got a stark affirmation that the needs of average families and children don't count with legislatators. One of their first acts was to pass a law to protect the trust that funds handguns and other weapon purchases. Now that's amazing. They are the ones who authorized in law all these State Trust Funds: the Lawton Chiles Endowment for Children and Elders, the Sadowski Fund for affordable housing, environmental trust funds, etc. They don't even pause when it comes to invading these important safety net funds rather than make tough budget decisions. But the gun fund. That's a whole different matter. Why? Because the gun lobby has bought the votes of the legislature with the coin of the realm. Too bad the kids couldn't afford to pay to play.

Miami has a rich tradition of powerful community leadership. Over the years, advocates have successfully tackled homelessness, education, health care and community safety. Additionally, the magic city has led the way in establishing a Children’s Trust, a special district supported by local taxes and entirely dedicated to children.

During our time in South Florida, the Worst To First team toured a world class facility, the United Way Center For Excellence in Early Education. This center is a phenomenal laboratory for cutting edge early learning and has partnerships with fourteen universities including Harvard. On top of running their own exemplary early learning school, the staff trains, certifies and provides resources to early learning schools throughout the region as well.

Visiting the center helped me understand the challenges and opportunities for early learning in South Florida and also underlined the need, statewide, to leverage this marvelous resource and all that they have learned about how to prepare our kids for success in school and life.