We won’t say it’s easy to raise more than $20 million in an afternoon—or to keep topping that number year after year. But Naples Children & Education Foundation (NCEF) and its fundraiser, the Naples Winter Wine Festival (NWWF), have a big thing going for them: results.
Among myriad successes is 5-year-old Omar’s story. A nonverbal student, Omar was identified for the NCEF-funded ABLE Academy’s STAR initiative when he was 3. His teacher at Grace Place for Children and Families had noticed he seemed uncomfortable in his skin and had trouble befriending classmates. STAR worked with Omar in one-on-one and small-group settings until he began to communicate verbally and form friendships. He’ll start kindergarten on track next year. Omar is just one example. Thanks to NCEF, there are thousands more.
NCEF launched 24 years ago as a change-leading entity to support underserved children throughout Collier County. The group coordinates with hundreds of child-centric, local nonprofits to decrease overlap and fund programs affecting the most vulnerable populations. In addition to funding about 60 nonprofits annually through grants, NCEF leads multiyear, strategic programs with donations raised through the festival’s Fund a Need paddle raise.
The nonprofit identified seven initiatives, or key focus areas (healthcare, mental health, hunger, early learning, out-of-school time, vision and oral care), for the multiyear programs and quickly set about maximizing child services in Collier County. “We try to build systems of care so we have infrastructure baked into every program or project we fund. So, when the funding stops, the program still exists. That’s really important to us, and [it’s] one of the things we’re most proud of,” NCEF CEO Maria Jimenez-Lara says.
Last year’s Fund a Need—centered on healthcare, with a focus on mental health—raised $5.2 million and expanded integrated care systems. To date, NCEF has donated $90.7 million to its multiyear initiatives. For 2024, NCEF focuses on mental health and early learning. The team recognizes mental health and education are inextricably linked—untreated developmental delays or other mental health needs affect kids’ learning ability.
These three grantees and ongoing initiatives illustrate how your Fund a Need donations will have life-changing impacts on children.
Mental Health Initiative Grantee: NAMI Collier County
NAMI Collier County is part of a national organization that addresses mental illness, and its HUGS (Health Under Guided Systems) program—focused on 2-month- to 18-year-old kids—is unique to Southwest Florida. The groundbreaking program for children experiencing developmental, social, emotional or behavioral difficulties began with an NCEF grant in 2010. At the time, children were not screened within schools for early indicators of mental health issues. A 2009 study showed a large chunk of local youth could suffer from undiagnosed behavioral health issues. The kids needed help. They still do.
Statistically, children can wait weeks and sometimes months for initial appointments with mental healthcare providers. HUGS bridges the gap, screening thousands of children annually and providing in-the-moment support and resources to help hundreds of families navigate the complex healthcare system. The program focuses on children in low-income, high-need areas, screening at the Guadalupe Center, Pathways Early Education Center of Immokalee, Child’s Path locations, Fun Time Early Childhood Academy locations and Grace Place. NAMI Collier also works with Collier County Public Schools, taking referrals for students K-12 and working closely with 36 pre-K classrooms.
Support from the screening may look like therapy with the recently hired clinical director, Carolyn Staley-Penix, or having the new parent educator and resiliency specialist, Krissy Yanes, help obtain an Individualized Education Program (IEP) at the kids’ schools. “The HUGS team contacts a family after a referral within 48 hours at the most,” NAMI Collier CEO Beth Hatch says, adding they aim for a 24-hour turnaround. “We believe that initial contact without a waitlist is critical because when a child or family is in crisis, they are willing to receive help. Waiting a minimum of six months is not an option for a child or family in crisis,” she adds. HUGS stays with a family until the child is 18.
The more than $5 million NCEF has donated toward HUGS since its 2010 inception helps the organization field the effects of compounded traumas, like family losses, missed school time, and the devastation brought by the pandemic and major hurricanes. In the previous fiscal year, Hatch says, more than 400 children received additional care after preliminary screenings. In the first three weeks of the 2023-2024 school year, HUGS had already flagged more than 100 children for care.
And, NCEF and NAMI know stress doesn’t just affect kids. Often, parents are overwhelmed by knowing their child is struggling and fighting to get them care, or the adults are navigating mental health crises, themselves.
To help, HUGS creates care plans and assists families in making and keeping appointments. “The parents are anxious, and when you’re an anxious parent, it’s hard to convey a sense of security to your child, which is what they need to feel stable and balanced,” Staley-Penix says.
NAMI recently opened a new center, combining services from three locations under one roof. “I cannot imagine what it would be like to have to navigate the mental health system on your own, all while trying to keep your child’s best interest in mind,” NCEF’s Jimenez-Lara says. “To have someone along for the ride is not only comforting for the parents but also ensures the entire family is being taken care of.”
Mental Health Initiative Grantee: FSU Center for Child Stress & Health
With the recent global turmoil and rising social media use, children are at higher risk of depression, psychosocial impairments and developmental delays, studies show. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)—including divorce, extreme poverty and upheaval from major storms—are linked to long-term mental and physical conditions.
Florida State University (FSU) College of Medicine’s Immokalee location houses the FSU Center for Child Stress & Health, which aims to identify at-risk children and intervene early enough to curtail or prevent conditions from taking root.
Exploratory research shows about 26 percent of children FSU screened in Immokalee have experienced a childhood adversity, and 10 percent have experienced four or more adversities. In addition to long-term mental and psychological effects, ACEs are said to be linked to biological reactions that contribute to chronic conditions, like cancer, asthma and autoimmune diseases. Early detection and prevention is key. “Each of us plays a role in this continuum,” the center’s director of clinical research, Dr. Javier Rosado, says.
In 2020, with help from a $500,000 NCEF grant, the center created a toxic-stress screening program. CARACOL, named after the Spanish word for ‘snail’, aims to identify children in rural and underserved communities experiencing long-term and frequent adversity. The initiative addresses a child’s mental wellness by screening moms for indicators of adversity to heal generational trauma.
The center develops a host of resources, like pamphlets that guide parents on how to talk to kids about various issues that may affect families in the community. Other resources include video training modules that educate community health workers on toxic stress and how they can help families break negative cycles. Media campaigns get messages into the community about self-care for mothers and how parents can protect their kids from toxic stress. The center also consults with medical providers to implement screenings in their practices.
Recognizing migrant mothers in Immokalee are often exposed to ACEs, last year, NCEF funded an FSU study to assess the link between childhood development and the moms’ trauma, as well as how the effects could be mitigated. Data shows kids born to “high-risk” mothers—women exposed to trauma or early life adversity—showed improvements over time when the kids receive interventions, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, parent-child psychotherapy and connections to services, like speech and physical therapy.
In the study, about 14 percent of children presented with social-emotional delays at 2 months of age. After two months of interventions, the number dropped to 5 percent. By 6 months of interventions, none showed delays. “I think we’ve always known that if the parents aren’t OK, or if the big sisters aren’t OK, it really affects the whole family,” Jimenez-Lara says. “This is adding an extra layer. Because of COVID and the hurricanes, we learned that anything that happens to a child or parent affects everybody in the household.”
The center plans to continue screening expectant mothers and offer continuous tests every three months until the child is 4. And, thanks to a $2 million grant from NCEF that FSU matched, the center is able to provide underserved families care and resources through the onsite Healthcare Network of Southwest Florida women’s health and pediatric clinic. “Immokalee is the core of our mission,” Dr. Rosado says.
Early Learning Initiative Grantee: ABLE Academy—STAR initiative
For many children, early learning centers offer the first setting to socialize with children outside of their families and achieve developmental milestones. About 15 years ago, a trend emerged in early childhood care, showing a growing expulsion rate. Children with behavioral issues were being asked to leave centers, resulting in limited options for their families.
Dr. Colleen Cornwall, the executive director and founder of ABLE Academy, started analyzing behaviors at early learning centers and identifying ways to support staff, children and families, so kids could stay in school.
The ABLE Academy developed the Specialized Therapeutic Analysis Resources (STAR) initiative in 2011 through NCEF grant funding (the foundation has donated just shy of $1 million) to help children stay in early learning programs.
ABLE Academy starts with training and supporting teachers. Through STAR, early childhood educators and parents learn vital techniques to support children with their behavioral, communication and social-emotional needs. When necessary, STAR can also help families find developmental assessments so kids can get the treatment they need. Children showing early learning signs of a developmental disability can be fast-tracked for a diagnosis. So far, the program has trained more than 200 local early education teachers and helped secure assessments and treatments for more than 500 children.
Early childcare staff are also trained to support parents by providing guidance, such as communication tools to practice with a child with autism. The support leads to improvements in communication, behavior and social skills, which helps students stay in classrooms. It’s difficult to confirm how many children have been able to stay in school as a result of the STAR program, Colleen says. But, she’s seen expulsion rates at the 12 Collier County childcare centers where the STAR program is implemented reduce by more than 70 percent.
Jimenez-Lara’s favorite success story is about a student named Mike, who had trouble in class because of a language barrier. With 1-on-1 attention, he learned to communicate with fellow students through a mix of English and Haitian-Creole. “With patience and understanding from his teachers, Mike has made tremendous gains with communication, academics and social interactions with peers,” Jimenez-Lara says. “He loves to learn.”
