Escambia County Commissioner Lumon May works with kids living in some of the county’s poorest neighbors and is frustrated that the Escambia Children’s Trust staff continues to push for ancillary programs that don’t directly help those children.
“I don’t think we need to continue to fund phone services and strategic plans when the kids are hurting,” May said on WCOA this morning. “None of the programs (pushed by ECT staff) are going into the front line of Attucks Court or Oakwood Terrace. Let’s put the money on the ground to children who are hungry, who need to be fed, not feeding organizations because people come down on a Tuesday night and yell and scream…We just need to put the money toward the solution.”
Rather than funding general programs like the $1.6 million Help Me Grow hotline or $51,580 for a directory, the commissioner wants to see pilot programs that be tested and spread across the county.
“We have to streamline it. We have to attack it neighborhood by neighborhood, block by block, and looking at where the greatest need is to go into those neighborhoods. This is a marathon, and it’s not a sprint.”
Apples and oranges both grow on deciduous trees. How about waiting until the board isn’t half bare?
Great questions Rick. And insightful comments from your readers. Thank you for continuing to address the actions of the Children’s Trust. In 2008 the Program du jour for the 12 years of the failed Escambia Community Collaborative/Achieve Escambia was “WE CAN”. Apparently the Program du jour fot ECT will be “HELP ME GROW”.
I’m amazed at how Lumon continually puts the ECT down and constantly complains. You are a board member!!! Why not work with them instead of working against them? Why does everyone think that the money needs to hit the ground and bump all the other stuff. How about reading policy and procedures and understanding how a government funded agency really works? And Rick, why do you always reach out to Lumon? Is it because he has all the negativity you want to hear and you enjoy drama? Call some of the board members that know something. Lumon is flash one in and first one out of the meetings. The videos show it! As for Melissa Pino stating all should be fired. Sit your ass down and get in the class that Lumon needs to be in for learning how ECT works. You come from another state and ran a non profit with a budget of hardly nothing.
Hi Rick,
Thank you for posting my response. I will send you the analysis and answers to your questions tomorrow via email. You can share it however is easiest.
Thank you for the opportunity to explain why this was included in our strategic plan to begin with. Everyone has opinions about what the Trust should do. My focus is on what we can do that will provide the best return on investment – as another commenter suggested, to teach people to fish or give them a pole rather than just a fish. Changing decades of needs fueled by generational poverty coupled with unprecedented mental health struggles will take time and multiple strategies. I keep hearing that we need to put money into this area or that, but no one has presented the Trust with a concrete plan or recommendation for a specific project to serve the communities that need so much help. We will never make everyone happy, but I am open to hearing legitimate, fundable solutions – with more details than just ‘put the money out.’
We are not a local foundation. We have to follow the State statute that the special district operates under. I continue to seek input and welcome ideas for research-grounded solutions that we can fund.
Also, one last clarification for the readers, Trust staff do not receive any benefits from anything that is funded. We have no hidden agenda or vested interests in any programs. We are all doing this work because we care about our community and our children. All I ask is that residents please give us the chance to explain the rationale for the Trust’s plans before categorically rejecting them. Thank you.
Tammy Greer
Executive Director
Escambia Children’s Trust
Tammy,
Thank you for weighing in.
*Where are you getting the statistic that “Black toddlers are five times less likely than their white counterparts?”
*What is the data for Escambia County?
*How many children in Attucks Court and Oakwood Terrace have developmental delays?
*Have you met with parents in those neighborhoods and asked them what they need? I understand you “want to hear from the parents of the children in need and from the frontline providers who work directly with them,” but have you gone into their neighborhoods and schools and listened to parents?
*How are these parents currently interacting with early intervention services?
*Has any organization run a early intervention pilot program in these neighborhoods? What has worked? What hasn’t?
*If the early intervention programs in Escambia County are failing or inadequate, why?
*What concerns have the frontline providers shared with you about Help Me Grow?
Please share your analysis.
-Rick
I’d like to clarify that the Resource Directory will help families find help they need. It is far more comprehensive than anything else available in the county and is due to be distributed in April. As for the Help Me Grow model, it is NOT “a hotline.” It is a system to connect (beyond just giving out phone numbers) parents to resources for children ages 0-8 who have developmental delays or disabilities and need early intervention to get them ready for kindergarten. The model includes parent education, counseling, case management, and direct services for children. Black toddlers are five times less likely than their white counterparts to receive early-intervention services for developmental delays, so the Help Me Grow program will surely benefit children of Attucks Court and Oakwood Terrace. The out-of-school time funding awarded last month is going directly into services for low-income children and will provide snacks after school and over the summer, so ECT programs are literally feeding hungry children. This is all in line with the strategic plan approved by the full ECT Board. I stand behind the strategic planning process. If we have no plan that links to our needs assessment, then the Trust will end up reacting to the loudest voices instead of targeting the greatest need. We are not a direct services program. We are looking to invest in programs that will provide the greatest return on investment. We want to hear from the parents of the children in need and from the frontline providers who work directly with them. It is easy to say we need to “put money on the ground” – but I believe voters want assurances that money is going to proven programs that are likely to yield success, to providers that have the capacity to account for public dollars, and to programs that will show real improvements.
In concept Commissioner May is right, throughout the history of Escambia County, resources allocated for mediation of disparities are always diverted to people, programs and initiatives instead of direct actions and activities for the people these resources were originally allocated. The people with political connections and loud opinions usually have such resources (like the ECT) redirected to benefit the general, staff and administration of these non-direct groups and programs that have little impact on the socioeconomic disparities in the communities that most need help. However, there needs to be a balance between feeding people fish and teaching them to fish. For these funds to have a lasting and transformational impact in the community, there needs to be some development of a sustainable business-model, that overtime creates a revenue stream for future sustainable outcomes and benefits in these communities. Instead of giving out food, why not create a community market that subsidizes food costs based on need.
I guess I’d rather think about the Children’s Trust than stick a red-hot poker in one of my eyes. It’s really tempting just to do neither, though.
Bless you, Rick and Commissioner May, for continuing to urge something of worth comes from all that money. No way anybody can convince me that anything short of a clean sweep of staff and a total restart from scratch is going to effect any change in this.
They’re just going to just keep spinning their special interest plates, unless Commissioner May can perform a miracle and shore up enough votes to make the difficult decisions that clearly need to be made. Ms. White seems to have had a difficult tenure as Chair with all the nonsense going on. Hopefully, with some of it exposed, Ms. Woods can assume a leadership mantle. Ms. Hightower certainly has her hands full with the fine mess Kevin Adams has gotten the School Board into. Until people are willing to take Commissioner May’s lead seriously on where this thing needs to go, rather than continuing to cut him off at the knees so they can squander the money safely, we can expect ten years of millions down the drain. Which is exactly what so many people envisioned the moment the vote happened to put it on the ballot. :(