By Tom St. Myer
An arduous two-year process filled with missteps finally resulted in the Escambia Children’s Trust awarding millions of taxpayer dollars to agencies establishing new out-of-school programs for children.
The Trust board awarded slightly over $5.1 million in funding to 19 local children’s services agencies during its meeting Tuesday at the Escambia County Government Complex. Each of the six board members in attendance approved the recommendation to award the grants. The Board planned to award the grants in December, but decided to send the top 29 proposals back to the selection committee for reconsideration after the public voiced its displeasure with the process.
“I’m super excited we finally got out our first big grant,” said Stephanie White, who chaired the board for the past two years before passing on the gavel to Tori Woods on Tuesday. “It’s been a long time coming. We’ve been around for a couple of years now, and we’re finally there. Special thanks to the grant committee. They spent a lot of time on this. They came up one time, and we sent them back for four meetings to get everything correct, and they did this time, so we appreciate all of their hard work.”
Boys & Girls Club of Emerald Coast topped all applicants in score and funding amount. The Boys & Girls Club scored an 85.73 for its Great Futures in Escambia County application and the Trust awarded $874,878. Great Futures is a year-round social and academic program for ages 5-18. The Club estimates 240 children will be served over a 3-year period.
Two other applicants received over $500,000. The Trust awarded $581,728 to the YMCA of Northwest Florida for its Together Achieving Change program and $540,041 to City of Pensacola Parks and Recreation for its PPRD Free After-School. Together Achieving Change is a year-round social and academic program for ages 5-10. The YMCA estimates 720 children will be served over three years. The afterschool program is for ages 5-12 and will serve an estimated 705 children at E.S. Cobb Resource Center, Fricker Resource Center, Gulf Point Resource Center and Woodland Heights Resource Center.
The Trust awarded 15 providers amounts under $300,000. The $5.1 million in allocations put a dent in the $16.1 million in taxpayer dollars accumulated after the Trust carried over $6-plus million from last year.
“I’m just happy we’re able to do this,” said Tammy Greer, who celebrated her one-year anniversary as Trust executive director on Tuesday. “This is what will start to make the difference, to let the direct service providers do what they do.”
The Trust is responsible for allocating over $10 million in property taxes to fund new initiatives for local youth and their families. That entails supporting community provider programs with necessary educational, preventive, developmental, treatment, intervention and rehabilitation services for children within the county.