Naples Children Foundation, which is funded by the Naples Winter Wine Festival, will invest $8 to boost early childhood education in Collier County.
A three-year initiative supports both child care and early learning, which are at near crisis levels in Florida. Florida’s economy loses more than 5 billion dollars annually due to parents missing work to care for children under 6. In addition, only 44 percent of children statewide are kindergarten-ready. These are critical issues to Naples Children Foundation. CEO Maria Jimenez Lara said..
"We all know that child's brain develops the most from the time they're born to the time they're 5 years old, and being able to provide early learning services and early child development is key for children to succeed as they grow into the future, but it is also a very great need in our community from a financial perspective, from an employer perspective, and from just quality of life and quality of care for children."
NCF is partnering with Grace Place to expand its family literacy model. Beginning in August, Grace Place will add multiple sites across Collier County and serve 120 more students.
Then in January 2027, a new early learning program will begin at Naples Park Elementary School, serving 92 additional students. Scholarships will be available for low-income families.
Early learning expansions through Grace Place represent about 4.6 million dollars of the NCF investment.
"Two of these programs, the ones that are tuition-free, focus on our Bright Beginnings Model, which requires that a parent is on-site learning at the same time the child is," said Grace Place CEO Lara Fisher. "And we have found great success within our community here because so many times our parents are learning to become their child's first teacher.
"So two of the partner sites, one will be at the Boys and Girls Club of Collier County.
And then we will be also working out of East Naples United Methodist Church.
The really exciting thing about those two locations is that … those programs will be free to the students and a parent," she added.
The rest of the 8 million dollar investment – about 3.3 million – will support professional development and workforce support, career pathway development and staff retention.
