Your Impact
The first 1,000 days of a child’s life are critical. When you support First 1,000 Days Suncoast, your impact is priceless.
In Numbers
What We Do
Parent Empowerment
Equipping parents with tools to be their child’s first teacher is a pillar of our work. Brain development education prior to discharge from the hospital increases parents knowledge and promotes bonding. Empowering parents as leaders has led to successful and sustainable interventions.
Care Coordination
By screening and connecting families with social, medical, and mental health services, we are improving health outcomes, reducing parent stress, increasing protective factors, and decreasing healthcare costs.
Targeted Interventions and Services
Using data, parents’ lived experiences, and professional expertise, the initiative partners with agencies to develop targeted interventions that address barriers to care, capacity concerns, or place or race-based inequities.
Discover the positive transformations in the lives of families:
Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies
Care Coordination
Connecting families with services in our community, reduces stress and improves protective factors so parents can do their most important job—love and nurture their baby.
Listening to the voices of parents who shared “difficulty navigating the system” as a top barrier to care, First 1,000 Days Suncoast built a family navigation program to support parents in connecting to resources. An assistance request form on the First 1,000 Days Suncoast website enables parents to quickly enter their needs. A Family Navigator then reaches out directly to parents and refers them to support services and resources across the community.
Family Navigation
Pioneering a New Age in Healthcare
First 1,000 Days is researching the impact of addressing social needs on mothers’ and infants’ health which will have a nation-wide impact on best practices in this field.
Learn more on how social care improves maternal health outcomes by innovators at Sarasota Memorial Health Care System by clicking here.
Data-Driven Solutions &
Capacity Building
Community leaders review referral data to identify barriers, capacity concerns, and opportunities, all with an emphasis on health equity. Reviewing this information uncovers ways to improve coordination and prompt responses from professionals, with trackable outcomes.
Partnership ideas have surfaced to create a centralized place with multiple services to better support families:
286 swim lessons from Aqua-Tots donated to families to reduce the leading cause of child death in Florida, unintentional drowning.
Diaper collection to provide a much-needed basic necessity for families. This could reduce stress, increase trust, and enable families to focus on the more important things in their lives.
Parent Empowerment
Empowering parents to not only be their child’s first teacher but also community leaders has led to increased parent confidence and support, as well as effective and powerful marketing tactics and interventions.
Tonika, a struggling mother of two, was extremely grateful for how First 1,000 Days changed her life; she was inspired to join the First 1,000 Day’s Parent Advisory Committee. One of the initiative’s top priorities is empowering parents to be community leaders, ensuring parent voices lead its work. The Parent Advisory Committee is a place for parents to come together, learn, share, and lead others.
“I could just cry. I have come a long way and now my children are happier and more joyful.” - Tonika
Parents as Leaders
Facilitation of Parent Focus Groups with 100+ parents, empowering them to share about their dreams and the barriers they face in the community.
Creation of a regional Parent Advisory Committee comprised of parents with lived experience navigating services for their family. Co-creating solutions with these parent leaders has led to successful and sustainable campaigns and interventions.
Organized and hosted a community Circle of Parents Facilitator Training for parent-focused peer support groups that foster confidence, positive parenting skills, and social connections.
Parents as Teachers
Participation in the Suncoast Campaign for Grade-Level Reading Laundry Pop-Up events.
Distribution of 8,000+ Brain-Builder Bags from Sarasota Memorial Health Care System. The bags contain educational tools and resources to support parent-child bonding and brain development.
Plant, Grow, Bloom campaign distributed 3,000+ Grow Kits for families to build their own gardens and encourage parents to be their child’s first teacher.
Promotion of the Vroom by Text service which provides developmental activities for parents to do with their children.
Using data, parent guidance, and community partner expertise, the initiative develops targeted interventions and services to address race and place-based inequities in the region. Many interventions have been created, below lists our current projects.
Targeted Interventions
Perinatal Hub
Professionals and parents identified lack of access to mental health services and difficulty navigating the system as two of the top barriers to care in the zero to three population.
In response a Perinatal Mental Health Coordination (PMHC) Hub was developed.
Any pregnant or postpartum individual struggling with mental health concerns can reach out, have a screening performed, and then get connected with community services through the Unite Us platform.
Since its launch in February 2023, the Hub has connected over 50 parents to mental health services.
“I saw a Facebook ad that asked, ‘Are you feeling this way…’ and it just hit my soul! I really felt it. It was exactly what I needed. I really identified with the feelings listed, so I called. I felt better just knowing that someone was going to call me, and that help was on the way.”
– Mother helped by PMHC Hub
Navigator Workgroups
Compassion fatigue, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress amongst helping professionals was a concern identified by Resilient Retreat in 2020.
Navigator Workgroups were developed by First 1,000 Days to provide the hardworking professionals with peer support, knowledge enhancement, and collaboration.
Feedback from workgroup members indicates satisfaction and positive outcomes, including the development of new partnerships and successful resolution of complex cases.
Data: Community Partnership Survey 2021
Partnerships are the pulse of our work.
Relationships and collaboration are the foundation, driving force, and pulse of First 1,000 Days.
By fostering partnerships, the initiative not only improves the lives of families but also creates a strong sense of camaraderie amongst dedicated professionals. Research supports the idea that these inter-organizational alliances enhance communication, trust, and respect, while also dispelling misconceptions, supporting population health, and generating innovative solutions for communities.
Learn More
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If you or your organization would like to join our partnership or volunteer to support First 1,000 Days Suncoast, visit our Get Involved Page here.
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First 1,000 Days operates on charitable contributions. Your gift will make existing services more accessible to families and help all children reach their potential. Click here to donate now!
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From the third trimester of pregnancy through babies’ second birthday, human brains undergo a period of rapid growth. During the first 1,000 days of life, children are hardwired in ways that have lifelong consequences.
Fortunately children are resilient if they have the supports to help them thrive. Babies who have healthcare, good nutrition, stable homes, loving relationships and early childhood education start life with a strong foundation for success.
Our work is guided by industry-leading science and inspired by the courage of the families we serve. Learn more by visiting our Why It Matters page here.
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Each year, First 1,000 Days Suncoast reviews barriers facing families in our region. The team facilitates workgroups, comprised of community partners and parents with lived experience, to develop innovative solutions. The results of those workgroups, in-depth data and our annual reports are available HERE.