The Lastinger Difference:
Eliminating Barriers To Learning
Through no fault of their own too many children come to school ill prepared to learn. In some of our partner schools and communities in Florida, up to 60% of children suffer needlessly from untreated and undiagnosed health conditions. Inadequate housing and lack of out-of-school support makes children even more vulnerable. (The University of Florida Metrics of Child Well-Being depicts a sobering picture of the conditions of children in our state).
To address these issues and eliminate non-academic barriers to learning, the Lastinger Center has developed a community mobilization practice that utilizes the University of Florida’s research prowess to engage community organizations in strategic action on behalf of all children.
The Lastinger Center In Action
The Trustees of the Naples Children and Education Foundation (NCEF), host of the internationally-acclaimed Naples Winter Wine Festival, engaged the Lastinger Center to conduct a study of child well-being in Collier County and to recommend strategic, proactive solutions to eliminating gaps in essential services to children. Working with the NCEF Trustees, Lastinger Center produced metrics of child well-being in Collier County and identified several high leverage and high impact opportunities to virtually eliminate the gaps in services. Subsequently, NCEF joined with the University of Florida's College of Dentistry and Collier Health Services to develop a state-of-the-art Pediatric Dental Clinic that will serve 15,00 children per year.
Other examples of Lastinger Center engagement in the front-lines of communities in Florida include: Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids (SPARK) in Miami-Dade County; Ready Schools Florida; and the Immokalee Study, an analysis of children's needs commissioned by the Immokalee Foundation.
