Champions for Children, Inc.

Champions for Children's mission to prevent child abuse and neglect through family education is operationalized by helping families to accomplish the following key goals:

(1) Develop parenting skills and knowledge that support strong, healthy parent-child attachments.
(2) Strengthen core life skills that contribute to improved family well-being.
(3) Reduce their sources of stress in order to mitigate risk factors for child abuse and neglect.
(4) Increase their knowledge of healthy child development, which is a key protective factor against child abuse and neglect.

In addition to these positive programmatic outcomes, Champions follows a strategic plan developed by the Board of Directors which establishes the following goals for related to organizational operations:

(1) Review and optimize programs to ensure relevance to current issues and demographic needs, as well as efficiency and effectiveness.
(2) Diversify and expand funding to ensure sustainability of programs.
(3) Increase community awareness to ensure strong recruitment of target population and public support.
(4) Maximize organizational capacity to ensure ability to deliver the highest quality programs possible.

Champions for Children accomplishes our programmatic goals by delivering a comprehensive range of science-based programs for families. These programs, which utilize dozens of distinct services offered at numerous locations throughout Tampa Bay, are organized into three core service strategies:

(1) Family Education and Individualized Support:
[a] Classes and Groups rooted in science and designed to help parents develop skills to raise healthy, thriving children.
[b] Individualized supports delivered by experts including professional lactation support for breastfeeding mothers, case management for families with high needs, and phone-based support via our Parent Warm Line.

(2) Parent-Child Educational Programs:
[a] Home visiting services and educational playgroups that utilize research-informed activities to help parents build strong, healthy attachments with their infants and toddlers while learning together.
[b] Developmental screenings for children help parents learn about their childs progress, what to do when there are concerns, and how best to support them as they grow.

(3) Community Education:
[a] In-school educational puppet shows teaching children to safely recognize and report abuse, neglect, bullying and other personal safety issues.
[b] Public awareness activities designed to educate our community about issues affecting children and families and the opportunities to address them.

Strategies for achieving our operational goals regularly evolve according to ever-changing circumstances and needs. However, examples of recent strategies can be found under the "progress" section below.

Founded in 1977, Champions for Children has grown in the Tampa Bay area's leading agency dedicated exclusively to the prevention of child abuse and neglect through family education. Champions' programs and services have been nationally accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Children and Family Service Organizations (COA) since 2004. We have also been designated as Champions for Children Brazelton Touchpoints ™ Site of Tampa Bay and serve as the local anchor agency for the Tampa Bay arm of the nationally recognized Talk Read Sing Community Campaign.

Champions for Children is led by a Board of Directors composed of up to 30 members representing a broad cross-section of the Tampa Bay business, philanthropic, and social service communities. Day to day management of the organization is overseen by senior staff who are highly credentialed and experienced in their areas of work. In total, Champions employs a diverse team of approximately 120 full- and part-time employees who complete rigorous and ongoing training to ensure the highest possible quality, effectiveness, and cultural competency of services for the families who participate in our programs. More than a third of our staff are bilingual and a majority are people of color, reflecting the community we serve.

Every year, Champions undergoes an independent financial audit and consistently receives a clean report verifying strong financial position and practices. As a long-time recipient in good standing of federal, local, and private grant funding, Champions has a long and successful history of meeting or exceeding our programmatic outcomes and a demonstrated commitment to transparency, as exemplified both by quality contractual reporting and voluntary publication of results across diverse media.

Additionally our COA accreditation is renewed every four years, requiring a rigorous peer-driven process that ensures our services are well-coordinated, culturally competent, evidence-based, outcomes-oriented, and provided by a skilled and supported workforce. Over 2,000 organizations — voluntary, public, and proprietary; local and statewide; large and small — have either successfully achieved, or are in the process of, accreditation. Achieving COA accreditation means our organization is among the best in the field. We are proud to be a part of this community of excellence.

The following examples demonstrate Champions' progress toward our programmatic outcomes. These examples are organized under the goals to which they correspond. After participating in our programs:

(1) Develop parenting skills and knowledge that support strong, healthy parent-child attachments.
[a] 95% of parents are active in supporting their child's healthy development
[b] 91% of parents increased their parenting skills

(2) Reduce their sources of stress in order to mitigate risk factors for child abuse and neglect.
[a] 98% of parents reported increased connection to concrete supports
[b] 85% of parents reported feeling connected to other participants

(4) Increase their knowledge of healthy child development, which is a key protective factor against child abuse and neglect.
[a] 96% of parents increased their knowledge of healthy and safety topics
[b] 91% of children increased their school readiness skills

Additionally, 91% of children who participated in our Kids on the Block educational puppetry performances increased their knowledge about topics including child abuse, neglect, bullying, and stereotyping.

With respect to our operational goals, here are just a few examples of progress we made in 2023, organized according to the goals with which they correspond:

(1) Review and optimize programs to ensure relevance to current issues and demographic needs, as well as efficiency and effectiveness.
- Established 7th community Baby Caf co-located witt a Federal Qualified Health Center and ; 8th, 9th and 10th Baby Cafes in Pinellas County co-located with three Neighborhood Family Centers in Clearwater, St. Petersburg, and Tarpon Springs.
- Launched specialized services and case management supports for fathers living in Sulphur Springs.

(2) Diversify and expand funding to ensure sustainability of programs.
- Secured sustainable funding to implement a comprehensive & holistic approach to serving fathers across our community.

(3) Increase community awareness to ensure strong recruitment of target population and public support.
- Co-leading convening of Thrive by Five initiative for Hillsborough County

(4) Maximize organizational capacity to ensure ability to deliver highest quality programs possible.
- Received/Renewed Platinum Standing with Family Friendly Business Award - Tampa Bay
-Platinum designation for Bell Seal for Workplace Mental Health (first year applied)
- Employee Satisfaction & Engagement Survey Results. Response rate was 72%; High number of employees (>90%) continue to report overall satisfaction with employment, their supervisor, recognition received, benefits, and professional development opportunities. 97% of employees reported they are treated with respect, see the positive results of their work, and believe that their work contributes to the mission. This appears to be strongly related to responses that the mission is important to employees.