By: Cindy Arenberg Seltzer
Children’s Services Council of Broward County
President/ CEO
FT. LAUDERDALE – The excitement is building! On March 7th, at the Broward County Youth Summit, child advocates and service providers will come together to celebrate their extraordinary successes on behalf of supporting children and families.
The Summit, which will be held at the Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale, is expected to draw over 1,000 attendees. Geoffrey Canada, founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone is one of many dynamic speakers who will address the participants. Over 250 middle and high school youth will take part in a “life maze,” in which they will learn about making responsible choices on the road to adulthood.
Specifically, the Summit will celebrate community progress towards meeting benchmarks set out in the Children’s Strategic Plan. Work on the plan began in 1999 when child advocates across Broward County started looking for solutions to the ongoing foster care crisis, the dramatic increase in children and youth in the juvenile justice system and the elevated high school dropout rate. These systems, designed to deal with deep end problems, were dramatically overwhelmed and it was clear that something needed to be done to prevent children and families from entering these systems in the first place.
Since then, the plan has served as a framework to guide funding and service delivery planning for children’s services throughout Broward County. Our work has been anything but simple, but the results have been spectacular! It has helped bring coherence and structure to our joint work and when the financial crisis hit, it served to prioritize our budgets for maximum community impact.
The event also heralds 10 years of funding by the Children’s Services Council of Broward County (CSC). Created by the voters in September 2000, with operations beginning in 2001, the CSC provides leadership, coordination and funding for services for and on behalf of children. The Council’s vision? To ensure that every child in Broward County shall have the opportunity to realize their full potential, their hopes and their dreams, supported by a nurturing family and community.
Together with the Community Foundation of Broward, Wells Fargo and the Board of Broward County Commissioners, we are proud to sponsor the Summit and welcome your participation. For more information or to register, please visit www.cscbroward.org or call (954) 377-1000.
