On May 18, 2023, the William G. and Marie Selby Foundation was honored to convene nonprofit organizations serving DeSoto County for a lunch conversation exploring challenges, opportunities and bright spots.
The Foundation serves Charlotte, DeSoto, Manatee and Sarasota counties, and we want to ensure the community knows we are here for DeSoto. WIth the compelling data in the State of Scholarships Regional Assessment, we learned of opportunities to increase our focus on supporting DeSoto County students, and nonprofit organizations are also able to apply for capital funds.
In the Spring 2023, the Foundation supported ARC DeSoto with a $20,725 grant for computer equipment to help individuals with disabilities increase skills and jobs training. This year, five Selby Scholars are graduates of DeSoto County High School, the only high school in the county.
During the May gathering at Goodwill Manasota’s Arcadia-based community room, we enjoyed hearing from organizations solely based in DeSoto as well as representatives from nonprofits that have satellite offices in the county.
Here is some of what we learned together:
• Organizations believe more help would come to DeSoto County to offer services if they had access to office space. Some nonprofits are expanding and hope to offer office space to others. Goodwill Manasota, who hosted the meeting, offers space for Centerstone to meet with clients, for example.
• There are workforce development opportunities in DeSoto County– teachers, early childhood educators and workers to help with home repairs are needs the group discussed. Bi-lingual workers are in the highest demand to better reach the high population of non-English speaking families.
• Similar to other counties in Southwest Florida, the lack of mental health resources is an issue students and adults.
• Some families who became homeless after Hurricane Ian are still without permanent housing.
• The importance of strong broadband service became more widely recognized during COVID-19 and Hurricane Ian. There are opportunities to strengthen its availability and strength to enhance access to information, homework assignments, news, and community connections.
• Participants would like to work together to increase communication among organizations for coordination and collaboration and to reach more potential clients who can benefit from their services.
By coordinating a time and place for conversation among nonprofits in DeSoto County, we hope to increase overall outreach and success with students and their families…and to support capital needs as they arise. Most importantly, learning from people who are passionate about their own community can strengthen our ability to help in the ways they would like us to support them.
Special thanks to Ashley Coone, Executive Director of Links2Success, and to Cheri Coryea at The Patterson Foundation for helping us connect in this special community.