For 16 years, The Children’s Trust has committed itself to improving the lives of children and families in Miami-Dade County through strategic data- and grassroots-driven investments that strengthen our community and its members. It’s with pride and gratitude to our stakeholder partners that we present to you this annual report, which highlights our work and successes over the last fiscal year.

2. Honoring Our
Commitment to
Community
More than
$120,000,000
was invested in Miami-Dade
County through hundreds of
Children’s Trust-funded
programs and initiatives,
benefiting children, youth,
parents and caregivers across
the community.

3. Honoring Our
Commitment to
Community
The release of 19 competitive grant
opportunities led to direct services in
more than 1,600 locations
across the county, 55% in high-poverty areas as
identified by the U.S. Census Bureau.

4. Strengthening
Our Families
More than 15,000 children and parents
were served through 40 culturally sensitive
parenting and family programs in group, office
and home settings, resulting in improved
parenting skills and stress reduction, decreased
problem behaviors in children and significantly
enriched parent-child relationships.
Programs also focus on leadership, advocacy
and community involvement with parents and
caregivers.

5. Giving Kids
What They Need
to Succeed
Our Quality Improvement System (QIS) for early learning served nearly
400 programs, almost 3,900 practitioners and more than 26,000 children.
Thousands of children were screened for developmental and social-emotional
delays, facilitating early intervention for potential challenges and connecting them
and their families to needed services.

6. Giving Kids
What They Need
to Succeed
Thrive by 5, an expanded, even more
comprehensive continuum of supports
established in August of 2018, continues to
impact healthy physical, cognitive, social and
emotional readiness for starting school
through an array of early interventions; a
revamped early learning QIS; parenting and
home visiting services; early literacy supports;
and early childhood health services.

7. Boosting Literacy
231,856 books
were distributed to Miami-Dade children through
our Read to Learn grade-level reading initiative,
while 82% of struggling readers in our Reading
Explorers program showed meaningful gains in
literacy skills over the summer, a time when
many children fall behind.

8. Advancing Our Youth
More than 30,000 students attended
Trust-funded after-school, summer
camp and youth enrichment
programs at more than 300 sites
across the county.
Thousands of teens received life skills
training, mentoring, college prep and
employment, as well as access to
sports, the arts, technology and other
critical opportunities for long-term
academic and professional success.

9. Advancing Our Youth
Collaboration with Miami-Dade County,
Miami-Dade Public Schools and other
community partners allowed nearly
2,600 students
to secure paid summer internships,
significantly increasing their financial
literacy and employability skills.

10. Championing
Inclusion
Across the Board
12,000+
children and youth
with special needs
enjoyed inclusive
programs alongside
their typically
developing peers.

11. Nearly 91,000 students made more than
308,000 visits
to public school health clinics, where they
received first aid, medical and mental health
assessments, diagnosis, treatment,
counseling, dental and vision screenings,
vaccines and referrals.
Keeping Kids Healthy

12. More than 8,000 eye exams
were administered.
5,500+ children and youth
received needed glasses.
Keeping Kids Healthy

13. Supporting Those That Need It Most
Nearly 5,500 children
in our most challenged
neighborhoods received
comprehensive case management and
crucial intervention services.
Almost 1,500 children and youth
involved in the child dependency and
delinquency systems were supported by
Trust services.

14. Supporting Those
That Need It Most
1,800+ children
and youth received tailored
intervention services through
countywide support partnerships,
which serve unaccompanied
immigrant minors, LGBTQ youth,
children of incarcerated parents,
youth in the child welfare system,
families living with disabilities and
children exposed to family conflict.

15. Supporting Those
That Need It Most
Leadership of Together for Children, a
communitywide effort to reduce youth violence,
was transitioned to neighborhood coalition
members to ensure its long-term sustainability.
As part of iAttend, an initiative designed to
reduce chronic absenteeism among elementary
school students, the referral and family case
management system was expanded to 39
elementary schools – or about 16,000
students – with nearly 4,700 receiving
home visits and referrals.

16. Fighting the Good Fight
Our legislative advocacy efforts secured both
needed funding and the passage of several
bills for children in the areas of early
learning and care, health, safety, child
welfare and juvenile justice.

17. Fighting the Good Fight
We played an instrumental role in the
creation and passage of HB 1091, a bill
that reinforces and strengthens
accountability measures in publicly
funded school readiness programs,
restoring local flexibility in determining
eligibility so that early learning coalitions
can prioritize children at greatest risk of
school failure.

18. We continued to support groundbreaking ideas that fill
important gaps in children and family services through
our innovation fund:
Universal children’s savings accounts will be opened for a
group of kindergarten students in the fall of 2019 through a funder
collaboration with the City of Miami to fund future higher education
pursuits; the initiative aims to establish a college savings account for
every kindergarten student in Miami-Dade within a five-year period.
First Star University brings rising 9th-graders living in foster care
to the University of Miami campus each summer throughout high
school, with the goal of college preparation for youth who don’t have
family supports.
Searching for New Solutions

19. Sandy Hook Promise’s Say Something Anonymous
Reporting System (ARS) provides Miami-Dade Public Schools
students, parents, teachers and administrators with a telephone, text,
mobile and web-based platform for anonymous reporting of any
concerns, threats or at-risk behavior by an individual who may pose a
danger to themselves and/or others.
The Therapeutic Child Care Program, which serves homeless
children with special needs along with their mothers by addressing
trauma and mental health, is a high-quality Early Head Start
partnership with a therapeutic overlay serving infants and toddlers
living at Lotus House Women’s Shelter.
Searching for New Solutions

20. Working Smarter
Through Technology
We created a foundation for a robust
business process management system,
simplified our online funding
application process and launched new
technology solutions that streamline
processes and facilitate the use of data
to make informed decisions.

21. We implemented improved
ADA-accessible website
solutions, increased unique
page views on our website by
52% – and by 920% on our
Spanish-language site – and
launched a newly designed,
mobile-friendly Miami Heart
Gallery website.
Connecting with Families
Through Technology

22. Breaking Down Our
Program Investments
Parenting 12%
Early Childhood Development 17%
Youth Development 38%
Health & Wellness 13%
Family & Neighborhood Supports 10%
Community Awareness & Advocacy 5%
Program & Professional Development 5%

23. Leadership
The Children’s Trust Board of Directors

24. 3150 SW 3rd Avenue, 8th Floor
Miami, FL 33129
305.571.5700
www.thechildrenstrust.org • info@thechildrenstrust.org
The Children’s Trust is a dedicated source of revenue established by voter referendum to
improve the lives of all children and families in Miami-Dade County.