Dear Friends,
I am honored and thrilled to be the first executive director of the Escambia Children’s Trust. Having grown up in Pensacola, I love our community and promise to work hard to ensure the Trust serves our children as intended. I have been here for two weeks and want to update you on what we are doing.
First and foremost, we (the Board, lawyers, accountants, and I) are getting the procedures and safeguards in place to start awarding funding as quickly as possible. I know everyone is ready to see action from the Trust. We are anxious to get the money flowing to the community providers too, but we must be accountable and transparent as we build our infrastructure. Among other things, the ECT Board will be reviewing procurement and fiscal operations policies and procedures at their next meeting on March 8, 2022. Once those are in place, we can ramp up our operations. (The Board meetings are open to the public, so you are welcome to attend if you are interested.)
Part of what I have been doing over the past two weeks, in addition to meeting local community leaders and developing policy drafts, is looking for physical space to house the Trust and proposing a ‘lean and mean’ staffing plan. The goal is to spend as little as possible on overhead so the maximum amount of funding can go directly to serving children and families.
Lots of data and various needs assessments have already been published to help identify the greatest needs in Escambia County. Thus, to save time and money, we hope to gather and use what is there to inform a strategic plan to guide the ECT’s work. In the meantime, we will also explore any funding streams that we can get moving sooner rather than later, based on what we already know. Please bear with us as we get going. We want to do this right.
I welcome your input as we move forward. I do not have a Trust phone number yet, but you can reach me at tgreer@escambiachildrenstrust.org. Please also keep an eye on our website at www.escambiachildrenstrust.org for updates and information, including upcoming Board meetings, job openings, community events, and – soon – requests for bids and proposals.
The Escambia Children’s Trust belongs to the community. I am dedicated to seeing a return on this investment in our future: our children. I look forward to working for you to ensure ALL children in our county grow up healthy and safe and have every opportunity to succeed. Thank you for the opportunity to be back and to give back.
Sincerely,
Tammy D. Greer
