Message from the CEO

For more than a century, CHS has upheld our legacy of transforming the lives of children and families. And while we remain diligent about providing high-quality services, we also embrace opportunities that can potentially change the way society cares for children and youth. Opportunities that can prevent child abuse. Opportunities that can provide foster youth with real futures. Opportunities that can drastically improve lives, families and communities.

 

But such opportunities don’t exist in a vacuum. Thus, we strategically partner with leading universities, foundations and similar agencies to capitalize on the potential of our endeavors.

 

Through our partnership with the University of South Florida, academics research and evaluate our Trauma Recovery Initiative, a pilot program in the Panhandle that provides specialized counseling and services to youth who’ve suffered multiple traumas. Funded by a significant grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, this initiative allows CHS to be one of Florida’s two projects in the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.

 

We’re also exploring several partnerships to implement a community school program in Florida, an initiative already quite successful in New York. Through our relationship with the New York Children’s Aid Society, I’ve witnessed the dramatic impact of these programs. Though planted in a rough section of the city, the community school is respected as a “safe zone,” a place where youth feel protected and encouraged, a place that motivates them to break free of the negative influences that often surround them.

 

This project works because organizations and academic institutions collaborate to provide youth and their families with the myriad of services they need in one setting. It works because services reach the entire family while instilling within youth a drive to succeed, to step above circumstances that may have once trapped them in cycles difficult to break.

 

Maintaining our leadership position requires more than keeping up with the status quo, more than changing with the times. It requires innovative thinking, long-term goals and a commitment to provide children and families with the services and care they need. I’m honored to share this responsibility with you, and I thank you for your dedication to Florida’s future.

 

David A. Bundy

President/CEO