JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville Public Education Fund (JPEF) has secured funding from the Consortium of Florida Education Foundations and the Florida Department of Education to bolster the development of resiliency skills among students.
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JPEF is dedicated to collaborating with Duval County’s Public Schools and the broader community to embed resiliency resources within schools. This initiative will be facilitated through community-based programs and locally-driven projects aimed at addressing the growing concerns regarding the mental health and overall well-being of youth.
Rachael Tutwiler Fortune, President of JPEF, explained, “In response to the growing understanding of the importance of mental health, JPEF will serve as a convening partner to drive local change and improvement as part of the Florida Department of Education’s approach to building resiliency skills in students. As schools and communities continue to recover from the pandemic, it is more important now than ever before to support educators and community providers helping children in crisis and teach skills to foster student resiliency in the classroom.”
JPEF has collaborated closely with key stakeholders, including Duval County Public Schools, the Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center, and Elevate Jacksonville. This collective effort has already reached over 20,000 Duval County students, with a commitment to expanding the resiliency work of more partners throughout the year.
Early initiatives from these partners include teacher training on trust-based relational interventions, the creation of new and positive experiences for students hailing from Jacksonville’s urban core, and the provision of girl-centered training.
In addition to these actions, JPEF is implementing innovative research strategies and in-depth qualitative methodologies to identify gaps, assess existing programs, and recognize opportunities for building resiliency skills in students.
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Key stakeholders in the community have participated in systematic informational interviews regarding student well-being, and the insights obtained will play a crucial role in informing JPEF’s ongoing support of educators and partners in this space.
JPEF’s unwavering commitment to student resiliency was prominently showcased at its 4th biennial EDTalks fundraiser. The event featured Dr. Shawn Ginwright, a Harvard professor and CEO of Flourish Agenda, Inc., as a guest speaker and has successfully raised over $106,000 to further support this vital work.
The event was made possible through the generous support of the CEM Foundation as the presenting sponsor, the Community Foundation of Northeast Florida as the speaker sponsor, and a host of gold and silver sponsors, including Poppy and Rob Clements, Cindy and Dan Edelman, Ann Hicks, Deborah Quazzo, THE PLAYERS, Ellen and Jim Wiss, EverBank, Sight & Sound Productions, United Way of Northeast Florida, and numerous others.
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