Karen Boggess is JWB’s Chief Operating Officer. Boggess holds a master’s degree in social work and started as a Senior Contract Manager. She continued in Program positions of increasing responsibility and led the creation of the Quality Early Learning Initiative. In 2021, Boggess was promoted to Chief Program Officer. In her new role, she leads the following units: Program Administration, Community Engagement, Community Collaborations, Family Services Initiative, and Performance & Evaluation.
JWB Director of Public Policy Rebecca Gross Tieder shared her perspective on education and taking joy in one’s work on the “Finding Joy in Education” podcast, hosted by 2022 Florida Teacher of the Year Sarah Painter.
Painter and Tieder, alongside Senior Professional Development Coordinator for Pinellas County Schools Robin Ford and parent Raizel Turner, had a lively and insightful discussion, pulling together life experience and a deep understanding of the world of education.
The podcast, published by Pinellas County Schools, typically features a heartfelt conversation with a parent and an industry expert on what joy in education looks and feels like. Listen to the episode on Spotify here.
The Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County will host a series of family-friendly events to celebrate and support grandparents raising their grandchildren.
The event will feature family resources, free health screenings, family-friendly activities and giveaways of non-perishable food boxes, hurricane supplies, and more. The events are also open to all relative caregivers who are raising their nieces, nephews, or siblings in their homes.
Dates for the remaining Grand Families Days are:
• Saturday, April 26, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
CAP | Union Academy Family Center, 401 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., Tarpon Springs.
• Saturday, May 10, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
Pinellas Park Performing Arts Center, 4951 78th Ave. N., Pinellas Park.
For questions, contact Community Engagement Manager Yaridis Garcia at 813-381-2407 or ygarcia@jwbpinellas.org.
Karen Boggess, who has been with JWB for nearly 20 years, holds a master’s degree in social work and started as a senior contract manager. She continued in program positions of increasing responsibility and led the creation of the Quality Early Learning Initiative. In 2021, Boggess was promoted to chief program officer.
In her new role as COO, Boggess will lead the performance of the following units reporting to her: Program Administration, Community Engagement, Community Collaborations, Family Services Initiative and Performance & Evaluation.
In honor of the annual Week of the Young Child, a nationwide initiative supporting early childhood education, we’re highlighting the work done this week and all year round by a local stalwart: Turbo Babies, fueled by the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County, which encourages and supports educational growth for children ages 0-3 years old.
Turbo Babies has announced an interactive campaign and some big-time giveaways as they participate in The Week of the Young Child, which runs through Friday, April 11. Each day this week, parents, families, caregivers and childcare providers are encouraged to have educational moments and share them through photo or video with Turbo Babies each day, with the chance to win several fantastic giveaways as part of the fun.
Win fun giveaways through Turbo Babies
Encouraging “learning through everyday moments,” each day of the week presents a new opportunity to take normal moments and turn them into opportunities to teach children something new by including them in what you’re doing. Whether it’s having a sing-along, talking about your meal, or just doing some good old coloring, there’s a new theme each day that makes it easy to incorporate learning into otherwise mundane activities.
And the cherry on top of the educational sundae: Turbo Babies will be giving away prizes in a drawing among participants. One lucky family will win a full Lovevery Play Kit, tailored to the age and interests of the child. Meanwhile, one lucky childcare provider will win family passes to Great Explorations Children’s Museum for every single member of their class!
While the activities surrounding Week of the Young Child are fun ways to teach children, Turbo Babies points out how vitally important it is to incorporate moments like this into the lives of young children every day. According to recent research, 80% of brain growth for children happens in the first three years of life, making those formative years crucial to a child’s future.
Elicia Hinson, Senior Marketing Associate for the Juvenile Welfare Board, said parents and caregivers are always shocked by that statistic, which makes the work of JWB and Turbo Babies all the more important.
“It’s so much to be happening in the first three years of life,” she said, “but I think it’s also a motivating statistic. It makes people ask, ‘What should I be doing during this time?’ ‘How can I make the most of this time?’ And it’s never too late. There are opportunities every day.”
Make everyday moments educational opportunities
Hinson and Turbo Babies work to help parents and educators find easy and natural ways to have those teachable moments with kids. And the key, Hinson said, isn’t that you need to make a separate time for teaching. It’s far easier to just turn everyday moments in educational opportunities – even something as simple as including your child verbally and visually as you do laundry, prepare a meal, or read a story.
The 4-point mantra at Turbo Babies is: Tune in. Talk and repeat. Take turns. Take time.
“Every day there are so many chances for teachable moments, and they should be fun,” Hinson said. “It’s about the moments that are already happening – when you’re in the car, when you’re at the grocery store, when you’re doing laundry. Incorporate your baby and allow them to be a part of that. Those are teachable, everyday moments.”
Through these activities and campaigns, Turbo Babies hopes to show caregivers that education doesn’t have to be boring, difficult, or straight from a textbook. It can be easy and fun for children to learn, and it starts from birth. Even just hearing new words helps their brain grow: at age one, children recognize about 50 words, and by age three they can recognize nearly 1,000 words.
Learn more about Turbo Babies, fueled by the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County, at turbobabies.com. To join in on the fun for Week of the Young Child and enter the giveaway, check out this breakdown from Turbo Babies.
Karen Boggess, MSW, is JWB’s Chief Operating Officer. She led the creation of the Quality Early Learning Initiative, and in 2021, was promoted to Chief Program Officer. In her new role, she leads the following units: Program Administration, Community Engagement, Community Collaborations, Family Services Initiative, and Performance & Evaluation.
JWB CEO Beth Houghton joined the Tampa Bay Thrives Board. TBT envisions an emotionally healthy community and brings together community leaders to devise strategic solutions centered on behavioral health navigation, access to care, and stigma reduction. JWB’s Children’s Mental Health Initiative has screened 17,000 children for early detection and intervention.
Beth A. Houghton has been named to the board of directors for Tampa Bay Thrives, a nonprofit that envisions an emotionally healthy community where mental health is a priority and all thrive together.
Houghton serves as the chief executive officer for the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County. In her CEO role, she oversees an annual impact budget of $133 million. Her duties include overseeing the funding of high-quality programs that served more than 77,000 children and families last year.
She also directs the implementation of strategic initiatives and campaigns that benefit tens of thousands annually, including JWB’s Children’s Mental Health Initiative aimed at fostering prevention, early intervention, and treatment with a focus on children ages 4 to 11.
Houghton’s prior experience includes serving as CEO of the St. Petersburg Free Clinic and chief financial officer and general counsel of All Children’s Health System. She graduated with honors from Stetson College of Law, Tulane University Graduate School of Business, and Newcomb College of Tulane. She is licensed to practice law in Florida and served as Chairman of the Board for Signature Bank in St. Petersburg.
JWB CEO Beth Houghton joined the Board of Directors for Tampa Bay Thrives (TBT), a nonprofit that envisions an emotionally healthy community where mental health is a priority and all thrive together. TBT brings together community leaders to devise strategic solutions centered on behavioral health navigation, access to care, and stigma reduction. JWB’s Children’s Mental Health Initiative screened 17,000 children for early detection and intervention.
Community Action Stops Abuse, or CASA, offers the Peacemakers Program to area schools and other youth programs to teach kids about peaceful alternatives to conflict.
“We go into the schools and we teach kids what it looks like to be in a healthy relationship,” said CASA CEO Lariana Forsythe. “So it’s age appropriate, we start with pre-schoolers and kindergarteners and we talk about healthy boundaries.”
The social-emotional curriculum covers, among other topics: personal safety, diversity, dating violence, self esteem and self expression.
“Conflict resolution, empathy building, fostering respect for yourself and others,” said Riley Redington, the Peacemakers Program manager at CASA. “Then as it gets a little bit older, then we get more into the dating violence, healthy relationships.”
“It’s important for us to get in early and make sure that they understand what a healthy relationship looks like and what can they do, what steps can they take if they’re uncomfortable in a situation,” she added.
Foster mother Karen Bowen has mentored more than 300 kids in the last 15 years and said a lot of them were teenage girls interested in dating. The foster parent certified by the Children’s Home Network said she’s glad programs like this are available in schools and she works to reinforce similar safety measures at home.
“Looking out for cues, red flags, if you don’t feel safe you call, you let me know, you text me that safe word,” Bowen says to her foster children. “You have to teach people how to treat you.”
The Peacemakers Program works to teach kids that self worth — one exercise uses actual red and green flags as an interactive learning activity.
“If it’s wanting access to all your social media accounts, Instagram, wanting your passwords, wanting to control what you post would that be a green flag or a red flag and then those prompts can really spark some discussion about what the teens themselves have experienced,” said Redington.
The Peacemakers hope teens take empowerment out of the classrooms and into all of their relationships.
“I hope that moving forward, they value their feelings; their emotional wellbeing and themselves,” said Redington.
Bowen, who started her own foundation, Nekkts Step Hope Foundation, said she’s grateful teens have access to such sessions and she will work to continue such conversations in the home.
“That program can go into school and they have this whole conversation, now they’re home and they can sit with me and we can talk about it,” she said.
