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When one of the recommended ways to remain safe during this pandemic is avoiding large crowds, voting becomes a stressful task for many. The simple act of standing in line and slipping behind a voting booth now represents a measure of risk despite the necessity to exercise our power as citizens.

The ongoing pandemic has taken its toll on our local community. Job, home, and school insecurity are felt even if they cannot be seen. Our most vulnerable friends, relatives, and neighbors are living through uncertain times face uncertain futures. Homes are tuned to news of systemic racism, new virus strains appearing in the world, and politicized health mandates, all while parents struggle to balance budgets around a lack of work or balance time around a lack of open schools.

What does that do to our children?

In a ranking of Florida's 67 counties, Achieve Escambia said Escambia County is at No. 53 (Department of Education data indicates ranks 50-54 all had a 47% readiness rate), up from our rank of No. 56 in 2018.

"That means we're starting to move in the right direction in Escambia County, but it's not nearly at the pace we want to be at," Krupa said. "We want to be better than the state, we want to be the best Escambia County we can possibly be. We're nowhere near our goal of 75% kindergartner ready by 2025, so the question is, what is it going to take to get us over this really significant hump?"

In the coming year, we will be working smarter to engage families, community leaders and educators in going “all-in,” so that no child, youth or adult is left behind or left out of our Escambia County economy.

While Escambia County’s kindergarten readiness rate remains a flat 45%, the majority of the county’s 82 VPK providers are improving their ability to prepare 4- and 5-year-olds for school. The latest results show an early learning system that is strengthening, and on the rise.

“I care about educational outreach and community. I want to share the gift of equity in every learning institution in the nation.”

“Having lived through my own personal struggles and hardships in the pursuit of a better life for myself and my family, I want to use my voice and position with Achieve Escambia to help improve the lives of the citizens of Escambia County.”  

This month, Pensacola was selected for the inaugural cohort of the Inclusive Development Network. “Inclusion” and “economic development” don’t always go hand-in-hand. But they should. Now, more than ever, we need to create more economic developers with the skill sets, strategies, and sustainability plans to drive impactful workforce and talent alignment strategies in northwest Florida.

Learn about the FAFSA in less than 60 seconds in this fun video produced by our partner, Dr. Kit.

Breaking news from our partners at Florida College Access Network: More adults in Escambia County have at least a two-year degree, according to the latest census data.  We’re improving!

Our annual collective impact report looks back on 2018, a year of learning to measure and improve what matters, and looks ahead to 2019 and beyond as we reimagine the future of cradle to career education and workforce development systems in Escambia County.

We’re excited to reveal our newly revamped website, designed through the generosity of Bee Loud, the in-house digital marketing agency at Innisfree Hotels.

The past several years have been all about math in my life. I do it everyday, I learn more about it everyday, and even though it gets challenging sometimes, I push through just so I can say “I did it.” After my summer job ended this year, I wanted to work for a company that would help me acquire more professional development experience.