BUILDING FLORIDA’ S TALENT PIPELINE Starts with Fighting Childhood Poverty
by Andry Sweet, President and CEO, Children ' s Home Society of Florida
For years, state business leaders have focused on strengthening the talent pipeline that fuels Florida’ s growing economic engine. Too often, those discussions center on the end of a student’ s educational career – high school graduation, technical training, college and the skills employers need to compete. But if we really want to grow the talent pool, we need to start at the beginning, because there’ s a simple but profound truth: Florida’ s talent pipeline begins before birth, shaped by the conditions leaders create for children and families.
At Children’ s Home Society of Florida( CHS), we know a child’ s development begins with the health and stability of expectant parents, available support systems and the community environment they’ re born into. Workforce readiness continues to take shape throughout their education, life experiences, and personal relationships, from school readiness and family support to health care access and nurturing adults who help kids navigate life’ s challenges. But when these foundational pieces are missing, the consequences follow children into adulthood, limiting educational achievement, career opportunities and upward economic mobility.
This is how generational poverty persists, passing from parent to child as an inherited burden.
Breaking this cycle is key to building Florida’ s talent pipeline. That’ s why we’ ve partnered with the Florida Chamber Foundation on its Florida 2030 Blueprint, a long-term, strategic plan to help Florida become a Top 10 global economy. Achieving this goal, however, requires reducing childhood poverty by addressing the 10 Root Causes of Childhood Poverty that keep families locked in this pattern.
According to the Florida Prosperity Initiative’ s State of Childhood Poverty in Florida report, 711,576 children live in poverty, and the North Central region of the state is no exception. Nearly 90,458 children across the region live this reality, and the problem is not confined to any one city or county. While Florida has made
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