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Partnership Seeks to Improve Health by Boosting Education

Education | School | Classroom

One of the fundamental requirements of a healthy life is a quality education, according to the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg. The partnership between Healthy St. Petersburg and the Pinellas Education Foundation is to make sure all children have a chance to receive a quality education and thus improve health.

ST. PETERSBURG – The Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg and the Pinellas Education Foundation are embarking on a strategic partnership to advance equitable educational outcomes and boost education quality for all students in Pinellas County.

The Pinellas Education Foundation is a resource and advocate for quality local education. It has an established track record of using research to inform education policy as well as best practices. Support from the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg will provide the Pinellas Education Foundation additional opportunities to strengthen its focus on equity in education as it identifies issues, pursues research topics, considers policy positions, educates the public and helps inform better program design and execution.

“The Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg’s mission is to end differences in health due to social or structural disadvantages. This involves looking at all the underlying conditions in our communities that impact human health. One of the fundamental requirements of a healthy life is education, yet many residents of color, those in poverty and others disproportionately face barriers to attaining a quality education. This is unacceptable. This partnership will help move us closer to equitable outcomes,” said Randall H. Russell, president and CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg.

Stacy Carlson, president of the Pinellas Education Foundation, said, “Funding from the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg will enable the Pinellas Education Foundation to undertake an ambitious research agenda to identify new and better strategies for improving the educational outcomes of all students. This partnership represents an important new resource for research, policy advocacy, program design and community engagement along the full continuum of education in Pinellas County.”

Education | School | ClassroomThe strategic partnership will launch in late spring 2018 with Focus on Education, a series of research reports on top issues in education. The first reports will be on Post-Secondary Education Attainment and Indicators of High School Success and College Readiness. The reports will explore the many ways students in Pinellas County are being prepared for multiple pathways following high school, including career technical education, college, university, military and work.

Each research topic will be supported by a community engagement strategy, designed to inform the community and drive an action plan based on the report recommendations.

Future reports will be announced by Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg and the Pinellas Education Foundation, and will be hosted on a Focus on Education web page on both foundation sites.

The Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg is a private foundation formed in 2013 following the sale of the nonprofit Bayfront Health St. Petersburg. It is the steward of almost $180 million in assets to support health equity in Pinellas County. The Foundation inspires and empowers people, ideas, information exchange, organizations and relationships to end differences in health due to social or structural disadvantages to improve population health.

The Pinellas Education Foundation is an independent, non-governmental not-for-profit established in 1986.  The Foundation’s mission is to accelerate educational achievement for ALL students through the effective mobilization of innovation, relationships and resources. Well known Pinellas Education Foundation programs include: Enterprise Village, Finance Park, Take Stock in Children Scholarships, Youth Connect, and Fund A Classroom grants.

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