Community in Action
Stronger Together: New Community Partnerships Expanding Our Impact
At Parenting Matters, we believe families thrive best when communities work together.
Over the past year, we’ve had the opportunity to build new partnerships with organizations across Manatee and Sarasota counties, each rooted in a shared commitment to supporting children, strengthening parents, and responding thoughtfully to community needs. These collaborations allow us to meet families where they are, expand access to proven parenting education and early childhood experiences, and innovate in ways that no single organization could do alone.
In a time when many families are facing increasing stress and uncertainty, these partnerships represent something powerful: organizations standing side by side, leaning into cooperation, and choosing connection over isolation.
Here are just a few of the incredible community partners helping amplify our reach:
Project Prosper
Through online financial literacy classes and collaboration with the Home Visiting Coalition, families are gaining tools that strengthen stability, confidence, and long-term well-being, because strong families are built on both emotional and financial foundations.
Senior Friendship Centers
By bringing our Musical Motion program to older adults and young children together, we were able to foster joyful intergenerational connections that support early development while strengthening community bonds.
Gulf Central Early Steps (supported by the Community Foundation of Sarasota County)
Our sensory-sensitive Musical Motion classes are creating inclusive spaces for children of all abilities to explore movement, music, and connection in ways that support developmental growth.
Betty J. Johnson North Sarasota Library (supported by the Community Foundation of Sarasota County)
This new Musical Motion site makes early childhood enrichment accessible in a familiar, welcoming community space, bringing learning and play directly to families where they already gather.
The Florida Center (supported by the James M. Doss Charitable Foundation Trust)
Together, we’re delivering parenting education that strengthens family relationships, builds confidence, and equips caregivers with tools that support healthy child development.
Daughtrey Elementary School
By embedding parenting classes directly within school communities, including Spanish-language programming for tweens and teens, we’re supporting families in ways that are accessible, culturally responsive, and deeply connected to children’s everyday environments.
A Community That Shows Up
Each of these partnerships reflects something bigger than a program or a class. They represent a community choosing to collaborate, to listen, and to respond creatively to what families truly need.
When organizations share resources, expertise, and trust, the ripple effect is real, more families reached, stronger support systems built, and children given a healthier foundation for the future.
We are deeply grateful to our partners and funders who make this collective impact possible. We are not only expanding services, we are strengthening our community’s capacity to care for its families, especially during challenging times.
Because when we come together, families don’t just receive support.
They experience hope, connection, and the power of a community that stands with them.
Interested in learning ways that you can partner with Parenting Matters? Email info@ParentingMattersFL.org, call 941.756.3007, or visit ParentingMatters.org.