Brain Bag Initiative
Brain Bags are early literacy gift bags given to each of the 5,000 women who give birth each year in Escambia County’s birthing hospitals. The Bags include: a storybook, “P is For Pelican, the ABCs of Pensacola,” which uses landmarks in our community to build letter awareness and encourage family reading; Baby Steps, a baby book that can be personalized to help parents track early brain development milestones in the first three years of life; a toy; and community resource information and partners to help support parents. It includes library locations, screen time guidelines, healthy lifestyle advice for first year of life, and more.

The project was launched with a grant from IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay Area in spring 2017. It continues through the generous support of our sponsors and donors. More than 13,500 have been given out at Baptist, Sacred Heart and West Florida hospitals since the project’s first year.

Parent Outreach
For one hour each week, SCI staff offers tools, training and strategies in early learning initiatives for parents of children under 4 years old in underserved neighborhoods. SCI formed a partnership with the Area Housing Commission to lead parent groups for residents in eight housing campuses with children under 4. Nearly 300 families with children under 4 out of a total of 1,000 families reside in properties managed by Area Housing 

These children, when they age up to elementary school, primarily attend C.A. Weis, Global Learning Academy, Warrington and O.J. Semmes elementary schools. These neighborhood schools are traditionally among the lowest graded elementary schools in Escambia County School District, according to state standardized test scores (Florida Standards Assessment).