Circles Celebrates Children’s Week Florida 2025
- Circles USA
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Circles chapters throughout Florida recently made their annual journey to celebrate Children's Week 2025 at the State Capitol in Tallahassee. Poverty Solutions Group, the lead agency for Circles Central Florida, joined 80+ other statewide organizations in May for this beloved event. Pathways to Prosperity, lead agency for Circles Palm Beach County, invited Circle Leader graduates Bentoria Murray and Angela McDonald to share Circles stories and best practices to advocate for all of Florida’s children; and Circles Gainesville’s parent agency, Trinity United Methodist Church, joined in solidarity this year as well. Attendees say that sharing their stories in Tallahassee “impacted their policymakers deeply.”
Children’s Week Florida is the largest event in the state to celebrate and honor children, youth, and advocates. Through a variety of interactive events, educational activities, and outreach efforts, Children’s Week amplifies the diverse needs of Florida’s children and youth to state leaders while recognizing their achievements. Thousands of attendees, including legislators, public officials, nonprofit organizations, business leaders, child and youth advocates, teachers, students, and families, attend Children’s Week Florida at the State Capitol each year during the legislative session.
Children’s Week and its partner groups also support numerous community-focused events and activities that take place across the state throughout the year.
CUSA’s National Coach Addie Hartnett discussed the Children’s Week festivities in a recent episode of The Big View podcast, comparing participants’ rigorous, thoughtful displays of children’s advocacy work to “doing art installations.”
“It's talking to elected officials, sure,” Hartnett shared, “[but also] learning about the legislative process”:
I think what we've gained the most from being there is that the officials who represent us [in] local and state government...recognize our faces. So now we have representatives who will ask us, ‘Hey, what do you think about this thing?’ When we go to them, they're like, ‘Okay, what's new? What are some of the things that we need to work on for you?’ It's a really cool byproduct that maybe some of the thinkers behind our Big View intended…Now we have these closer connections with policymakers; but also other organizations who might share values with us, might work on the same initiatives with us. And I think [with] the addition of new relationships within our Circle, our power grows too. Because we're all then moving in a direction together, kind of as a collective.
Children’s Week Florida would not be possible without a network of generous partners who speak out as one voice in support of children and families. Together, these partners deliver the message that every child should be healthy, ready to learn, and able to achieve their full potential.
Read about Children’s Week FL 2024 on our blog, or learn more about Circles USA’s Big View Policy Platform—including our multi-generational curriculum for whole families building community to end poverty—at circlesusa.org.
Click the Give to Circles button and help us celebrate 25+ years of building community to end poverty!
