The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) applications are available in Sarasota County to provide relief to individuals and businesses. We as citizens and businesses in Sarasota County have a short window to apply for this relief. We do not have time to wait, we must just act.

As far as the business applicants, the businesses that need this money the most are the smallest of small businesses. However, the smaller the business the harder the application is to fill out. Microbusinesses do not have immediate access to accountants and attorneys that larger businesses have. They also do not have the record-keeping abilities of larger businesses. Anyone who has ever assisted these businesses, as I have in my previous life in legal practice donating pro bono hours, knows that “shoe box“ record-keeping is extremely common due to scale and razor thin net income. These folks are just trying to earn enough income to support their families.

That is where our community partners are stepping in. The local chambers, business associations, and the NAACP are filling the gap for government.  It is what makes this county so great, the community stepping up with the sense of urgency this relief was meant to invoke. We have watched too many businesses fold up in the last few months.

Other community partners like our community foundations and non-profits are also stepping forward to help get this money to individuals. They see the need and the suffering daily as they are the ones on the ground and in the streets watching families fall apart during this pandemic. They too have a high sense of urgency; they see the growing need is great.

Now all of us need to get the word out to the community. Some Facebook ads and texts to those who pay attention to government are not enough. Together, as a community, we must let our neighbors know this reimbursement aid is available and how they can access it.  With the actual documentation requirements only released a few days before the applications, it will take extra time and assistance to help those most in need, and this pandemic has clearly put them in a disadvantage financially and emotionally.

Unfortunately, time is not what we have in front of us. As of right now, we only have about 90 days to get these applications fully submitted accurately with very complete documentation.   

Please tell your neighbors that they need to take the time to look at this program. They must start right away, and make sure their applications are as complete and accurate as possible, as our community does not have a lot of time. To help our community recover please share the below county link with as many individuals and business owners as you are able, as soon as you are able, or our community loses out.

Christine Robinson is executive director for The Argus Foundation. 

Sarasota County CARES ACT program

This column is about three things: real leadership, common-sense solutions and believing in the potential of everyone.

I recently enjoyed conversations with two leaders in our community who epitomize and embrace all three. Their ideas and their results renewed my optimism for a brighter future in spite of the noise we are hearing in the news.

Last week, a group of Gulf Coast Community Foundation supporters joined me for a virtual conversation with Neil Phillips. Neil is founder and CEO of Visible Men Academy, a remarkable charter school in Bradenton for boys who live in poverty. He also leads Visible Men, a success network for Black men and boys, and speaks nationally on minority education, character development, and youth empowerment. Neil is a treasure in our community.

We invited him for a frank talk on race relations and leading young men to confidently face an uncertain world. At the heart of VMA’s approach is love. We learned how VMA first helps boys recognize their value and their sense of self. From there, they can acquire the skills needed to lead successful and satisfying lives.

One of our donors asked what’s the most important thing to build up and support children from impoverished families. Neil offered two. “The first is love,” he said. “If love is not present, none of this works.

“The second thing is high expectations. Low expectations are dooming these children. We’re making the mistake of assuming that where you come from is where you will go. Until we can elevate expectations for these students, we will not be pulling them up. Believe me, the thing we see is they are eager to meet those high expectations.”

Young boys come to VMA with attributes like resilience, toughness and creativity—many, for example, take on parenting roles at very young ages. “These are wonderful, positive, success-breeding attributes,” Neil said. “We start to develop the conviction in our boys that they will be successful because of who they are, not in spite of who they are.”

There’s a reason VMA calls its students “suns,” Neil said. “Because we know they shine brightly.”

Expanding to our wider community, we discussed how to become a society that really appreciates and values one another. Neil reminded us “no growth comes without discomfort, without awkwardness, without some risk.” But his advice: keep persisting. “It’s who we are at our best that will enable us to overcome differences,” he said. “The ‘human value’ issue is where this originates and where our path to progress is.”

Earlier this summer, we held a similar conversation with Gulf Coast supporters and Sarasota County Sheriff Tom Knight. Sheriff Knight also spoke frankly, about community-police relations and criminal justice reform. The highlights of this conversation were the  advanced programs that our Sheriff’s Office has implemented to transform jail time from punitive to restorative.

Programs like the Recovery Pod for addiction issues and Re-entry Pod for community reintegration focus on responsibility, rehabilitation and opportunity. They also breed self-worth and success. Sheriff Knight said many of his volunteers in the Recovery Pod are people who benefitted from the program themselves. For inmates who didn’t have role models and have made bad choices, “We’ve become the father figures they get to talk to,” he said.

“The most important thing we’ve done is our Navigator positions,” he added, referring to a program that Gulf Coast Community Foundation helped the Sheriff’s Office launch this year. These Navigators are employees of the Sherriff who build relationships with inmates while they are in jail and then maintain these relationships after their release. The key success of this program is helping former inmates navigate all aspects of reentering our community. “When they’re feeling down and are going to slip back, the Navigators are the ones they’ll call,” he said.

I’ve shared two examples of leaders who are finding new ways to help us move forward as a region. We need leaders like this. Leaders who provide common-sense solutions. Leaders who set high expectations. Leaders who believe in the best of everyone.

Mark S. Pritchett is president and CEO of Gulf Coast Community Foundation. 

Photo of Neil Phillips

This Fall is a challenging time for higher education. The COVID-19 pandemic has temporarily altered how we do everything. Our students, however, look to State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota (SCF), for continuity and progression in their lives. They do not want to put their futures off until things return to “normal,” and we will provide nothing less than a high-quality SCF education.

Rising to the challenge, we committed to giving our students a solution based on creativity, innovation and compassion. We recognized that if we gave students the choice of how they could take their classes, we could meet their needs and eliminate barriers to their efforts to pursue higher education. We are a month into our Fall term and students are taking courses online, face-to-face on campus, or Go Live with SCF Online. Our Flex Start classes that begin throughout this term will offer the same options. This Fall, I am getting firsthand experience with the different options available to our students. I have several more classes to attend – both physically and virtually – but I am very impressed with what I have seen so far. Our faculty are going above and beyond to ensure that our students get the best experience possible from their classes.

Go Live with SCF Online is a new online format created to allow online students to attend class at a fixed time through Microsoft Teams. I attended a Go Live American history class taught by Associate Professor Phil Travis of SCF’s Social and Behavioral Sciences Department. Unlike a traditional online class, Go Live allows professors live interaction with their students and the ability to share course content on the screen. I found the students to be very engaged and Professor Travis was able to build live polling into the class to broaden the conversation. We are creating Go Live best practices with every session and I believe it will become very popular with students.

About one-third of SCF’s classes this Fall are face-to-face. Professors and students are wearing masks, and in most classrooms, each student sits behind a three-sided plexiglass shield. I attended an English 1101 class taught by SCF Associate Professor Robin Rogers, one of five face-to-face courses she is teaching this term. I was impressed with the creativity she brought into the classroom to get students engaged in the topic. Students who chose face-to-face are relishing the classroom experience and their energy is evident. The safety measures in the classroom are not an impediment to their learning.

SCF has a state-of-the-art nursing Simulation Center on the Lakewood Ranch Campus, an impressive facility I love to visit and bring community members to tour. With in-hospital clinical opportunities limited due to COVID-19, our Simulation Center is filling the gap in our students’ experience. Led by Deb Allish, Director of the Simulation Center, SCF has increased the use of human patient simulators to ensure a consistent experience for every student, make learning objectives hands-on with real-time feedback, and address learning gaps. After observing our simulation training in action, I know that SCF will continue to provide the best-trained nurses to our hospitals.

Rising to the pandemic challenge took a college-wide change in mindset, and I could not be more impressed with the different ways of thinking of our faculty and academic leadership. It is creativity through necessity that is making a lasting positive change to our institution.

Dr. Carol F. Probstfeld is the President of State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota. 

Margaret Good’s shameful voting record against protecting children disqualifies her as a candidate for Congress.

A father who lost a child in the Parkland shooting that left 17 children dead said “Margaret Good wasn’t there for me when I needed her vote for the School Safety Bill passed after my daughter was murdered.”

A leading child advocate in Sarasota publicly questioned Good’s ability to protect children after being the only Florida legislator to vote against a bill banning sex dolls that resemble children.  Good now claims that vote was a “mistake.” 

This is not a person we want representing us in Congress.

Adding to Good's disgraceful record is her refusal to apologize to Sarasota's only black newspaper, which demanded an apology after her staff circulated a racist video that mocked civil rights icon Rosa Parks. 

When asked by the Herald-Tribune to explain, Good said she was too busy fundraising to discuss the issue. 

And let's not forget her work as a lawyer at the high-priced law firm Eastmoore, Crauwels & Dubose

which has defended Ponzi schemers and scam artists who have ruined the lives of seniors and others in Southwest Florida. 

Margaret Good is an embarrassment to her party and to the people she represents and does not deserve a promotion.

Frank Patti is a Sarasota resident and secretary of the Republican Party of Sarasota.