Statewide business groups have generally focused their Tallahassee lobbying efforts on lawsuit limitations and workers’ compensation benefits.
But the Florida Chamber of Commerce is changing course this year, emphasizing the improvement of children’s health and welfare status in the next eight years and, in turn, continuing to grow the state’s economy to the 10th largest in the world by 2030.
“What we believe, in the next 10 years if we do the right things in Florida, we can grow to the 10th largest economy in the world by 2030. We are going to have 4 million more people and 2 million more jobs,” said Mark Wilson, the Chamber’s president and CEO. “And you can ask me all morning, ‘How are we going to do that?’ What do we need to do in education and roads and jobs and technology and RFT and international trade and water and the environment? We can have that conversation.”
Wilson told an audience gathered in Orlando that there are 829,000 children in Florida living in poverty today, with half of them living in one of 150 ZIP codes across the state.
“So as business leaders, I would say to you, ‘Why is that acceptable? It’s not,” he said, adding, “What can 150 local chambers of commerce do to help raise awareness on this issue? What can we all do starting in 2022 to wake up millions of people in Florida about the fact the future of our kids absolutely matters?”
Wilson made his remarks at an early morning breakfast hosted by the Nemours Foundation that was held before the Chamber’s annual meeting and two-day “Future of Florida Forum.”
Wilson is joining efforts underway by the Nemours Children’s Health, which wants to see Florida jump in the ranks regarding child well-being. Florida currently ranks No 35 in children’s health and wellness.
Nemours wants the state to jump to the No. 10 spot.
“We tend to think of business interests being objective and rational and of an interest in child health as being more of the realm of charity and emotion. However, … child health is an incredibly powerful tool for shaping the economic vitality of a region,” said R. Lawrence Moss, president and chief executive officer of Nemours Children’s Health.
Moss added that “the human capital workers bring to the economy is largely influenced by their childhood,” he said.
“Even minor tweaks to a child’s circumstances, even things like providing snacks in preschool, catching literacy issues early, and nipping asthma in the bud have a snowballing and powerful effect throughout the critical years of development of education, increasing the likelihood that these children will grow into vibrant and economically productive adults,” he said.
Post Views:
575
Future of Florida Forum: Florida Chamber emphasizes kids health, welfare
More Stories
The Racism Black Young ones Endure Is Spiraling Into a Health and fitness Crisis
Disregarded issues of learners applying racist slurs, Black little ones finding in problems for reporting instances of discrimination, and white...
How to elevate successful children, ‘healthy strivers’
Want your child to be prosperous? Raise them to be a "wholesome striver," suggests parenting researcher and creator Jennifer Breheny...
Ohio overall health director: eCigarette-similar injuries soaring
Ohio's prime wellbeing formal sounded a warning Thursday about the rise in injuries caused by eCigarettes, saying they are disproportionately...
How paediatrician researchers are advancing child health
Aline Saliba loves understanding the science behind paediatric medicine.Credit: Pablo Albarenga for Nature One of the Sustainable Development Goals set...
Scooters, curling irons and magnets are injuring youngsters, doctors alert
Pediatricians are sounding the alarm about 3 goods that have been increasingly or commonly landing kids in the unexpected emergency...
Lack of Sleep Negatively Impacts Kids’ Wellbeing, Far too
Acquiring sufficient sleep is crucial to sustaining children’s wellbeing and wellbeing. Sleep is very important to human health and fitness....