ABOUT US
Our Mission
To sustain a team of county and business leaders who mobilize resources to improve the education, health, safety, nutrition and care of all children in St. Lucie County.
Our Vision
We envision a community where county leaders, businesses and residents are united to provide all children of St. Lucie County the resources they need to thrive, be successful and achieve their full potential.
About Us
The Roundtable of St. Lucie County, Inc., a 501(c)(3) organization, is a group of St. Lucie County leaders who work together to accomplish system change that results in improved outcomes for youth throughout St. Lucie County. The Roundtable does not focus on “quick fixes.” Instead, it identifies and implements research-based, comprehensive solutions to achieve and sustain long-term success for youth and their families in St. Lucie County.
In 1995, the Roundtable was created when five Chief Executive Officers from the Fort Pierce Police Department, Department of Juvenile Justice, Department of Children & Families, the Children’s Services Council of St. Lucie County, and the City of Port St. Lucie came together to creat an infrastructure where collective problem-solving could effectively occur around chilren’s issues. Their goal was to develop a comprehensive plan to better the lives of children in St. Lucie County. Since 1995, the board has grown to include chief or executive level officers from approximately 29 community organizations.
In 1999, the Roundtable was one of six sites in Florida to secure a grant from the national Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) to develop a comprehensive plan to reduce risk factors and problem behaviors. The plan, called St. Lucie Hand in Hand, is centered on a “risk-focused” prevention model, supported by thirty years of adolescent problem behavior research by Dr. David Hawkins and Dr. Richard Catalano. Since then, St. Lucie Hand in Hand has served as the foundation for all of the Roundtable’s activities.
In 2007, the Roundtable selected Kids at Hope (KAH) as the primary means of increasing, supporting, and sustaining protective factors in St. Lucie County. KAH is a national initiative and a strategic cultural framework based on resiliency research designed to engage entire communities in supporting the success of all children, without exception. St. Lucie County and the Cities of Fort Pierce and Port St. Lucie have all passed resolutions to become Kids at Hope communities. St. Lucie County is the first in the nation to have all municipalities agree to adopt Kids at Hope. In addition, all St. Lucie Public Schools are trained in the Kids at Hope culture.
In 2015, in response to a growing sentiment among residents regarding the escalation of gang violence, Florida State Representative Larry Lee and other community leaders started the “Restoring the Village” movement, a grassroots anti-violence initiative that mobilized the community to action. The Roundtable established the Restoring the Village Youth Initiative (RTVYI), now known as IGNITE Youth Alliance (IYA), and adopted the OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model in partnership with more than thirty other community agencies. The Rountable successfully secured federal, state, local, and private funding to sustain the program through 2023. IGNITE Youth Alliance is recognized at the national level for its implementation of the model.
In 2017, the Roundtable’s Substance Abuse Prevention Network (Drug Free St. Lucie Coalition) was awarded a five-year Drug Free Communities (DFC) grant of $125,000 per year from the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy and the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
In 2023, the Roundtable’s Substance Abuse Prevention Network (Drug Free St. Lucie Coalition) was awarded the Drug Free Community’s (DFC) five-year continuation award. This grant will fund our coalition through 2028. The Strategic Prevention Framework guides the work of the Drug Free St. Lucie Coalition to develop infrastructure for community-based public health approaches that lead to effective and sustainable reductions in alcohol, marijuana, and other substance use among St. Lucie County youth. This funding is recognition from the federal government of both the leadership of the Roundtable and the community’s commitment to creating a healthy and safe environment for all St. Lucie County youth.
Also in 2023, the Roundtable was awarded the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Strategic Prevention Framework-Partnership for Success Grant (SPF-PFS) for $375,000 per year for 5 years through 2028 to launch the St. Lucie RISE Strategic Prevention Partnership / Mental Health Collaborative. The purpose of this grant program is to help communities work collaboratively to reduce the onset and progression of substance misuse and its related problems by supporting the development and delivery of community substance misuse prevention and mental health promotion services. The SPF-PFS program is grounded in the Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF), a data-driven community engagement model grounded in public health principles focused on providing evidence-based services to high-risk and underserved communities.
Today, thirty years later, the Roundtable has grown from five members to twenty-eight (28) chief executives working together to improve outcomes for St. Lucie County children and their families. The Roundtable consists of nine (9) Networks that concentrate on the following key areas: Academic Success, Child & Adolescent Health (Teen Pregnancy Prevention, Infant Mortality, Healthy Weight, and Unintentional Injury), Economic Self-Sufficiency, St. Lucie RISE/Mental Health Collaborative, Substance Abuse Prevention/Drug Free St. Lucie, and the Lincoln Park Advisory Committee. The singular focus of each network allows it to develop a strategic plan of action around its specific risk factors through education, system and policy change, and comprehensive environmental strategies. In addition to these nine networks, the Roundtable directs the following four initiatives: Kids at Hope, H.Y.P.E Youth Coalition, St. Lucie RISE – Strategic Prevention Partnership, and Drug Free St. Lucie. Please visit their pages to learn more about the amazing work our initiatives are doing in our community.
Working together, the Roundtable and its partners have achieved significant success in St. Lucie County:
41%
PREGNANCIES AMONG 15-19 YEAR OLD TEENS HAS DECREASED FROM 27 PER 1,000 BIRTHS IN 2014 TO 15.9 PER 1,000 BIRTHS IN 2023
51%
LIFETIME USE OF ILLICIT DRUGS (OTHER THAN MARIJUANA) AMONG MIDDLE & HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS HAS DECREASED FROM 16.5% IN 2014 TO 8% IN 2024
75%
EARLY INITIATION OF MARIJUANA USAGE AMONG HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS HAS DECREASED FROM 15.6% IN 2014 TO 3.9% IN 2024
76%
PAST 30-DAY ALCOHOL USE AMONG MIDDLE & HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS HAS DECREASED FROM 22% IN 2014 TO 5.3% IN 2024
26%
GRADUATION RATES HAVE INCREASED FROM 75% IN 2014-15 TO 94.3% IN 2023-24
72%
AFRICAN AMERICAN INFANT MORTALITY HAS DECREASED FROM 18.5 PER 1,000 BIRTHS IN 2014 TO 5.1 PER 1,000 BIRTHS IN 2023
32%
THE PERCEPTION OF HARM FROM VAPING MARIJUANA HAS INCREASED AMONG MIDDLE & HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS FROM 35.8% IN 2020 TO 47.4% IN 2024
25%
REPEAT BIRTHS TO MOTHERS AGED 18-19 YEARS DECREASED FROM 45.4 PER 1,000 BIRTHS IN 2014 TO 34 PER 1,000 BIRTHS IN 2023
16%
ER VISITS FOR INJURY BY MOTOR VEHICLE (AGES 0-19 YEARS) DECREASED FROM 954 IN 2016 TO 798 IN 2022