Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is Forty Carrots?
Forty Carrots Family Center is a 501(c)3, not-for-profit charitable organization dedicated to strengthening families through educational programs for parents, their children, and professionals in the field. Forty Carrots Family Center has four components:
A comprehensive Parenting Center offering classes for parents and children age birth-five
A community outreach Parenting Program On Wheels
A nationally accredited Preschool
Opportunities for professional development and training
The carrot, a root vegetable, symbolizes the agency's core belief that quality parenting and early childhood education nurture the roots of healthy families, which in turn create a healthy community.
2. Who are Forty Carrots Families?
Throughout its history, Forty Carrots programs have been shaped by the belief that all parents regardless of socioeconomic status, educational background, age, or other factors, deserve access to information, education, and support in order to do the best possible job raising their children. Forty Carrots embraces diversity and does not discriminate on any basis.
Each year, Forty Carrots Family Center works with 2,000 families throughout the community - 84% percent receive free parenting education classes through Forty Carrots Parenting Program On Wheels, 12% participate in parenting education programs at the center on Tuttle Avenue and 4% attend the nationally accredited, award-winning preschool.
According to one Forty Carrots parent, "When I had my first child I knew I would be a good parent. But to be the parent I wanted to be, I turned to Forty Carrots for coaching - not to tell me what to do, but to help me filter through all the parenting information I was getting, so that I could learn skills that would work with our family values." Another said, "Most of the knowledge I have on parenting is from this class. I really appreciate the teachers coming and talking with us, especially about shaken baby syndrome and how to talk to my son."
Under optimal circumstances, parenting education provides parents with the necessary information and skills to do the best possible job raising their children. In more extreme cases, it prevents child abuse. Either way, Forty Carrots parenting education programs are a critical component of a comprehensive community approach to supporting all families to insure optimal child outcomes.
3. Why is Forty Carrots Unique?
For 16 years, Forty Carrots Family Center has been Sarasota's only agency whose singular focus is early childhood/parenting education.
Forty Carrots classes are specifically designed for families with children age birth to five. Research confirms that children's experiences during the first five years of life shape their futures and program their brains for peace or violence and for school success or failure. Unlike other agencies that concentrate entirely on children, Forty Carrots also arms parents with the information and education they need to support their children's optimal growth and development.
In its mission to strengthen the community, Forty Carrots Family Center collaborates with other agencies such as CYESIS, YMCA Character House, First Step, Children First, and Sarasota Women's Jail to provide parenting classes to families with known risk factors such as teen parenthood, drug and alcohol addiction, parental incarceration, and poverty. It also partners with eight public libraries to reach the growing number of young families in the community. In addition, Forty Carrots presents an annual free Speaker Event to reach even more parents as well as professionals who work with young children.
Forty Carrots Family Center is well known for its quality parenting, early childhood, and professional education programs. Since 1993, Forty Carrots programs have been a critical part of Sarasota's community-wide effort to strengthen families and reduce child abuse and neglect.
