Sunflower Creative Arts Inc.

“Organization provides a copy of the completed form 990 to each board member for review and comments prior to filing. Appropriate changes made where necessary prior to filing.”

“The organization has a conflict of interest policy. The board regularly and consistently monitors and enforces compliance with the policy, and annually reviews and signs the policy. Whistleblower policy a member of the board was appointed to be the compliance officer and reporting procedures are outlined in the policy.”

“Compensation for the executive director is examined by an indepedent committee of the board of directors. Compensation is compared to compensation of executive directors of similar organizations.”

“Upon request such documents are provided to requesting party.”

“Sunflower's mission is to empower children to be confident, creative and compassionate through play, nature and the arts. Sunflower creative arts provides a unique and diverse collection of arts and educational programs for children and families. Sunflower's work is grounded in the belief that hands-on learning experiences in play, nature and the arts are absolutely essential for healthy human development. The pillars of sunflower's educational philosophy are respect for the individual, learning through experience and learning within community. Our programs nurture the creative spirit, promote children's community engagement, and support parents in their work of raising strong children. A key component to fulfilling our mission is to provide children with opportunities for learning through play, nature, and the arts, while increasing the community's understanding of the importance of these experiences for healthy child development. We offer early childhood programs which teach communication and parenting skills to parents while guiding children's development through hands-on, play based activities. In this environment, we model nonviolent conflict resolution skills for all ages. We also offer additional creative arts programs, parenting programs, and a community service club for children. We sponsor several community building events each year. Through fundraising, we aim to make our programs available to all who seek them, regardless of their ability to pay.”

“Form 990 part iii 4a throughout 2018/2019, across all our sunflower programs, teachers, parents and student observers have seen first-hand that experiences in play, nature and the arts are essential for healthy human development. This year 254 families benefited from a play-based education through 7 programs at our sunflower campus. 4,460 parent volunteer/co-op hours allowed teachers to provide optimal play-based experiences for children in these classes. Sunflower's programs would not be possible without the generous support of our many donors, business sponsors and volunteers in 2018/19 sunflower volunteers logged 7,942 total hours our community raised 22,275 for sunflower programs at our annual hop, skip & a jump-a-thon. Fourteen business sponsors supported our community events. For the fourth year in a row, the batchelor foundation granted 20,000 to our need based scholarship fund, for which we are incredibly grateful in 24 hours during great give 2019, the sunflower community and our generous donors raised 18,594 to support sunflower's need based scholarship fund. Our 2018/2019 complimentary community events and speaking engagements provided ample opportunity to see how children thrive when we all come together to support them in ways that spark their creativity, grow their confidence and encourage curiosity. Over 500 people attended our ice castle festival & play day, our annual community celebration of play + nature + art. 500 volunteer hours made this event happen our sunflower roots & shoots club, a part of jane goodall's worldwide kid's activist group, allows us to see children performing service projects together that demonstrate concern for the environment, animals and the human community. This year we opened our doors to graduate as well as undergraduate students and in-service teachers to see the transformative power of learning in a play-based environment, where adults facilitate exploration guided by each child's unique wonder, curiosity and interests. Ruth floreal, edd, conducted a study at sunflower on incorporating stem into early childhood. In her doctoral thesis for northeastern university, dr. Floreal wrote, "children at sunflower have uninterrupted play time because their play is their work. Play is when children get the opportunity to think, reason and build the confidence to be independent . . . Children build the confidence to be reflective decision makers and are empowered to speak up for themselves." 2018/2019 marked the first full year of the sunflower play initiative and we hosted over 20 pop-up playful builds with over 1,000 total attendees. The mission of the sunflower play initiative is to shine a light on the profound power of play. Our vision is to bring back child-directed free play to every child's life, every day. Through the bold outreach efforts of this initiative we are encouraging the delray and greater community to see play as a critical cross-cultural component of childhood, crucial for every aspect of learning and growth. This year the play initiative partnered with delray beach children's garden, milagro afterschool program, farmworker coordinating council of palm beach county, inc., delray beach public library, delray parks and recreation, arts garage, and wise tribe. Sergio m. Palacio, executive director, farmworker's coordinating council of palm beach county, inc. Said, "i work here. It is always quiet. I never hear the sounds of children. I have no children of my own. No nieces or nephews. Nothing. The children are always quiet, serious, shy, afraid. Now you are here. . . . I'm working and it's not quiet. I hear laughter and joy, children talking, planning, playing. They are happy. They are having fun. It is good to see them being kids-being real kids, having a childhood. Sunflower founder and director, susan caruso, along with simone chin, assistant director of the sunflower play initiative, presented to the delray beach chamber of commerce nonprofit council about the play ini”

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