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 2019 - 2020 launched as a year inspired by relationships between children, families, and teachers. 223 families formed enduring relationships in 18 weekly play, nature + arts programs on our sunflower campus. At sunflower we know that children experience the world through relationships which are essential to all facets of their healthy development. Sunflower builds relationships in myriad ways. One is our monthly potluck dinner, gather in the garden, which is open to all. Another is sunflower roots & shoots - a part of jane goodall's worldwide children's activist network that performs service projects which demonstrate caring for the environment, animals and the human community. In our parent cooperative preschool programs, we develop relationships with parents as we provide hands-on mentoring and support. The sunflower play initiative (spi) continues to grow, thrive, and expand our relationships in the community. The sunflower play initiative's mission is to shine light on the profound power of play by being a play resource for the community, providing play opportunities for children and workshops for parents and educators. To date, we have brought play opportunities to over 1,000 children in the community via our build & play programs & events. 300 individuals attended our 2nd annual delray festival & play day at old school square. 450 individuals participated in our annual ice castle festival & play day, bringing old fashioned play to the community. These free events help sunflower reach out and connect. Build & play after school as proud recipients of the great ideas initiative grant from the children's services council of palm beach county, sunflower play initiative launched its boldest outreach effort to inspire and empower young people to pursue their passions, truest intentions and daring ideas by providing rich, open-ended, child-initiated creative play experiences in local after school programs. Children were invited to create, invent and build using their imaginations and an abundant choice of materials such as cardboard, tape, chalk, fabric, yarn and other recyclables. Eight trained play counselors facilitated 75 play sessions serving 183 children in partnership with five after school program partners. Resilience in march 2020, due to the global pandemic, we faced an unprecedented decision. In order to protect the health and safety of children, families, staff and teachers, we suspended all in-person programming, including our biggest fundraiser of the year, our annual hop skip & a jump-a-thon. We shifted quickly to online classes and parent support, with lots of one-on- one phone calls. We reinvented our sunflower bridging day (graduation) to be safe and fun for all. Our little seedlings families had their end of year celebration via zoom. Our seedlings preschool families commemorated the end of the school year with a unique drive through ceremony. Experts agree, play is critical to all facets of a child's healthy development. Play is even more important during the covid-19 pandemic because play builds resilience, mitigates stress and anxiety and deepens family relationships. Seemingly overnight, sunflower's mission to provide play to the community became more important than ever. Our families were ready and resilient. Our families know play, nature & arts are integral to raising confident, compassionate, and creative children. Our families know play is at the heart of who we are as human beings. Our families know nature is home to our sense of self, exploration, and wonder. Our families know we are all born to create and express ourselves through the arts. -having a group of moms that i could lean into for support was so helpful during quarantine. This community helped us guide our children by giving us the tools we needed; tools that helped our kids adjust to the 'new norm,' tools that helped them see they can get through hard things and navigate all the feelings that come along with the big”