Philanthropy | Melissa & Scott Dunlap: Partnering with The Florida Center for Early Childhood

By Ryan G. Van Cleave | April 2023

The Florida Center for Early Childhood is a nonprofit organization that provides comprehensive support to families and caregivers of young children in southwest Florida. For more than four decades, it’s offered a variety of programs and services to help families nurture the development of their children. Today, The Florida Center for Early Childhood is nationally recognized for excellence in early child development, child abuse prevention, infant and early childhood mental health, and addressing fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.

With a reputation and impact like that, it’s no wonder that civic-minded people like Melissa and Scott Dunlap decided to get involved with The Florida Center soon after they moved to Sarasota. Melissa explains that she was originally introduced to the agency by a friend. Soon after, that friend asked, “Why don’t you join the board?” By this time, Scott was working in a local law firm and Melissa was working at home, so she felt she had enough free time to consider saying yes. 

“When we moved here, Sarasota was still a pretty small place, and it was extremely philanthropic,” she says. “It’s easy to be motivated by the actions of others. You see other people volunteering and you think, ‘Where do I invest my own time? What do I really care about?’” The answer for both Dunlaps came easily: children.

Melissa was drawn to this area of work. “I had a friend in college who was a social work, and she inspired me,” she says. “I volunteered with her agency while in school. The focus on children is a natural one if you’re soon to be a parent or you’re already the parent of young children.” 

By the time her friend suggested she join The Florida Center’s board, Melissa had already worked with Big Brothers Big Sisters, and she’d worked with the American Cancer Society back when they held charity races on Lido Beach. Volunteering to support children just made sense. What better way to help the organization than getting involved at the highest level?

Here we are some two decades later, and Melissa just finished her second round of service on The Florida Center’s board. Serving in that role allowed her to see firsthand the value of early childhood support services and how vital is it to have passionate people involved in every step of the process. “We have some of the most professional, wonderful employees here,” she notes. “They have such a collaborative spirit, which is why they work so well with other agencies. Frankly, that’s the best way to take care of a vulnerable youth population, whether that’s at a school or through family services.”

Even though Scott’s work in his law firm—Dunlap & Moran—preclude him from working with nonprofits at the same level that his wife does, he’s impressed by The Florida Center’s commitment to family. After all, The Florida Center serves more than 4,000 families every year by the Healthy Families program, which improve childhood outcomes and equips parents with the know-how and skills to create a nurturing environment. 

“Melissa is dedicated to the mission of The Florida Center,” Scott says. “She’s like the Energizer Bunny, going on and on to support all they do. I help by getting people to donate or attend the gala or other functions, so it’s a bit of a team approach in terms of our relationship to The Florida Center. But Melissa definitely leads the way.”

Melissa points out that during and after the pandemic, there have been all kinds of new issues that children face. Of course, The Florida Center is there to help through their robust infant and early childhood mental health services, as well as with their own speech-language pathologists and occupational therapists. There’s also the Starfish Academy in Sarasota and North Port, which offers an inclusion model of education for children aged six weeks to five years where typically developing children learn alongside those with delays or disabilities. It’s a successful educational model that promotes leadership, empathy, and diversity.

“I’m so pleased that the school board in Sarasota and Manatee counties see the importance of mental health for young students,” Melissa says. “Providing school-aged children with these resources will pay dividends for their families and the larger community as a whole. 

 It’s part of a statewide effort to try to mitigate some of the challenges faced by children in foster case. We’re talking about bringing help to some of our most vulnerable children who’ve been removed from their home for one reason or another. This initiative really resonates with me.”

Scott explains that at the core of his and Melissa’s work with nonprofits like The Florida Center is an effort to give back. “Strengthening children and families means a stronger community. We are grateful to be involved in some small way.”