About
Educational Consultants Consortium, Inc. (ECC) was organized on September 18, 1995, by four retired Manatee County Educators and two businessmen living in the weed and seed target areas of the county.
Weed and Seed, a community-based strategy sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), is an innovative, comprehensive multi-agency approach to law enforcement, crime prevention, and community revitalization. Weed and Seed is foremost a strategy that aims to prevent, control, and reduce violent crime, drug abuse, and gang activity in designated high-crime neighborhoods across the country.
With full knowledge of the community challenges, ECCI organized and developed goals to address the soaring drop-out, drug, crime, and teenage pregnancy rates in the at-risk area of (Palmetto) Manatee County by involving the whole family and community in the process. The retired educators, who brought more than 130 years of educating Manatee County’s children to the organization, noted that students making the most progress in and out of the classroom were those with commitment from families and support from their community.
“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”
Frederick Douglass
Our Mission
Our program model, “Iron Sharpening Iron,” focuses on the 40 Developmental Assets identified by the nationally-recognized Search Institute. The foundational objectives concentrate on building blocks of healthy development that help youth grow up healthy, caring and responsible.
Our vision for our children is that they will graduate high school, pursue a career and marry prior to parenting a child.
