Conservation 20/20 Controversy Spurs Good Deed by Dunbar Teens

Youth in Quality Life Center’s Teen program joined forces with Edison Sailing Center to build skills while helping the environment on Veteran’s Day.

Recognizing the passion of those behind Conservation 20/20, Quality Life Center students did their part to enhance the environment by conducting a trash clean-up on Caloosahatchee River islands on Veteran’s Day. 

Teens from Quality Life Center’s LITE program, which stands for Leaders in Training of Excellence, attended a meeting of the Lee County Commissioners earlier this year which discussed funding for youth programs.  The possibility of utilizing funds from Conservation 20/20 was discussed (and ultimately rejected). It got the students thinking about how they can do their part to improve the environment.  Through the generosity of the Edison Sailing Center, the students soon received their answer.

The director of the Edison Sailing Center, Ross Webb, along with members of his team have been instrumental in providing sailing opportunities to students of Quality Life Center for nearly two years. As students learn to kayak, sail and powerboat, they are also able to overcome their fears, increase their self-confidence and learn to work as a team.

Students paddled kayaks provided by ESC out to the islands between the Edison and Midpoint bridges where they gathered everything from old crab traps to cigarette butts and a whole lot of plastic.  

 Four hours later they paddled back to the sailing school with bags of trash and a sense of accomplishment.

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Quality Life Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization transforming the community by developing the potential of at-risk youth, and instilling values of discipline, integrity and self-sufficiency. To learn more about Quality Life Center, to sign up for the next tour date, or to make a donation, call 239.334.2797 or visit http://www.qualitylifecenter.org.

Open House 2013

From friends of "The Q" to first-time visitors, Quality Life Center of Southwest Florida, Inc.was the place to be on Wednesday, November 6, 2013. 

To tell the truth...we were proud. The work that our staff put into this event was truly evident. 

Further, our teen students made us so proud. 

There is truly something special about children -perhaps we should respectfully call them 'teenagers'- who can capture the attention of business people from a simple "Good Evening" and self-introduction. Our students exhibited such confidence and riveting conversation that we could not help but mumble to each other "Did you see __? They're doing great!". 
This feeling of pride stems from the joy that we experience when we realize our work is assisting these children in resisting "the odds".

 We believe that equipping our students with academic, artistic and social skills heightens their chances of success and decreases the likelihood of them becoming another "statistic". 


The transformational work that we are doing within the community is vital. From a very early age, we are teaching children how to be self-sufficient. It is a collective effort that requires staff who operate at a level of excellence, students who are willing to be challenged and a community that believes in its children. 

Our Open House gave the public and ourselves as staff a chance to marvel at the work being done. It became even clearer to us just how important this building -this catalyst of change- is to the enhancement of the Dunbar community. 


As we aim to attain the necessary funds needed to sustain our programs, we are grateful for this moment of encouragement. Thank you to all of the friends -old and new- of "The Q" who came out to celebrate our ten year anniversary within our building and our 22+ years of service in the Dunbar community. 

Your support is what will take us into another 22 more years of transformation. 

Quality Life Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization transforming the community by developing the potential of at-risk youth, and instilling values of discipline, integrity and self-sufficiency. To learn more about Quality Life Center, to sign up for the next tour date, or to make a donation, call 239.334.2797 or visit http://www.qualitylifecenter.org.