Long before COVID, Ord has proven to be a place of reinvention. Most recently, one of the town’s most pressing projects has been to address the childcare scarcity. Some of the women behind this effort are Loup Valley Childhood Initiative core leaders and Ord residents, Melani Flynn, Katie Walmsley, and Kristina Foth. Read more about how these women and their community work to create quality childcare.
Early childhood professionals are at risk for developing compassion fatigue due to the demanding nature of their everyday work which is now paired with the stress caused by the pandemic. Not only are early childhood professionals effected in their own lives by the threat of COVID, but they also must care for children and families experiencing a wide range of effects, such as lost jobs, unstable housing, or isolation from family and friends. If you or someone you know is suffering from compassion fatigue, here are some definitions and coping tips.
Sixpence in Macy, Nebraska, and their community are a perfect example of a group of resilient people who pull together through the storm. The Shinga Zhinga Child Development Center serves the community. The Center is located on the UmonHon reservation and primarily serves teenage parents, community members, and high school staff members. Thanks to Sixpence, the program director Lacey Sateren, said she has witnessed remarkable developments throughout the past year, even during the height of the pandemic. Read some incredible achievements thanks to resilient families, Umonhon Nation Public Schools and Sixpence!
Many professionals, especially those who work in early childhood education and care, but also teachers of every age tend to shoulder a tremendous amount of responsibility. You walk into a classroom, make decisions, then hope that you did the right things. The truth is, no matter how skilled, every talented professional will occasionally feel alone or overwhelmed. These are the moments when the Early Childhood Professional Learning Series can help. Read more about early care providers Arlie Herrick and Dee Coble’s experiences in participating in the Series.
Nebraska childcare providers are making headlines. Today, we bring you a success story from Buffalo County’s Rooted in Relationships initiative and a provider named Rachel Pierce, the owner of Creative Kids Child Care. Today, Rachel will share the benefits and perks of being part of Rooted in Relationships (Rooted), which is one of the Nebraska Children and Families Foundation’s Early Childhood initiatives.
Alliance, Nebraska’s Sixpence is glad to share a story of a young family’s success. The family started off dealing with some struggles. The father had grappled with a drug addiction, had been incarcerated, and had a child from a previous marriage with whom he’d not had a relationship during her early years. How did his strength, resiliency, resolve, and a little help from Sixpence support him in his positive transformation? Read more.
Our first virtual event, “Thrive Together,” ended yesterday. While we’re sad that we couldn’t get together in person, we still raised more than $100,000 to support our mission and celebrate the communities we serve. Thrive Together isn’t just a fundraiser.…
The former retail space that houses the Early Learning Academy (ELA) in Lexington, Nebraska, may seem like an unusual setting for innovation in early childhood education, but this preschool program that serves children 3 to 5 years old houses such proactive initiatives as an early intervention program for special needs students and a migrant community classroom to serve English language learners.
COVID or not, this year’s GetConnected Conference participants’ engaged and enjoyed quality virtual time!
On January 15, 2020, Casey Family Programs, the largest private foundation whose aim is to minimize the need for foster care while creating communities of hope, awarded Bring Up Nebraska with the Jim Casey Building Communities of Hope Award.
Nebraska Children and Families Foundation is proud to lead this prevention partnership.
Starting from September 16, 2020, Beyond School Bells will partake in STEM Next and partners’ Million Girls Moonshot launch. As we prepare for lift-off, we feel it’s worth mentioning that we are thankful to STEM Next who awarded Beyond School Bells a year-long grant to lead the effort in Nebraska! Read more about how Beyond School Bells is preparing for lift-off!
Four years ago, a frightened, pregnant 16-year-old walked through Fremont Sixpence’s doors. Lauren said that in addition to being scared, the young woman was disconnected from her relatives.
Read about how this young mother’s resolve and Fremont Sixpence helped her to push through difficulties and into her own triumphant light.
Most of us have probably sung the Song of Sixpence. It’s a strange little nursery rhyme, one with strikingly original opening lyrics we loved as children. Blackbirds fly out of a pie that is set before the king.
For a child to be heard and create his or her own melody in the world, we need to begin to support them early in life. From the ages of birth through three, a child’s brain is a fertile ground that establishes neural connections at a dizzying rate. Therefore, parents and caregivers can help set their children’s foundation up for the formation of these valuable connections. There are a few ways that Sixpence can help.
Read more to learn about Jamie Leach’s Sixpence takeaways.
“When can you have a baby?”
This is the question that Becca Paulsen will ask her childcare provider when Becca is thinking about having a second child.
This leads us to our next question:
How do young parents find childcare in homey, comfortable, close-knit small towns?
Read on.
Any well-meaning parent or caregiver may think that when they put a child in time out, the child’s negative reaction and acknowledgment of her misbehavior means she is well-aware of what she did wrong, has accepted her punishment, and has taken back her behavior. When lacking an alternative, we generally enact disciplinary measures that we have been raised with and know best, but Time-Outs aren’t always effective. As part of the Rooted, Jana and her team have attended trainings that teach them evidence-based, Pyramid Model strategies that help build relationships between the children and their caregivers while at the same time decreasing challenging behavior.
In 2015, when Boone County, Nebraska was considering plans to address their childcare shortage, Jay Wolf, and other Boone County Foundation Fund (BCFF) core team members, said, “We know we have a childcare shortage; we need solutions, but we’re not interested in building a center.”
Five years later, the team broke ground for Boone Beginnings, their early care center.
So, how did this happen? Read on.
It’s late in the afternoon. Naptime is over. A little boy is feeling angry because his friend took his favorite toy. His face reddens and twists. As he begins to whimper, his teacher takes him aside. He puffs and blows out an imaginary candle she’s holding. There are many other techniques that Stephanie Allen, the director of The Teaching Tree, her teachers, and Rooted coaches use for a thriving center! Read more.
There’s POWER in numbers, particularly when children are the ages of birth through 3. Today, we talked to the Kellers to hear all about how Sixpence Home Base and their home visitor have helped the family thrive during these important years and beyond!
Nebraska Children’s Rooted in Relationships team recently released their annual statewide evaluation and provided data to communities participating in the initiative. The report contained some positive outcomes. Find out more!
The first three years of a child’s life are rife with neural opportunity. Throughout this time, brain synapses grow and multiply to create a foundation that serves a child for life. One of the best preventative measures we can take is dedicating ourselves to the study and practices of infant and toddler mental health. Today, we’re going to walk you through its definition, initiatives, and resources.
Not even a pandemic could stop Camp Catch-Up! An annual event that reunites siblings who were separated by the foster care system, Camp Catch-Up Virtual Sibling Vibes was held this year on July 6 -10 via Zoom. All the children, youth, and counselors logged on – and then the games literally began! From Gaga ball to a talent show to storytelling, counselors and coordinators made sure that a good time was had by all. Read more.
Although life and the weather are ever-changing, quality childcare and education is a constant need. To do this, we need Early Childhood initiatives like Sixpence Child Care Partnerships (Sixpence CCP). Early care and education professionals have a short but crucial time to help young lives bloom. We and Sixpence CCP can help. Read more about Shannon Crosby, the director of Cherry Park Creative Corner, LL, and her Sixpence Child Care Partnership.
For a sapling to thrive and to grow into one of the majestic oaks we see today, first it must be rooted deeply within the ground. The same applies to children’s early years. Sixpence, one of our early childhood initiatives, focuses on setting infants and toddlers up for success during those first three years of their life.
Read our latest blog, which features an interview with Stephanie Allen, who tells us all about her takeaways from collaborating with Sixpence CCP.
We’re delighted to play a part in funding the Community and Family Partnership’s efforts, which speaks to our model of community well-being and larger statewide prevention initiative of which we are involved, Bring Up Nebraska. The new mental health outreach service, moreover, fits into our strategy of organizations working together to create the changes we wish to see. Read more.
Imagine having experienced the foster care system. Maybe you connected with a family. Maybe you didn’t, and now you’re alone. You’re ready to live your best life, but are so focused on surviving, you’ve yet to approach thriving.
The Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Labor, CYI, Central Plains Center for Services and The Sherwood Foundation have teamed up to create Granting Opportunities for Achievement and Lifelong Success (GOALS). This initiative supports young adults who are transitioning from extended foster care during and throughout the pandemic. Read more.
Today, we asked Stoney Straatmann, a licensed childcare provider and one of Sixpence Child Care Partnership Programs (Sixpence CCP) from Hastings, Nebraska to talk about her experiences and benefits of the partnership. Before we speak with Stoney, we’d like to explain how Sixpence and its Child Care Partnerships work together.
What do I do if a parent’s check bounces? How do I handle temper tantrums? How do I keep the children in my care safe and healthy during the pandemic? How do I create a budget? What are my main expenses? How do I self-care? Why won’t toddlers put their shoes on without throwing a fit? How do I know if I am the right person for this field? Who do I talk to when I’m confused, stressed, or wish to learn about other professional opportunities? The Dawson County Early Childhood Professional Learning Series has answers.
Picture a rainy, cloudy day. The sky is a pale gray. Torrents pelt down like ball peen hammers. Suddenly, a man twirling fire walks through the rain, then a clown parades through the puddles. A line of cars slowly forms to watch the performance. This is not a dreamscape; this is the positive change that we envision at Nebraska Children, of which we’re delighted to take part. Read more.
We recently spoke with Cassie and Taylor Boyle of Plattsmouth, Nebraska. Cassie and Taylor are the parents of four children. Cassie explained some of the key benefits, resources, and takeaways she and her family have experienced from participating in the Sixpence Home-Based program.
When childcare’s future looks cloudy, McCook’s Communities for Kids brainstorms and creates a silver lining by collecting families’ responses through an in-depth survey and creating a childcare incentives program! Read about how the team forged quality care incentives to improve the presence of their community’s childcare programs and providers.
Communities for Kids, one of Nebraska Children’s Early Childhood initiatives, has been hard at work. As one of our programs designed to support children during their early years and their caregivers, we believe that change begins at the community level – and it did in Columbus, Nebraska. Read more about Columbus’ three-phase approach to assisting their local childcare providers.
When Zeny and her husband moved from the small town of Hastings, Nebraska to Lincoln, she had to begin all over again. For anyone who has encountered not only a new chapter in life, but a new library, that transition can be scary, exciting, and abrupt. One CYI component that helped Zeny along her way was Opportunity Passport™, which is implemented in Lincoln by Community Action Partnership of Lancaster and Saunders County. Read more about Zeny’s accomplishments.
We are grateful to Lisa, a Sioux City, Nebraska early care specialist, for sharing her experience at Cubby Care Campus, an early childhood center that’s situated in a growing hotbed of COVID-19, or what Lisa calls The Villain Virus. From here on, Lisa will discuss her experience, in her own words.
To ensure our safety and well-being not only as a community, but also for our next generation, the NAIMH, has leveraged various recent sources to put together a series best practices for early care providers and educators so that we and our children can adjust to some major changes.
Early this week, the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) announced that $20M in federal dollars will go toward restoring our state’s childcare foundation in addition to other educational resources for children. Following passage of the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) earlier in March, this funding became available with a $3.5B appropriation to the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF). Read more about how these funds will be approximately allocated.
We are excited to be part of some incredible community-based efforts, particularly Matt Talbot Kitchen & Outreach’s recent ones to provide housing for the homeless. Throughout these last few months, we can’t deny the pandemic’s gravity or community accomplishments to help families thrive. As the saying goes, if it…
Resources for Unconnected Youth: Connected Youth Initiative Grants Hope During an unsettling time, our communities and youth with foster care experience matter. Despite these challenges, positive changes are happening every day both here at Nebraska Children and Families Foundation and in the communities in which we work. We’ve seen…
Long before the pandemic, Connected Youth Initiative’s Project Everlast Omaha, its partners, and the community has offered programs to assist unconnected youth. The term “unconnected youth” refers to young people between the ages of 14-25 years of age who have experienced the foster care system, juvenile justice system and/or probation, homelessness, or human trafficking. Find out more about Project Everlast Omaha’s efforts to support unconnected youth!
COVID-19. A few months before it was a name that occasionally echoed throughout media outlets, a virus from far, far away, a distant worry that was initially, amid all of hustle and bustle of everyday life, easy to brush aside. …
Although many professions, from retail to bartending to hospitality, have felt COVID-19’s impact, there is one, essential part of our workforce whose efforts occasionally remain unsung: our early care and education providers.
We realize, who better then, to speak to the struggles and hopes childcare providers face than a provider herself? Today, Roxann Bihlmaier, the Director of Kinder Haus Child Center in Eustis, Nebraska, is that person. Although every childcare provider’s story is unique, their hardships, hopes, and fears are all very real. Let us allow Roxann to tell us her story.
The National Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families has informed Nebraska’s Department of Health and Human Services (NDHHS) of a three-year, PDG B-5 renewal grant. Nebraska will receive $8.9 million for each of the next three years with contributing partners pledging $2.7 million in matched funds. Read more in our latest blog.
Early care providers and educators realize that whereas they are performing an essential act, they are also assuming a highly empathetic one. Many early childhood programs and providers have worked with their families and children for years. Early care educators and providers not only make up an important part of our economy; they have also become an honorary member of their attendees’ families.
Meanwhile, questions abound: if they close will they ever reopen? What will their families, whom they have grown to care for as much as their children, do if they close their doors? How do they best serve their families, selves, and children? For Carly Garner, she deliberates these questions along with the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic.
On Arbor Day weekend, April 24-26, youth and their communities across Nebraska participated in a statewide Tree-A-Thon to plant and celebrate trees.
BSB kicked off the Tree-A-Thon alongside Arbor Day Foundation, Natural Resource Districts, Audubon Nebraska, Nebraska Forest Service, and The University of Nebraska. As with any major initiative, this project constituted more than just tree-planting; BSB and its partners had a larger mission in mind.
When early care providers experienced a bread and milk shortage, how did Saffron Buettner (pictured above) and her fellow community members help? Find out.
Whether you’re contemplating, starting, improving, or sustaining a high quality afterschool or summer learning experience, the process takes work. Beyond School Bells has launched its new Toolkit to help. For those thinking about creating an Expanded Learning Opportunity (ELO), the toolkit provides planning guidelines and funding structures. To start a program, this resource contains hiring and leadership strategies. To improve an ELO, explore curricular ideas and career-readiness best practices. Finally, sustain your ELO with resources for partnerships, advocacy, and messaging.
Beyond School Bells was awarded a one-year grant to participate in the Million Girl Moonshot. This initiative intends to increase the number of underserved youth in high-quality afterschool and summer STEM programs. With this STEMNext grant, BSB will join ten other statewide afterschool networks to launch this decade-long national initiative.
Thanks to the Buffett Early Childhood Fund, we and Nebraska Early Childhood Collaborative created the Nebraska Child Care Provider Relief Fund. This fund provides Nebraska-based licensed childcare programs and providers with a one-time $1,000 award. These funds are designed to recognize the importance of childcare facilities during this crisis. To date, we’ve received a staggeringly high number of over 1,000 applications.
Despite COVID-19, many families need to work, and their children need quality care. Without childcare, there can be no essential workers. Without these essential early care workers, there can be no thriving community.
Julie Nash wholeheartedly recognizes this connection. She and her organization serve on a committee that works with children ages birth through 11 and their providers. Through the professional grapevine, Julie caught wind from Shonna Werth, Assistant Vice President of Early Childhood Programs, that a provider in St. Paul, Nebraska needed disinfectant. In fact, if this provider couldn’t find some sanitizer soon, she would have to close her doors.
Learn more about Julie’s hunt for disinfectant.
Schuyler, Nebraska, with the help of our First Lady and other generous organizations, provided a terrific example of a community that cultivates positive change through engagement. When families in the Platte/Colfax Counties who were pursuing distance-learning were left with no available technology, the Community and Family Partnership, one of Bring Up Nebraska’s community collaboratives, reached out to its partners for assistance.
Find out what happened next.
On October 1, Beyond School Bells (BSB), Nebraska Children and Families Foundation’s dedicated network of afterschool professionals, opened a new web portal that will accept CARES Act applications from licensed school-age and school-based providers who have been impacted by the pandemic.
Thanks to alignment with CYI’s LEAP program, ETV recipients and their coaches can also tackle subjects such as relationships, work-life balance, housing, and scheduling. During these meetings, the coach offers encouragement that builds on the young person’s previous accomplishment and creates plans for future ones. Coaches will link youth to campus support systems as well. Let’s hear Elaine’s story, in her words.
Although our lives are flooded with information, for many working parents, one worry looms large on a Sunday night: who can care for their children when they go to work? This concern is neither a lullaby nor a bedtime story but instead a keep-you-awake-at-night concern, particularly for rural Nebraskan parents.
