A young woman was temporarily homeless. How did she use her resilience, resources, and a little support from a Central Navigator and KAJ Hospitality to find a place she now calls home?
Blog Archives
Kloreace’s Story: Opportunity Passport, Commitment, and Work Ethic Take Her Home
At 25 years old, Kloreace thought big and dreamed bigger. Six months after enrolling in Opportunity Passport™, she bought a house! A passionate school psychologist, she possesses many talents: she’s intelligent, driven, and compassionate. She’s also an advocate for the Opportunity Passport ™ program, which we oversee along with Community Action Partnership of Lancaster and Saunders Counties.
Crossing Over: New Connected Youth Initiative GOALS Program Helps Create a Bridge Between Youth and Supports
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.
Zeny: A Young Woman with an Incredible Work Ethic, Meets Her Goals and Says, “I Can’t Wait to Give Back One Day”
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.
Connected Youth Initiative: Kevin, a Motivated Young Man, Arrives at Success, Thanks to His Determination and a Little Help from Opportunity Passport
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…
Project Everlast Omaha Launches Mobile Pantries to Ensure Youth Have Access to Food and Necessities
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!
Reconnecting Youth with Foster Care Experience: Project Everlast and its Supporters Help a Young Man Remain Connected
As COVID-19 numbers rise, Project Everlast Omaha seeks out those affected youth in the metro, particularly those released from incarceration. For young members of our community, feeling excluded is hard enough, but being released into an uncertain, altered world is even more taxing.
Read more about how Project Everlast Omaha assisted a young man who had been released from incarceration.
Connected Youth Initiative and COVID-19: A Domestic Abuse Survivor Steps into Brighter Times
As we search for light in dark corners, we must acknowledge the struggles, strengths and triumphs of these youth. Each one has a different story; each one is capable of being remarkably successful, sometimes with a little support from CYI’s resources.
Recently, one young mother’s story arrives at a welcome time. Although her experience was not easy, and was perhaps exacerbated by the coronavirus, we are glad that she was resourceful and resilient enough to ask for assistance, and that CYI was there to help. Read this young woman’s story.
Connected Youth Initiative Completes Rigorous, Independent SIF Evaluation
In 2015, the Corporation for National and Community Service awarded a Social Innovation Fund (SIF) grant to Nebraska Children and Families Foundation. The grant was used to expand our successful Connected Youth Initiative (CYI) model to rural communities across the state to help unconnected youth, including young people aging out of foster care, to become thriving citizens. We are energized to see that participation in CYI may be associated with some successful outcomes. We’ll explain all of that and more.
Tagged with: connected youth initiative, Connected Youth Initiatve, foster care, foster youth, Opportunity Passport, youth council
Posted in News and Events, Systems, Teen/Early Adulthood
Posted in News and Events, Systems, Teen/Early Adulthood
Visualize and Use Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Data
By Doug Folkers, Information Systems Officer (Nebraska Department of Education)– written for the Preschool Development Grant newsletter As part of PDG grant efforts in Nebraska, the creation of a tool that lays a foundation for visualizing and using data to…
Posted in Early Childhood, Systems
Growing the Good Life 