COVID or not, this year’s GetConnected Conference participants’ engaged and enjoyed quality virtual time!
GetConnected 2020
Tagged with: after school programs, afterschool, afterschool program, beyond school bells, elo, middle childhood, STEM, STEM learning, summer learning, summer school
Posted in Middle Childhood, News and Events
Posted in Middle Childhood, News and Events
Camp Catch-Up Rings in the Fall and Reunites Siblings Again!
Although Camp Catch-Up (CCU) has traditionally taken place during the summer, the resilient team remains devoted to reuniting siblings between the ages of 8-19 who were separated by the foster care system. When CCU canceled their summer sessions due to the pandemic, like everything the team does, they substituted their temporary disappointment with innovation.
The team kicked off Camp Catch-Up on September 25. The sessions presented some fun activities from the past and new ones, including cooking before a campfire, tie-dying, and crafts-making. Camp delivered a seasonal spin, too, with pumpkin-carving and painting to boot.
Building Communities of Hope: Casey Family Programs Recognizes “Bring Up Nebraska”
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.
Tagged with: Bring Up Nebraska, child well being, community collaboratives, community prevention system, community response, Connected Youth Initiatve, foster care, foster youth, jim casey, jim casey youth opportunities initiative, Mary Jo Pankoke, prevention, resilience, Susanne Shore
Posted in Early Childhood, Middle Childhood, News and Events, Teen/Early Adulthood
Posted in Early Childhood, Middle Childhood, News and Events, Teen/Early Adulthood
To the Moon: Beyond School Bells Teams Up with Partners to Enhance Girls’ Presence in STEM
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!
A Young Mother, Fremont Public Schools, and Sixpence Make the Impossible POSSIBLE
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.
Tagged with: early childhood, early childhood development, early years, home visitation, home visiting, sixpence, sixpence homebase
Posted in Early Childhood, Middle Childhood
Posted in Early Childhood, Middle Childhood
Sixpence Home Visits: A Columbus, Nebraska Family Shares Their Takeaways
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.
Tagged with: columbus, early childhood, early childhood development, early childhood education, early years, home visitation, home visiting, sixpence, sixpence homebase
Posted in Early Childhood
Posted in Early Childhood
Child-Care: Becca Paulsen Shares Her Vision of a Quality Provider
“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.
Tagged with: child well being, childcare, communities for kids, early childhood, early childhood education
Posted in Early Childhood, News and Events
Posted in Early Childhood, News and Events
Out with Time-Out; In with Time-Ins: How the Grand Island YWCA Develops Healthy Social-Emotional Relationships
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.
Early and New Beginnings: Boone County and C4K Break Ground for Boone Beginnings Early Childhood and Family Development Center
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.
Tagged with: child well being, childcare, Collective Impact, communities for kids, early childhood, early childhood education, early years, Nebraska Children
Posted in Early Childhood, News and Events
Posted in Early Childhood, News and Events
Something Old, Something New, and a Sixpence for Her Shoe: Sixpence Comes to Families’ Homes
Established in 2006, the Sixpence Early Learning Fund supports infants and toddlers to ensure that they’re developmentally ready for kindergarten. Sixpence administers three types of grants: Center-based care, family engagement home-based services, and a combination of family engagement and center-based care. Today, Rebecca and Troy Swindell share their Sixpence home visitation takeaways!
Growing the Good Life 