Whether you’re a believer in fate, divine intervention, or hard work, Adams County Communities for Kids blends these elements. Find out how patience and faith created the perfect childcare center at the perfect time. Read more.
Blog Archives
Chasing Down and Living the Dream: Thanks to the Whole Community, Stick Creek Kids Opens its Doors!
Welcome to Wood River, Nebraska. Their Communities for Kids (C4K) core team is proud to announce the opening of their childcare center, Stick Creek Kids. But like most dreams, the team hasn’t always walked on a smooth path. But rather than backing down, they embarked on the challenging road. Together, with the help of their community, the center’s doors will open. Read more about how this community accomplished this remarkable feat.
Baby Steps in Early Childhood Collaboration
What do a Needs Assessment, a Zoom meeting, and developmental videos have in common? And, no, this is not the set up for a joke. The answer, collaboration. In a recent Preschool Development Grant Nebraska Leadership Team meeting, Buffett Early Childhood Institute consultant Hallie Duke designed breakout sessions for participants to spend a few minutes discussing the ways in which their aims aligned.
The New Nebraska: How Loup Valley Childhood Initiative Continues to Create Communities for Kids
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.
You Are Not Alone: Dawson County’s Early Childhood Professional Learning Series Provides Reassurance and Resolve for Motivated Staff
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.
Not a Bedtime Story: The Facts, Figures, and Data Behind Childcare
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.
Tagged with: 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
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
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
TEN-MINUTE RULE: What Becky Lieswald WISHES She Could Have Known Before Applying for a Stabilization Grant
How long did it take Becky Ramm, a busy Nebraska childcare provider, to apply for the Stabilization Grant?
TEN MINUTES. Yes, the process was that easy. Read more tips as Becky walks you through this simple grant application for childcare providers who were impacted by the pandemic.
Tagged with: child well being, childcare, communities for kids, early childhood, early childhood development, early childhood education, early years, grants, preschool
Posted in Early Childhood, News and Events
Posted in Early Childhood, News and Events
Filling the Void and Cultivating Kids: Wilcox-Hildreth’s C4K Team Draws Up Plans for a Quality Childcare Center
Popular culture is full of tales of a young person who travels from her small town to a larger urban area. But what about those who stay or return? Beyond Dorothy of The Wizard of Oz, many young families move back to small towns, places that they love, where they may be presented with unique assets and challenges, including finding childcare. Read more about the Wilcox-Hildreth area’s new C4K initiative and their dreams of Cultivating Kids…and quality childcare.
Tagged with: child well being, childcare, communities for kids, early childhood, early childhood education, early years, education, preschool
Posted in Early Childhood, News and Events
Posted in Early Childhood, News and Events
Growing the Good Life 