Nebraska Children empowers families to be healthy, safe, enjoying life, achieving milestones, contributing positively to their communities, and economically stable. We work with communities over the long term to move the needle on several documented child well-being indicators, including:- Substantiated instances of child abuse- High school graduation rate- Reading proficiency in 3rd grade- Number of children in foster care- Births to teensBy improving these critical statistics by building stronger, more coordinated community solutions, children experience better outcomes, and are more likely to grow up to become contributing members of their communities.

At Nebraska Children, the work we do can be boiled down to three things. We work with communities to:- Prevent child abuse and neglect. - Ensure that every child can succeed in school. - Support youth in foster care as they transition to adulthood. Nebraska Children and Families Foundation has a unique approach to solving large, complex social issues that affect our state's children. It's based on two core beliefs:1. Prevention works. It's the most effective and fiscally responsible approach for addressing complex social problems. 2. Channeling a community's existing resources toward a common goal will maximize their effectiveness. All of our work within communities aligns with these principles. Each of our initiatives is part of a larger Prevention Portfolio, and is designed to strengthen children and families, keeping them out of the welfare and criminal justice systems from cradle to career. COMMUNITY PREVENTION SYSTEMSA Community Prevention System is an alternative approach that seeks to strengthen families and enhance child well-being without the intervention of the child welfare system. By working within communities, and bringing all of its strengths and services together in a coordinated way, families can be served before warning signs become a crisis. Participants in a Community Prevention System are nonprofit service providers, doctors, mental health practitioners, schools, churches, housing and transportation services, and even utilities companies. The goal is to give families what they need to thrive so they can stay together, remain self-sufficient, and support the health and learning of their children. INITIATIVESEarly Childhood - Sixpence Early Learning Programs and Rooted in Relationships address the needs of the youngest children, ensuring that parents and caregivers have the necessary knowledge to foster healthy development. School Age - Beyond School Bells works with school districts across the state to provide afterschool and summer learning opportunities that are proven to close the achievement gap between rich and poor. Camp Catch-Up reunites siblings from age 8-19 who have been separated by foster care. The goal is to nurture the critical connections between brothers and sisters, to create a sense of permanency in the lives of children who have experienced far too much upheaval and instability. Older Youth - Project Everlast works to harness the voice of "unconnected youth" ages 14-24 -- many of whom have aged out of the foster care system -- and to help them access the services they need to transition to a stable, productive adulthood. This model has proven so effective that the federal government recently invested in taking it statewide to serve rural youth as the Connected Youth Initiative.

Each strategic initiative is headed up by an established expert in the field. Staffing is decided on based on the implementation plan. Our public-private funding model allows us to leverage a combination of full-time staff and part-time consultants depending on the unique needs of each community and initiative. As initiatives grow or change, Nebraska Children builds staffing into the process, ensuring that every strategic priority can be fully staffed before work begins.

In order to make positive change to child well-being in any given community and across Nebraska, we have to know where we're starting. Nebraska Children has worked with the state of Nebraska, local public agency leaders, and private organizations to develop 10 child well-being indicators. These indicators, reported annually and compiled by county, are indisputable statistics provided by the state of Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Education. Each indicator allows us to identify where a community needs to improve, where they're performing well, and whether or not a Community Prevention System is moving the needle. Action IndicatorsWhen Nebraska Children works within a community, the goal is to see changes in these indicators within the first few years of implementing evidence-base strategies and a Community Prevention System. - Infant deaths- Child abuse and neglect- State wards/home removals- Reading proficiency- High-school graduations- Juvenile arrests- Births to teensEach individual initiative also has content-specific evaluations performed by an independent third party to ensure it is meeting its objectives. These reports are published annually for Project Everlast, the Sixpence Early Learning Program, Rooted in Relationships and our Community Prevention Systems.

Nebraska Children has already implemented Community Based Prevention Systems in 7 Nebraska communities. Within these communities, we've seen significant improvements in substantiated child abuse cases, numbers of children in foster care, juvenile arrests and births to teens. Nebraska Children also oversees 31 Sixpence Early learning programs across the state, serving more than 1,000 at-risk babies and toddlers. Participating children are exceeding their developmental milestones year after year, and are entering kindergarten ready for success. Our older youth systems are producing favorable outcomes for unconnected youth in Omaha, Lincoln and the Panhandle. In 2016, we'll add 6 more Connected Youth Initiative sites that will serve unconnected older youth in 40 counties. Rooted in Relationships, our early childhood mental health initiative, has seen progress ensuring social-emotionally supportive early learning environments. Throughout these programs, we've kept family and youth voice at the center, ensuring that the services provided and solutions presented are truly benefiting those who are served. In the next few years, Nebraska Children will expand the Community Prevention System model to several other Nebraska communities, including Douglas/Sarpy counties, the state's largest population hub. We are proud of this progress, but realizing the vision of a Nebraska where every child has what the opportunity to realize their full potential is ongoing. By continuing to build community partnerships and drawing in public and private braided resources, Nebraska Children will be able to sustain current effective initiatives, as well as continue innovating to move the needle on critical child well being indicators.