Community Resource Sharing Newsletter

Roberta Miksch, CFP Director

Collective impact brings people together to achieve social change. The social issues we are working on are complex and cannot be solved by one entity alone.  When we utilize the five elements of collective impact it can take us from common goals to uncommon & extraordinary. Those present at the meeting heard about a summary of the last years work related to the CFP priority areas. Consider looking at the slide deck and reading about our collective work over the last year.

In partnership,

Roberta

Kim Parsons,

Early Childhood Community Coordinator

Strong Starts Schuyler- An Early Childhood Partnership

The Strong Starts Schuyler Early Childhood Partnership team was excited to join over 700 participants from 149 communities at the Nebraska Children and Families Foundation 2024 Thriving Children, Families, and Communities Conference and Communities for Kids Convening in Kearney, September 17th & 18th. We proudly showcased our work at Communities for Kids Convening Day. Molly Parsons represented

Schuyler as a member of Buffet Nebraska Early Childhood Workforce Leadership Cadre. Kim Parsons, was a C4K Convening breakout session panel member leading discussion focused on building credible relationships and gaining input from local providers.

We made an impression! Schuyler had the largest community representation, including our Mayor Art Lindberg, SCHS administrator and parent Samantha Ladwig, community members Jim & Jane Kasik, parent and Nebraska Early Childhood Collaborative Parent Ambassador Felicia Heavican, Colfax County Sheriff's Office- Sheriff Shawn Messerlie, Community and Family Partnership Collective Impact Director Roberta Miksch and bilingual support specialist and parent Benita Méndez.

This conference and convening in its seventh year brings together hundreds of community leaders from across Nebraska to continue building momentum around quality early childhood education and its connection to economic development and community vitality. Community members and experts explored challenges, shared success stories, learned from each other, and highlighted the importance of implementing quality birth to Grade 3 care and education.

Schuyler is truly fortunate to have so many passionate individuals dedicated to supporting early care and education.

Book Gardens Blossom in Schuyler

At a ribbon-cutting launch of Schuyler’s Book Garden on Thursday, September 26, Mayor Art

Lindberg said, “there’s no better way to grow your community than to start with your children.”

The Book Gardens are a collaborative effort between Nebraska Growing Readers, Unite for

Literacy, the Columbus Area United Way, and the Community & Family Partnership and are

designed to reach the community’s youngest children by providing free books to families with

children birth to age 8.

Nebraska Growing Readers has been active in Schuyler and across the state by providing free

books to early childhood professionals to be distributed to their families, by registering incoming

kindergarteners to receive free books at home, and now by establishing free book stands in 5

locations in Schuyler.

The ribbon cutting was held at the Soak 3 Times Laundromat and was followed by a reception

at Schuyler Public Library. Both are sites for the free book displays as are the African Store, CHI

Health Schuyler, and the WIC Office in East Central District Health Department. Each site will

provide free books for families to take home with new shipments arriving each month.

Greta Carlson of Nebraska Children and Families Foundation and Project Manager for

Nebraska Growing Readers said she was excited about the official launch of the Book Gardens

and celebrated Schuyler’s status as the first one in the state. Other local officials who spoke at

the event included Roberta Miksch of the Community & Family Partnership, Kim Parsons and Jenny White on behalf of Schuyler Public Library, and Nick McGuffee for Unite for Literacy.

McGuffee said he had been to community-based events all around the country and never seen

a community like Schuyler “where they just get behind the project, take ownership, and bring it

to life.” He added, “it’s really special to see that.” Chamber of Commerce Board Member Brian

Bywater presented the group with a ceremonial brick. The ceremony concluded with the Corral

Family, who own Soak 3 Times Laundromat, cutting the ribbon.

Books are now available at all five locations, and Schuyler families are encouraged to stop in and pick up free books, some of which are written by Nebraska authors.

Cheryl Drozd, RIR Coordinator

This month, our Cohort 2 providers have been focusing on ASQ’s (Ages and Stages

Questionnaires) for their parents. Both the coaches and providers are working together to tally them and get the results for any next steps that need to be taken with any children in their care. Our training in October will be all on this process of setting up an IEP or other actions necessary to help provide the help a child needs to grow and flourish.

The coaches gathered this month and have come up with a great plan moving forward for our next three collaborations and are working with our Cohort 1 providers to help teach and share at each.

Our Circle of Security class continues to be successful with a full attendance each week and

four children in childcare. Our RiR providers are taking turns running the childcare part and will

be doing the same for our parenting classes that begin on Monday the 30 th at the library. Our

first RiR Partnering with Parents Class will be on the importance of your relationship with your

children. The providers are focusing on this so much through Rooted, that we are trying to help

parents see the value in this important piece as well. Combining childcare and home on the

same page with things makes for a great plan in raising a child.

Community Prevention

Community Response has recently changed its name to Community Prevention. This new name was developed by our contractor, Nebraska Children and Families Foundation. Accordingly, we have revised our brochures to reflect this change as well as adding the contact information for the new staff that have joined our team! We will be dispersing our new brochures to our community partners throughout the next month.

Guadalupe Ramirez attended the annual carnival for Cargill on September 19, 2024. Reghan Kabes and Kate Wythers attended the Highway 91 Career Fair held at Humphrey Public Schools. Bellyni Maldonado started her work with District 5 Problem Solving Court on September 24, 2024.

There has been an increase in Community Prevention referrals since school has started. Efforts are continuing with providing outreach and information regarding Community Prevention, Mental Health Vouchers, and Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA).

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