Business Resources

Communities for Kids (C4K) – Nebraska Children and Families Foundation

The Communities for Kids (C4K) initiative was created in response to community requests for assistance with shortages of high-quality early care and education programs — shortages that both impact children’s optimal development and pose a challenge for communities hoping to attract and retain the viable workforce they need to thrive.

About

Communities for Kids partners with communities’ public and private entities to support and coordinate planning for access to high-quality early care and education for all children birth through age five. These partnerships are customized to address each community’s unique assets and needs—so each community can grow and prosper well into the future.

The initiative is a community-based engagement process designed to assist in the development of right-sized solutions for communities selected to participate in the program. Over a three-year period, selected communities will increase the focus on opportunities and challenges they are facing with enhancing and expanding child care opportunities.

Child care shortages can affect economic development and have a broad impact beyond the family, and communities need to address these issues with right-sized solutions that meet the unique aspects of the community. Nebraska Children and Families Foundation (Nebraska Children) can offer expertise and resources that a community may not otherwise have access to.

Through the Communities for Kids initiative, Nebraska Children helps facilitate the conversation and provides expertise, tools, and resources to the community to support the creation and implementation of solutions to support and strengthen the current child care workforce and address child care shortages in communities. 

Nebraska Children and Families Foundation (Nebraska Children) will provide expertise and coordination to support communities using a place-based collective impact approach:

  • ENGAGE stakeholders in identifying the strengths and gaps of the current whole-child, early care, and education resources in the community by completing a thorough data study and community assessment/survey.

  • UTILIZE informed decision-making to determine strategies and desired outcomes most relevant to meeting the priority needs identified in the community assessment and detail a community action plan. Whenever possible this will be completed in coordination with existing planning efforts and groups to maximize local resources.

  • CONNECT communities through peer learning networks regarding research, best practice, program implementation, quality measurements, financing, use of government/public resources, and physical environmental designs.

  • EXPLORE and assist communities with identifying and applying for all available sources of funding (public and private grants, public funding programs) to implement and sustain the identified strategies.

Services Provided

Nonprofit Development

  • Funds Development
  • Strategic Planning
  • Technical Services

Professional Development for Child Care

  • Early Child Care Education

Advocacy and Public Policy Organizations

  • Foundation
Contact Information
Marti Beard
Address
215 Centennial Mall South
Suite 200
Lincoln, NE 68508