EDGE Nebraska City

Nebraska City, Nebraska, population 7500, has been home for most of my adult life.  While I didn’t “grow up” here, I grew into an adult in this community.  For 22 years I have been engaged in the civic, business, educational and faith life of this community.  My experiences include: Community Mentoring Coordinator, Church Youth Group Leader, School Board member, Rotarian, Chamber of Commerce volunteer and so many other roles that are afforded those that live in rural America.  In addition, as a mother and a widow, I have had first hand experience of community and what it means to truly live in community. Living in a community and living in community are two very different experiences and as I work at merging those experiences it motivates me to play a role in building a community where every citizen feels they have the opportunity to thrive.

The primary goal of EDGE is to see poverty rates in our community decline by 2036. A focus on literacy, relationships and community learning is the strategy.  Our literacy program gives monthly books to every public school elementary student.  Access to books is the key to academic success.  Relationships come first when developing programs, we cannot address the poverty cycle and build community only focusing on one generation.  And community learning; segments of our larger community lack an understanding of poverty; what it means for the future of our citizens and community.   EDGE offers community conversations, film events and poverty simulations. As we work to broaden the work in these three areas, we are confident it will bring about community collaboration in a way that has not happened in our rural community.  When a child grows up here they will know they belong and will continue to build community.

Providing families the tools they need to break the cycle of poverty is the top priority of EDGE Nebraska City.  Currently there are a number of efforts in our community to help people IN poverty, however, we are the only one with the primary focus of helping families OUT of poverty.  If this issue is not addressed immediately our poverty rates will continue to rise and many families will continue to not have opportunities due to the “tyranny of the moment” experience of living in poverty. 51% of the children in our public schools qualify for free or reduced lunch. In 2003 23% qualified.  This growth rate is alarming and is what first caught the attention of the community leaders that started EDGE Nebraska City.  We are building a community where all families feel they can thrive and have opportunities in front of them.  Poverty can often deny a person choices and opportunities and we do not want that for any percentage of our population.

Our project is simple:  giving kids and families an edge in breaking the cycle of poverty.  Our first step in pursuing this is literacy.  Getting books into the hands of kids.  A strong reading foundation is the best advantage any child and their family can have in breaking the poverty cycle. Every month during the school year we distribute 400+ new books to kids in Preschool through 2nd grade.  Our second building block in the project is community education.  By offering workshops, community conversations and poverty simulation events we are bringing a light to poverty in our town and what it means for every community member.  And finally we do all of this through a lens of relationships.  The best way to help someone realize their potential, break a cycle or  pursue a new dream is to establish a relationship with them.  When members of a community are facing challenges they are better able to navigate those challenges if they have a strong circle of relationships.  Not just a friendly neighbor but a community that cares daily and not just during the moment of crisis.

Although our mission is to help families break the cycle of poverty, it is not something we do “for” families in poverty.  From the start, our board and volunteers made a commitment that whatever program we offered it would be available to everyone-regardless of income or needs.  Our programs are for everyone, no questions asked.  As an organization we want to do everything we can to create community.  We are working to directly and meaningfully  improve and impact the life of every citizen in our small town.  Addressing a cycle cannot be done with just a few faces around the table or with just a few stakeholders knowing the statistics.  It must be understood by the empty nester living on a healthy income, the local minister, the private school teacher, the single mom working 3 jobs, the furloughed employee, the small business owner that recently closed their business, the banker and the high school student.  This is everybody’s business and everyone needs to understand the basics of poverty (emotional, financial, educational and relationship poverty) in order to build a community where every family feels they have an edge because they grew up in Nebraska City.

Through my work in a variety of arenas,I realized that our community was seeing a rise in  poverty rates but no one was talking about it beyond their inner circle. Our community was helping people in poverty for short term needs but not having a deeper conversation.  Early in 2016 a citizen mentioned that it will be great when our Rotary Club can fund food backpacks for every kid, every weekend.  My first response was “of course!” but upon reflection I realized our community goals were misguided and not even defined. The goal should be no kid needs a food backpack. It was time to look at poverty differently.  Shortly after this “aha” moment I met with 10 local citizens that had a passion to see our community thrive.  We shared statistics, trends and out of the box thinking on what we could do to move families out of poverty.  That first meeting was eye opening for many.  If an attendee didn’t work in the public schools,  they were shocked at statistics and what increased poverty rates can mean for a community.  From that first meeting we knew one of our primary goals must be educating stakeholders about poverty.

Simply put, I am passionate about this project because I am passionate about young people having options in life. When a  high school graduate doesn’t feel like they have any options after graduation because they have to help with the family bills or when a mother of a young child doesn’t have the option of story time with her child because she works 2 jobs or when the new kindergartener doesn’t have books to choose from for a bedtime story, it fuels my passion for this work more.  Nebraska City doesn’t have neighborhood schools, all public school students attend the same school.  Your address doesn’t determine your school or your opportunities at school, however, sometimes that means children have to confront what they are without on a daily basis.  This passion has fueled us to find the best way to help families build a foundation and that led us to our literacy program, something that has fed my passion daily. Getting books to kids is more than a feel good strategy, it is the most important thing we can do to position a child for success. Watching that process unfold is what I need to sustain my passion.

Two reasons position me to deliver this project;  passion and connectivity.  As stated above, I have a passion for this work and more importantly for the results that will come from this work.  Watching a student walk across the graduation stage knowing they are in a  position to have options because of investments we made in their family is a great motivator. In addition, we know that those options will impact the entire community, possible for generations.  Secondly, I possess the connectivity to deliver this project.  I have lived and worked in this community for over 20 years and every one of those years has been filled volunteering with some entity in town--whether it is a church, school, Rotary, community festivals, library, etc . I have been deeply involved with the work of many groups.  Through this community development work I know what the strengths and weaknesses of this town are when it comes to reaching an aggressive goal like seeing declining  poverty rates by the year 2036.  This connectivity also gives me the opportunity to build capacity between these groups and fill in the gaps. 

There have been a variety of difficult situations over the past four years but nothing stands out as extraordinarily difficult because we knew road bumps were part of the building process.  There’s been huge funding gaps, need for more volunteers, lack of office space, a pandemic and more, but all these obstacles have been met with a “we have been training for this moment” attitude.  Building a non-profit from scribbled notes at the kitchen table to a community pillar is filled with obstacles from day one, but those hurdles have always been seen as part of the process.  When the pandemic forced us to cancel our major fundraiser and didn’t allow us to see students in the schools, we knew we had to pivot immediately, and we didn’t panic.  We grew this organization very organically and didn’t have faulty systems in place that often keep organizations from progressing.  As community leaders we knew the best ideas come from those doing the work, and we have prided ourselves on always being in the work and not just managing the work.  So when the pandemic hit, we got creative, found opportunities and discovered new delivery models and funding sources along the way. 

I am currently President of Nebraska Association of School Boards.  NASB represents 1700 locally elected school board members serving  234 Nebraskapublic school districts.  My first speech was entitled “What’s Next?” using The West Wing’s President Bartlett’s famous line.  I naively thought that what was next for 2020 was more of the same;  promoting public schools.   As a leader with NASB, my role quickly changed as  Public Education reinvented itself overnight when the pandemic forced schools to close in mid-March.  Most schools had 48-72 hours notice that they would be going to remote learning.  The anxiety, lack of infrastructure and fear of the unknown was very real for every Nebraska school board member. My  journey of working through personal grief since 2013, following the sudden death of my husband prepared me to lead during 2020.  Through grief work I have honed the skills of crisis management, decision making in isolation and managing anxiety.  One might argue that grief is not a leadership training course, I would disagree.   No scenario planning will prep you for a pandemic but navigating trauma and the residue from it, will help you manage the next crisis with greater confidence. 

While our work may seem simple and something that is repeated in communities across our country, it's actually the former but not the latter.  It is simple and that is what makes it so innovative.  Very few organizations are focusing on something as simple as literacy and community information to help break the poverty cycle.  Often we make things too complex when trying to find solutions.  We put a stop to that and focused on one thing that could level the playing field for members of our community. 

We currently serve our entire community of 7500, with a specific focus on public school students in grades Pre K-3 (475 students) and their families.

As an organization we have committed to focus on the following 5 for the next 5 years:

Outreach

Literacy

Program Progression

Relationship Building

Organizational Sustainability

Barriers of funding (especially in light of the pandemic), changing technology landscape of reacing families will social distanced, lack of understanding from stakeholders about generational, rural poverty.

Consistent and meaningful education of stakeholders.  Poverty simulation events, community roundtables,  Bridges out of Poverty training modules, and more.

Public  and Private Schools in our commity, churches, Nebraska Community Foundation, Nebraska Children and Families Foundation, art community, public library and Rotary Club.

Our financial sustainability focus has been on raising all funding locally (either in our community or our state).  We are committed to not depend on any federal or state funding that is tied to government grants.  We want the flexibility of designing programs that best meet local needs with local investments.  Prior to the pandemic we were in the process of the beginning stages of an endowment campaign.  That work has been delayed but will resume in 2021.

All funds are raised locally through private donations, local Family Foundation Grants and fundraisers. 

We seek enough funding to begin paying staff so our programs can begin to evolve into more sustainable models. 

This prize provides a tremendous opportunity for our organization to shift our focus from survival to thriving.  When funding is solid, we are much better positioned to devout energies to the needs of or community instead of splitting our energy between programming and building program infastruture.