Nebraska Children & Families Foundation

Mission Statement: Nebraska Children and Families Foundation maximizes the potential of Nebraska's children, youth, and families through collaboration and community-centered impact. The foundation creates positive change for Nebraska's children through community engagement by building partnerships, sharing data, implementing best practices in communities, and influencing administrative and legislative policies. The organization also promotes public education and awareness of issues impacting children and families throughout their lifespan.

Primary Program Areas:

• Early Childhood Development: Develops and supports a comprehensive and integrated system of early childhood care and education that provides children from vulnerable families with opportunities to establish a strong foundation for learning. Partners with communities to implement evidence-based practices that enhance social-emotional development of children from birth through age 8. The foundation oversees 31 Sixpence Early Learning programs serving more than 1,000 at-risk babies and toddlers across the state.

• Child Well-Being Communities: Assists in the development of child well-being communities to make progress on child well-being indicators. These are community-owned collaborations that seek to optimize the prevention of adverse childhood experiences by actively promoting protective factors within the community context, across the community prevention system, and through parent-child interactions. The foundation has implemented Community Based Prevention Systems in seven Nebraska communities.

• Connected Youth Communities: The Connected Youth Initiative (CYI) is an innovative, youth-led initiative focused on building supports for unconnected youth and connecting the unconnected.