Intro- Community collaboration; breaking silos; common goals; Homeless Coalition work. Introduce both of us- give roadmap. Rocio will talk about homeless/near homeless in LNK. Bryan will follow with community response. We will have last 15 minutes or so for QA.

Rocio Cubas Homeless Outreach Specialist Lincoln Public Schools “I want to go to school!” ROCIO: Plan on 25-30 minutes here Imagine a fourth grade scholar in a local hotel. It’s Wednesday and you and your son just came up from getting free breakfast offered. It is the third week of September, this isn’t Holiday Inn and the pool isn’t fun or clean anymore, cartoons are boring and your son looks at you and says… I want to go to school! Introduce myself/Background- Working for non-profit over 10 years, families in crisis, parenting and strength based coaching. COS trainer Rocio Cubas Homeless Outreach Specialist Lincoln Public Schools

Youth Development Team Support student and parent access and use of district and community resources. I’m part of a greater team that provides supports for scholars and families. Student’s advocate: 2 African American advocate, 2 Native American advocate, Transition Specialist, Homeless Outreach Specialist.

Why Homeless in Lincoln? Domestic Violence Medical Issues Car Breakdown Unaccompanied Youth Lose Job Eviction New to Lincoln DV – It is the number 1 cause of homelessness. 70% of homeless families come from a domestic violence situation. Example – Family 2 incomes- Abuser is out of the picture. 1 income doesn’t meet all the needs New to Lincoln – Not only refugees or immigrants. People from other states that come with a job in mind and house. Job fall through and house falls through. They don’t have the information or resources.

A Broken Window… This is just an example of a simple broken window can be a difference between 3 social class. Poverty, Middle class and Wealth. Families living in poverty, have a broken window in their apartment, it is Winter, don’t have money to fix the window, trying to fix it so the heating doesn’t spend to much gas. You are late at work, this the 3rd time. Your boss has cut your hours already so this time your boss tell you that you don’t have a job anymore until you figure out your problem. Middle Class family. Living in a house and have a broken window, you call your boss to let him/her know that you will be few hours late. You call a handyman to fix the window. You take some money from your savings account which you aren’t happy about and get the window fixed and you go on with your life. Wealth Class. You have a broken window in your over $1 million house. Your assistant gets a call and he/she call a company gets it fix and You don’t even know about it and never find out. This is just an unprecedented event that doesn’t interfere in your life

28 year old mom, three kids $350 SNAP (food stamps) $450 ADC (Aid for Dependent Children) $150 blood and plasma donation $800 salary from Pinnacle Bank Arena (part-time) Total: $1750/month Expenses: Rent: $800 Utilities: $200 Car: $250 Food: $500 Background, Work Experience, Connection to Team What is she missing in her expenses?

Definition of Homelessness McKinney-Vento Act: A person that lacks a regular, fixed, and adequate nighttime residence. Youth whose parents do not live with them Live on the street, in shelters, transitional housing or couch-surfing Children and youth sharing housing due to loss of housing, economic hardship or a similar reason Children and youth living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camp grounds due to lack of alternative accommodations Children and youth living in emergency or transitional shelters Children and youth abandoned in hospitals Children and youth whose primary nighttime residence is not ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation (e.g. park benches, etc) Children and youth living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations

The need… 500+ students across district are homeless Who refers students to the homeless liaison? School staff and administration Community Peers Collaboration is essential and works to address needs of homeless scholars

Supports and Services… What can the district provide? Immediate enrollment Free/reduced lunch Transportation So back to the young man that said I want to go to school…This came to light during a conversation I had with a Mom, overwhelmed about all her needs and didn’t know what to do or where to start. It was a statement that any parent want for their children that becomes a great equalizer…”My child want to go to school but I can’t take them. As the conversation proceeded I heard her voice calming down at the end if our conversation she said I just need to do one step a a time.

Closure of the information gap First time homeless Housing=Security Schools Provide… Closure of the information gap First time homeless Housing=Security Food Security, School Security Follow up and follow through: Two Way Street Scholar experiencing homelessness struggle to stay in school, to perform well, to form meaningful connections with peers and adults. School Security:

Takeaways - The Strengths of the Homeless Scholars Homeless Liaison connects scholars to resources Parents want to provide - each family has strengths Resilience and Adaptability We will move mountains to get students the resources they need to be successful. 300 homeless students to date identified across LPS Each family has individual needs and strengths Homeless Liaison, school, and community collaborate to ensure housing, food, and transportation security Youth Development Team and other district supports

Questions? Contact Information Rocio Cubas rcubas@lps.org 402-436-1963 (Office) 402-436-3440 (Cell)

Bryan Seck, Employment Skills Developer Connecting Jobs to Careers: Linking libraries, service providers, and employers, Bryan will discuss a community-focused approach to move people from unemployment or underemployment to regular, living-wage employment with benefits. Bryan previously served as Homeless Outreach Specialist with Lincoln Public Schools. He will discuss the intersection of the working poor, homelessness, and how $250 separates housed and homeless families. These are the families that come to the libraries seeking support, jobs, and connection to services. He currently serves as Prosper Lincoln Developer working on all three to partner with libraries and service providers in Lincoln. He will discuss his work and how it can be replicated in more communities.

Strategic Plan and Data Go to www.prosperlincoln.org Lincoln Vital Signs 2014 and 2015. Funded by our community’s largest philanthropic organizations, the business community, and local government, the report compiled information about our community. It documented three key findings: Lincoln does many things exceptionally well and these successes should be nurtured. A growing proportion of Lincoln’s population faces real need. In particular our children fare poorly on many measures. Our vision for the report was that it would help Lincoln Be Informed and then Get Involved. Our first year and a half was devoted to educating the community. Just last May we announced the Get Involved phase and that is the Prosper Lincoln initiative.

Prosper Lincoln Community Agenda Early Childhood Employment Skills Innovation Big dogs on board, big dogs need this to succeed. They are out of workers. The first step was community outreach. We challenged Lincolnites to send us their ideas for how to address the findings in the Lincoln Vital Signs. More than 2,100 ideas were submitted. Ideas came from every corner of the city and there were many great ideas. We organized a Steering Committee, representing diverse sectors of our community. That group thoughtfully considered all these ideas before they settled on the Prosper Lincoln Community Agenda: early childhood, employment skills and innovation. The Steering Committee then handed these three agenda areas to Work Groups, one for each agenda area. The Work Groups comprised practitioners, experts, and citizens at-large. The Work Groups were asked to set an overall goal for each area and to develop objectives that articulated how the goal will be achieved. The three agenda areas are ambitious, impactful areas that will take the involvement of all sectors of our community, both by individuals and by institutions.

In our community, the average person in poverty is a single, white mom, with at least one job and with two school-aged children. - Vital Signs, 2015 Do we need to say, “In our community…” and Vital Signs?

Connected Community: Employer, Educator, Human Service, People Community Approach Unemployment vs. Underemployment Employer Needs Where is everybody? Connected Community: Employer, Educator, Human Service, People

So what? What are you doing? Connect  Employer and Case Worker Fair Grow Existing Resources  American Job Center Break Silos  Health Care Grant Go where the people are  Library Collaboration

We’re librarians, not career counselors! Current: People are looking for jobs and don’t know how Future: Trained Volunteers One system & Cloud based Employer Support: Retention & Mentors Skill based training School and City Library: Same and different Add to current: people can walk to the nearest library

Stability + Certification = End Poverty One Family at a Time Ok, what’s next? Focus: Quality employment brings stability Retention: Soft skills and mentors Build Skills: On the Job and Community College Life View: home, work, stability Stability + Certification = End Poverty One Family at a Time Don’t type JOBS into Google; NE one of highest two jobs rates in country. If people don’t know about good jobs, they don’t exist. Retention = Stability

Getting certified = Filling open jobs Take out stat

Economic Development: Create a stable, thriving community Support education through certificate programs, training, and degree programs Support employers by connecting them to potential employees, case workers, and agencies Support families by connecting them to good jobs and education to build their careers Can we tighten this to just a few bullets? Connection, resources, education, stability, economic development

I want to know more! And I have questions. Bryan Seck: bryan.seck@prosperlincoln.org & www.prosperlincoln.org Rocio Cubas: rcubas@lps.org & www.lps.org Lincoln Homeless Coalition: www.lincolnhomelesscoalition.org