October, 2018
The Prosper Lincoln team would like to thank you for stepping up to this important agenda. Our Developers are now past the half way mark on the 4-year strategic plan. Here are a few ways we have been working to make Lincoln a better place to live and work.
Employment SkillsBryan Seck 402-541-9988 bryan.seck@prosperlincoln.org
- EmployLNK (formally Lincoln Business Task Force) organizes veteran, job seeker and case manager career fairs and monthly tours of local businesses. The events increase case manager understanding of career pathways to share with clients and business access to job seekers. Many of the 100+ participating businesses report hiring from fairs and tours.
- Local businesses build career pathways for English Language Learners (ELL.) Businesses provide a career map from entry level to advanced careers, offer ELL classes on site, and map ELL level with job description and the value of benefits.
- Prosper Lincoln and Lincoln Public Schools created the Job Opportunities and Extended Learning Opportunities (JELO), an online system for businesses to share internship, job shadow, and job opportunities with all 21,000 juniors and seniors. www.bit.ly/stujobslps
Innovation/Entrepreneurship Rich Claussen 402-450-1518 rich.claussen@prosperlincoln.org
- Reverse Pitch and State of the Practice events have been held, connecting tech driven businesses to students in the computer science and engineering field. Jobs and internships are being filled and expansion is planned.
- Partnering with local businesses, high school educators and the higher education field, Future Builders was launched. The propensity for ideas, businesses, innovation and entrepreneurial pursuits were identified in more than 3,200 local high school students. Top students attended a month-long immersion at the Clifton Strengths Institute at UNL. Future Builders continues in 2019.
- With the goal of learning best practices and sharing Lincoln’s ecosystem story, a group of five leaders traveled to Des Moines, Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City. Each stop on the tour was reported by Silicon Prairie News. Ideas gathered from the trip are being introduced to the Lincoln ecosystem
Early ChildhoodMichelle Suarez 402-432-3290 michelle.suarez@prosperlincoln.org
- To increase high quality placements in early education, refugees in Lincoln will soon learn to establish child care businesses thanks to a collaboration with Midland Latino Community Development Corporation. One local business is exploring the development of an on-site child care for employees and the community that may serve as a model to replicate.
- The Read Aloud Lincoln initiative, a partnership with the Lincoln City Libraries and four museums, encourages parents and caregivers to read aloud to children through events, collaborations and getting books into the hands of families with young children.
- Parent engagement is supported through the development of a pilot neighborhood approach that builds on the assets of the families who live there. These connections between families and schools help children arrive at school kindergarten-ready.
We won’t stop here! Only with the dedication, ideas, and support of citizens like you, this progress is possible. With a little over a year to go, let us join together to finish strong and help Lincoln prosper.