Published 3-28-2018
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 and now is a good time to provide you with an update on our progress.
Here are a few ways we have been working to make Lincoln a better place to live and work.
Employment Skills:
- 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. Each case manager serves about 50 people. These efforts increase ROI for business and quality job acquisition for those ready to start a career.
- Local businesses are building career pathways for English Language Learners (ELL.) They are leading an effort to provide a career map from entry level to advance career, mapping ELL level with job description and the value of benefits.
- More people are connecting to jobs. The 75+ participating businesses report hiring based on career fair and event participation.
Innovation/Entrepreneurship:
- 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 is being identified in 4,150 local high school students. Top students will attend a month-long immersion at the Clifton Strengths Institute at UNL.
- With the goal of learning best practices and sharing Lincoln’s ecosystem story will be told by a group of five leaders. They traveled to Des Moines, Chicago, Saint Louis and Kansas City. The trip was reported by Silicon Prairie News.
Early Childhood:
- The Lincoln Early Childhood Network (LECN) brings together a broad array of early care providers from key sectors of the community. Three work groups meet regularly to increase cross-sector collaboration, advocating for and improving early childhood development, experiences and environments.
- As a result of a national grant, Read Aloud Lincoln is being implemented to raise awareness and encourage caregivers to read aloud to their children from birth to age eight. Outreach to the community, especially those areas with high poverty rates, is a key goal.
- Parent engagement and leadership is supported through the development of an Early Childhood Toolkit pilot which includes programming to create stronger connections between schools and families with young children and supporting parents and to lead conversations and create action about topics that are important to them.
We won’t stop here! Only with the dedication, ideas, and support of citizens like you, this progress is possible. With just a year and half left, let us join together to finish strong and help Lincoln prosper.