Overview
By bringing together state and local agencies, leaders and citizens, Bring Up Nebraska is helping to ensure that every community across Nebraska is working to increase the availability of critical supports and services, reduce unnecessary government system involvement, and improve the lives of Nebraska children and families. The United States Children’s Bureau recently selected Nebraska to participate in an opportunity called Thriving Families, Safer Children (“Thriving Families”) due to the progress that has been made by the community well-being collaboratives in the Bring Up Nebraska Initiative.
Bring Up Nebraska’s Community Well-Being (CWB) model is based on the belief that all individuals and families face challenges, and that providing support early, before challenges escalate into crises, improves outcomes for children, adults, and communities. Local communities are the foundation of our work because they are best situated to provide services and supports that build protective factors and resilience to future challenges, and because decision-making about what works for well-being lies within communities and homes of our families.
Our Focus
- Reshaping the current child welfare system to better support the CWB model by collaborating with other partners and providing aligned funding, supports, and services.
- Ingraining of the CWB model within the state government and local communities so it continues as the operational norm regardless of political or administrative leadership changes over time.
- Including families, youth, and other community members in the leadership and decision-making process at both state-wide and community levels.
Thriving Families State Steering Committee
How is the State Steering Committee structured?
The State Steering Committee will be the key support team for round one communities in Nebraska. The team will meet regularly (*every other month in 2021) to help implement Nebraska’s Thriving Families plan and provide support to each round one community. The representatives on the State Steering Committee have direct access to leaders of their organization for higher level decision making or support as necessary, including barrier busting support at the state level.
Who are the members of the State Steering Committee?
The State Steering Committee will be a collective group of interagency and interdisciplinary representatives to ensure that they are working together in transformational ways. The members will include: 1) round one community coordinators; 2) parent expert; 3) youth expert; and 4) equity experts. In addition to above representatives, the State Steering Committee includes representatives from: 5) the Division of Children and Family Services; 6) the Nebraska Children and Families Foundation; 7) the Division of Public Health; 8) the Office of the First Lady; 9) the Nebraska Child Abuse Prevention Fund Board; 10) the Court Improvement Project
