Omaha is one of three cities to receive SEL grant from The New York Life Foundation

We’re delighted to announce that Collective for Youth received a portion of a $1 million, three-year grant from the New York Life Foundation to strengthen social-emotional learning for middle school students in three cities, Omaha, Dallas Afterschool Network and ExpandED Schools in New York.  $1 million dollars is the total amount allocated for all three cities.

With this grant, more than 2,000 students across the three cities will participate in new initiatives that bridge schools and community partners to foster students’ social and emotional development. Locally, two OPS middle schools were selected to participate in the multi-year grant.  Nebraskans for Civic Reform will be coordinating the efforts as the Lead Agency at Lewis and Clark Middle School and Completely KIDS will be coordinating the efforts as the Lead Agency at RM Marrs Magnet Middle School.

Collective for Youth is excited for the opportunity to improve social-emotional development and readiness for ninth grade.  Many of our school-community partners have expressed the need to embrace clear, whole child outcome frameworks by adding research-based practices and programs that support social and emotional development.

In August, a team from each school comprised of both out of school time program staff and school staff will head to Dallas in order to receive training provided by the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence.  This two day, evidence based training will be highly interactive and provide each of the teams with social-emotional learning skills and tools to bring back to Omaha.