Our local, regional, and national impact.
Central Plains Center for Services annually supports hundreds of youth, young adults, and families in Nebraska through its Coaching, Educational, and Financial Leadership services. In 2023, Central Plains served over 2,400 youth across all programs. These programs have been instrumental in helping youth who have experienced foster care, homelessness, and pregnancy and/or parenting. Youth are connected with a professional, caring coach who is committed to the youth and helps them set and achieve goals related to the youth's successful transition to adulthood. An impressive 92% of youth who utilize the services offered by Central Plains reach their goals and leave the program in a better position than when they arrived, with many on track to successfully achieve independence. The youth served by Central Plains have accomplished significant milestones such as moving into their own apartments, purchasing homes, entering careers that pay livable wages, acquiring safe and reliable transportation, paying off debts, and investing in their future. Additionally, many have enrolled, persisted, and completed postsecondary programs, with some even going on to earn master's degrees.
The positive outcomes of our work are not just tangible; they also ignite a transformative journey for young people. This journey boosts their confidence, self-esteem, and trust, enabling them to form meaningful connections with others and, in turn, improve their personal, familial, and community well-being. Many of the young people served by Central Plains experience a significant internal change as they become interested in contributing to initiatives that benefit and advocate for others who have experienced similar experiences. They seek to enhance their leadership skills and work with their coach to participate in activities such as conference presentations, panels, youth boards, advisory committees, and other opportunities where they can give back to their communities.
These efforts demonstrate how Central Plains directly impacts those we serve and indirectly impacts those who are connected to youth, such as family and communities. Our work has not only been recognized but also highlighted at many local, regional, and national conferences where our talented team sit on panels, present at breakout sessions, and contribute to larger initiatives happening across the country to improve the outcomes of system-involved youth. Our work has also been highlighted in the following research briefs from highly reputable national organizations that are committed to advancing cutting-edge strategies to uplift vulnerable communities.
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This brief shares learnings from the community of LEAP organizations and partners as
they continue to deepen their practices to enhance the positive impact and durability
of programming while also scaling to reach greater numbers of young people in similar
situations -
Orienting Youth Services around Young Parents’ Needs: Strategies from Three Service-Providing Partnerships in the Learn and Earn to Achieve Potential (LEAP) Initiative is a brief conducted by LEAP national partner, the Urban Institute. This brief provides specific ideas and guidance that other youth-serving organizations and partnerships may find valuable when orienting their work toward the needs of young people who are parenting and their families.
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LEAP 2.0 System Change Strategies and Progress: Findings from a Survey of LEAP Leads and System Partners. In spring 2023, Equal Measure administered surveys to the six LEAP leads and a sample of their systems partners as part of the LEAP 2.0 evaluation. The surveys aimed to better understand the systems change strategies LEAP leads and their cross-system partners (community-based organizations, public school systems, community colleges, workforce and employer partners, and the juvenile justice and child welfare systems) are putting into place for systems-involved and other young people, including those challenged by homelessness, parenting, and other issues, to succeed in school and work. The surveys also asked about the impact of these strategies on improving the systems to better serve the young adults involved. The surveys were a point-in-time reflection of local systems change work to date.
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LEAP partners describe taking a holistic approach by looking at the whole young person and all that surrounds them, including societal barriers to education and career growth as well as root causes of disconnection from education and career pathways. Taking this approach is particularly critical when working with systems-involved youth or youth who have experienced homelessness as their environments strongly impact their ability to succeed in work or school. LEAP partnerships recognize the need to help meet young people’s basic needs and provide them with stability before they can connect them to, and support them to thrive in, education and career pathways. Success in pathways is not possible without meeting basic needs.
