Fall 2018
Featuring: Homelessness eradication efforts, a recap of Lincoln Calling 2018 and our quarterly Leading the Good Life series.
LETTER FROM
Randy I’ve been in decision-making mode for the past few months. If you’ve ever built or remodeled a house, or opened, say, a coffee shop, you know what it’s like. What color of outlets do you want? Do you prefer this kind of chair or that? At one point, while choosing flatware, I felt like I was completing a bridal registry.
Fall 2018
What's Inside
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Homelessness in Lincoln by Hannah Trull
These are all tedious, yet important details I need to focus on if we want to create the type of experience that draws people in, and, more importantly, keeps them coming back for more.
15 Years of Lincoln Calling by Spencer Creal YNPN Lincoln: Strengthening Lincoln's Nonprofit Sector
Cause Collective: Human Services and Beyond
Thank You, Founders Member Spotlight by Spencer Creal Leading the Good Life by Hannah Trull
Our Crew EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Randy Hawthorne MANAGING EDITOR Spencer Creal GRAPHIC DESIGNER Jordan Geisert MARKETING COORDINATOR Molly Paez SALES ASSOCIATE Garrett Miles CONTENT STRATEGISTS Hannah Trull Max Van Arsdall
When we started this coworking project back in 2015, I had no clue that I’d be attending a “cupping”—where you taste-test a variety of coffees—to determine our special Founders Roast. I have to say, though, it’s been rewarding, and I’m getting super excited to share the addition to The Foundry with our community—especially those of you that have shared in the vision and are Founders. You can see a list of those folks on pages 9-10. Our vision is centered on community. This space is our members’ living room: a place to invite friends in and be proud of what you do and where you work. And we hope to make Lincoln proud by this concept, too. The inspiration for our menu is shared community stories. We’ll be rotating our limited menu quarterly and we hope you share your stories to spark future menu ideas. Some of you may have already caught a taste (no pun intended) of Helping Oats, a former pop-up oatmeal restaurant that will now live permanently in The Foundry. We're so excited to serve it to the community. We’re going pedal to the metal to be open to the public as soon as possible. In the meantime, we’ll have special events leading up to the grand opening. How do you find out about these events? Becoming a Founder will give you the most information, but follow us on social media and sign up for our newsletter to stay in the loop. It’s my plan to write my next letter in the comfort of our coffee bar. Cheers!
Randy Hawthorne EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Homelessness in Lincoln by Hannah Trull
Project Homeless Connect Lincoln 2018
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y the end of 2018, approximately 2,500 people in our city will have lived in shelters or on the street, and that doesn’t include the additional thousands of near-homeless people who have little resources to sustain long-term stable housing. One-fourth of these people are kids under 18. Ten percent are veterans. Ten percent are completely unsheltered year-round. It’s clear that there's work to be done and luckily, many stand-out members in the community have devoted their lives to solving it—and that collaboration has led the city’s homelessness rate to decrease by 53 percent in the last five years. Denise Packard, for example, is the coordinated entry manager for the University of Nebraska’s Center on Children, Families, and the Law (CCFL). Specifically, she works closely with the All Doors Lead Home program, a database system that launched in October 2017 and “is designed to ensure that individuals and families with the highest
vulnerability...receive top priority in housing placement.” People’s City Mission and other organizations constantly track people down, then Packard enters their information into the statewide (minus Omaha) coordinated entry system. At any given time, there are usually 300 to 400 people registered in the system, she said. Packard runs reports to determine who of these people are the most vulnerable, based on things like disabling conditions, domestic violence, age, veteran status and the amount of time someone has been consistently without shelter. Then, based on her recommendations, federally funded housing programs prioritize who’s in the most dire need of governmental aid and assist them first. “That’s what drives me everyday,” she said. “Because I know that the city is helping the people who truly need it most.”
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And then there’s Bryan Seck, the employment skills developer for Prosper Lincoln and the director of workforce development for the Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development. He helps people move from part-time jobs to full-time careers by connecting them with social service agencies, nonprofits and local businesses.
Once they’re ready to seek employment, there’s plenty of resources for that, too. Seck said the American Job Center downtown is free and open to the public, working with over 1,000 people every month. NEWorks.gov is also a great website with thousands of job options for people who want to search online, he said.
Lincoln’s unemployment rate is among the lowest in the country at just 2.6 percent, but Seck said it was still the main reason he saw people become homeless when he was the LPS Homeless Outreach Specialist from 2013 to 2015.
On top of this, EmployLNK, a coalition of all the workforce development agencies in Lincoln, including the Department of Labor, American Job Center, the Veterans Association and many others, organize an annual career fair that anyone can attend. EmployLNK also hosts an annual event for case managers from over 50 social service agencies in Lincoln.
“In most cases, an expense occurred that the family couldn’t afford, like a broken down car or a medical expense, and they weren’t able to pay rent,” he said. “Also, when one parent leaves a domestic violence situation, many times the mom becomes homeless as her job alone can’t pay the bills.” Packard also said she’s seen attorneys, doctors and others who were once very well-to-do struggle to get back on their feet. “Everyone has their own story,” she said. Mental health issues, substance abuse and lack of healthcare are other main contributors to the problem. Also, Packard said a trauma is a huge and often-overlooked reason people find themselves homeless. But no matter what, Seck and Packard have the same advice for those who would like to turn their lives around: get connected. Lincoln has dozens of outreach programs, including five public access points—CenterPointe, Matt Talbot Kitchen and Outreach, People’s City Mission, Cedars Youth Services and The Hub. These all use a housing-first method where people can walk in and be assessed, referred and prioritized for housing referrals and programs that fit their needs. “You don’t require income, you don’t require employment, you don’t require sobriety,” Packard said. “You put a roof over their head and then worry about everything else.”
“By informing these people, we inform the thousands that their agencies serve,” Seck said. It’s important to remember, for the most part, the people these outreach programs and employment agencies serve aren’t the same ones you see clustered on the streets of downtown Lincoln during football games with a funny sign. Many of those people, Packard said, “end up getting in their cars and driving home at the end of the night.” The individuals who are truly in need are scattered all throughout the city, simply trying to survive. But with the help of a strong community and people like Packard and Seck, around 300 people have had a “positive exit” off the coordinated entry system since the database went live just one year ago. This means they now rent their own space, have landed a subsidy, reunited with family or found some other permanent housing solution. “We have great outreach,” Packard said. “You could never go hungry in Lincoln, Nebraska, and there’s always a pair of socks for you somewhere.” If you’d like more information on the All Doors Lead Home program or would like to get involved yourself, visit www.LincolnHomelessCoalition.org/ Coordinated-Entry.
15 YEARS OF
LINCOLN CALLING by Spencer Creal
Every September, for the past fifteen years, Lincoln has been flooded with music, art and a whole lot of people— this year, over 8,500. The impetus for this annual influx is Lincoln Calling, a week-long festival that celebrates the arts from Lincoln and beyond, and this year was the biggest yet. It’s an incredible event, and I’ve had the privilege of attending for the past three years (trust me, there are people with much more impressive track records). This year, the festival brought headliners Japanese Breakfast, Parquet Courts and Lion Babe to downtown Lincoln for three magical nights of music. Performers stretched across over a dozen downtown venues, jamming and dancing until the wee hours of the morning. The festival officially started on Wednesday, September 19, before many of the performers even arrived in Lincoln. There were arts showcases, educational forums, speaker panels, wellness classes and more. “The music is the centerpiece, but Lincoln Calling has so much more to offer,” said Spencer Munson, the director of the festival. There’s a lot to love about Lincoln Calling: it celebrates Lincoln’s very own artists while bringing world-class musicians to our city; it allows for open and safe conversations about art and culture; it promotes physical wellness through a number of professionally facilitated classes. But what’s perhaps most admirable about Lincoln Calling is that it achieves all of this while being kind to the earth. Three years ago, Lincoln Calling made a commitment to environmental sustainability. It established a group of volunteers called the “green team,” which provides education and support to participating venues and local businesses. It’s also a zero-waste initiative, meaning all products provided by the festival are recyclable or compostable.
This year, Lincoln Calling teamed up with Carson+Co Global, an environmental sustainability consultancy, to educate attendees and downtown establishments on the importance of being green. The energy Lincoln Calling brings to downtown is palpable—even before sound checks, you can just feel it. There are hundreds of people walking through the streets, checking out vendors at the Night Market, finding places near the front of the stage. Everyone just seems unusually cheerful. And once the music starts...well, that’s a whole different story. Whether artists are Lincoln natives with a cult following, well-known rock-stars or somewhere in-between, the energy isn’t just palpable—it’s unavoidable. “You could practically crowd-surf from the Parquet Courts set to the Nude Party set at Duffy’s,” Munson said. “It was rowdy and awesome.” The hype around Lincoln Calling isn’t self-contained, either. Folks from outside of Nebraska have compared the festival to the early stages of South by Southwest in Austin, Texas—a festival that now attracts some of the best artists in the world. Munson made sure to note that the growth and success of Lincoln Calling wouldn’t be possible without the tireless work of volunteers and partners. “It was the volunteers and partnerships that made it all happen,” he said. “Even if money wasn’t exchanged, time and energy and resources were, and that made all the difference.”
ynpn lincoln Strengthening Lincoln's Nonprofit Sector The Young Nonprofit Professionals Network of Lincoln (ynpnLNK) is a new chapter of the national YNPN organization. YNPN is a movement activating emerging leaders to advance a diverse and powerful social sector. The mission of ynpnLNK is to attract, retain and develop young nonprofit leaders in Lincoln through networking, professional development, advocacy and engaging in meaningful conversation. The newly launched network has a strong desire to help its members' leadership and occupational skills within the social sector. The group has plans to provide an avenue for young professionals in the community to build a cohesive, collaborative nonprofit sector in Lincoln. One of the biggest goals for ynpnLNK is to host events and gatherings focused on the professional development of young people in the nonprofit sector. This could include grant writing classes, an executive directors round table, long-term planning sessions and self-care practices. In January, ynpnLNK will be hosting a launch event to teach community members more about YNPN, including how to support the organization and how to get involved. The Foundry is elated to be a fiscal sponsor and avid supporter of ynpnLNK. “It's so important we support young professionals in the nonprofit sector,” said Randy Hawthorne, executive director of The Foundry. “The industry is going to be facing major leadership transitions in our community and we need to attract and retain good people doing good work for our causes in Lincoln." If you want to learn more about ynpnLNK, including how to become a member, visit the following form: https://goo.gl/c5Ykwg.
the foundry’s mission is to provide a space for collaboration and community-building, and we’re happy to have organizations like ynpn lincoln and cause collective fighting the good fight alongside us in lincoln. to learn more about their vision for social impact in lincoln, visit causecollectivelincoln.socs.net and https://goo.gl/c5ykwg.
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cause collective Human Services and Beyond Back in May, the Human Services Federation (HSF) announced its new name: Cause Collective. It’s not just a catchy alliteration, either—it makes a whole lot of sense. As HSF moved beyond just human services, they wanted their name to reflect their expanded work. “With our new vision completed, including our new name and re-brand, Cause Collective looks forward to reaching its full potential as we help our members become more connected, more educated and more informed,” said Jason Varga, executive director of Cause Collective. Cause Collective’s mission is to “strengthen nonprofits to better serve the community through collaboration, education and advocacy.” They’ve been doing that for years—albeit under a different name—offering nearly 20 trainings each year to help nonprofits connect with the community and expand their impact. According to Varga, their long-term strategic plan is “to continue increasing the value of membership by building a more connected nonprofit community, which builds trust and leads to improved services, and saving our members more money.” On top of training sessions, Cause Collective hosts a weekly radio show to keep members and non-members alike in the loop. They also inform member organizations of legislation that could affect their operations, and they help them reach out to elected officials. The Foundry’s mission is to provide a space for collaboration and community-building, and we’re happy to have organizations like Cause Collective fighting the good fight alongside us in Lincoln. To learn more about Cause Collective’s vision for social impact in Lincoln, visit CauseCollectiveLincoln.socs.net.
Thank You, Founders There are so many tangible benefits to becoming a Founder, but more important than any exclusive offer is the feeling of pride in giving back and becoming a part of something bigger than yourself.
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THE FOUNDRY MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
COMMON ROOT by Spencer Creal
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If you turn on your TV, or open your laptop, or check your phone, it’s easy to feel like everyone is butting heads. There’s a lot more yelling, a lot more interrupting and just more contention in general. And it isn’t just politics anymore— disagreement has found its way into every facet of every discussion in America. Even something as cut-and-dry as vaccinations has become a lexical battlefield. It can be exhausting and more than a little frustrating to have argumentative conversations and interactions. Luckily, there are folks out there who are trying to focus on the things we share and agree upon: values, beliefs, interests, characteristics. In fact, The Foundry’s very own Common Root has this—mutual connection—at the center of its mission. According to Lacey Losh, Common Root’s volunteer coordinator, the organization is “dedicated to providing a welcoming, supportive community space with resources for the purpose of mutual inspiration, education and connection.” They do this in a number of ways, including community-building events, movie screenings, support groups and more. Common Root was developed out of the LUNk House, a meeting place for progressive groups and local activists. After LUNk closed its doors in 2012, Common Root was established as its own stand-alone organization. In 2014, they officially received 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, but found themselves paying a lot for rental space. This past summer, they set up shop in The Foundry. “We love the collaborative environment at The Foundry! [It] provides our nonprofit with the
whole package of resources we require but couldn’t afford when renting space on our own,” Losh said. Among Common Root’s most important values is what Losh calls “free culture.” “We believe in accessibility, and this includes making sure people have the ability to meet for community projects and social activities free of charge,” she said. On top of offering all of their programming and events free of charge, Common Root is also run completely by volunteers, and all of their meetings are open to the public. Their volunteer staff have positions and titles, but they operate with a non-hierarchical structure, ensuring that everyone’s voice is equally heard. Common Root wants to provide a safe space for people to talk and interact freely with each other. The events they host are determined by the interests, skills and availability of their volunteers. “We’re an all-volunteer nonprofit. This really shows the heart and hard work individuals are willing to put into growing our mission and maintaining a consistently welcoming atmosphere,” Losh said. To find an upcoming event, or to learn more about how they’re cultivating a community for discussion and connection, visit CommonRoot.net.
Leading the Good Life by Hannah Trull
It’s incredibly important that members of our community be recognized for all the good they do. Of course, they wouldn’t dream of recognizing themselves, so we’re going to do it for them. Each quarter, The Foundry will recognize an outstanding leader from the community to be featured. We’ll share some coffee and talk about how they’re Leading the Good Life each and every day. This quarter, we were honored to meet with Pat Leach, Director of Lincoln City Libraries.
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Pat Leach If you think you’re a bookworm, you should meet "Lincoln's Most Passionate Reader," Pat Leach. She’s been working for the city’s library system for over four decades, starting when she was a student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Leach has stayed loyal to Lincoln’s libraries ever since, and, in 2008, she was put in charge of them. On top of being the director of all eight libraries in town, she advocates strongly for children’s literacy and reads over 40 books per year—waking up at 5 a.m. on the weekends to do so, to avoid interruptions. Leach attributes her love of reading to her late great-aunt Virginia and fourth grade teacher Mrs. Barrilleaux, but her passion has grown deeper throughout her career. To her, literacy is the “backbone” of a productive and happy life. “Public libraries stand for the democratic ideals of universal education, access to information and community investment,” she said. “Lincoln is an education town and the seat of state government; it's a city that demands a strong public library system.”
this draws new people to the library, leading to more regular library-goers. “I'm totally passionate about [child literacy],” Leach said. “Reading aloud to children 15 minutes a day is the most effective way to prepare them for success. In our culture, success in school leads to success in finding good and rewarding work. Plus, the profile of people who read throughout their lives shows correlation with other important civic activities, such as voting or volunteering.” That’s why, for Leach, little things like seeing a parent and child reading together in the picture book room warm her heart and make her job so worthwhile. She said she’s seen the positive impact of her work come together through millions of small moments like this over the years. Currently, Leach is finding new ways to encourage and support parents to reach those 15 minutes of reading aloud per day, like with a public engagement campaign called “Dad Up and Read.”
`` What I love about them is that each has its own personality within its neighborhood.´´
And that’s exactly what we have. Lincoln boasts a central library, also known as Bennett Martin Public Library, plus seven branch libraries and a bookmobile. “What I love about them is that each has its own personality within its neighborhood,” she said. Each library has strong programs for promoting literacy in children, which is something Leach has strongly supported since she worked in the children’s library as a college student. She oversees the coordination of free community events for kids, like pumpkin scavenger hunts, rock painting, movie screenings and more. There’s always a long list of fun, educational activities listed on their website. And although they don’t all directly pertain to reading, the events help children learn something new and useful, even when they’re disguised as pure fun. Plus, she said,
Along with smaller improvements being made to each of the seven branch libraries, plans for a brand new downtown library that will replace the existing Bennett Martin are underway, much to her excitement. “We'll be seeking support for our project through a bond issue election, and by a campaign for private support through our hard working partners at the Foundation for Lincoln City Libraries,” she said. “This will do wonders for the way the library serves the whole city, and especially the heavily populated core of Lincoln.” Until then, you can catch Leach reading her all-time favorite books, "A Lesson Before Dying" by Ernest Gaines, "Thinking Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman or anything by short-story writer Alice Munro. If you know someone who should be featured in our Leading the Good Life series, email Spencer Creal at spencer.creal@thefoundry.co.
NONPROFIT ORG US POSTAGE PAID FIRESPRING
Events November 7-18th Mother Courage at the Lied Center November 8th SPARK, Sip, & Savor
211 N. 14th Street Lincoln, NE 68508
November 11th Project Pink’d Care to Share Thanksgiving November 13th 5th Annual Opening Doors Fundraising Breakfast December 15th Civic Saturday Monthly The Foundry First Friday For more details visit TheFoundry.co/Community-Calendar
P lan a coffee date! Mention the phrase "Here for Good" to receive a buy-oneget-one-free coffee at The Foundry.