Jo Ann Emerson, Director of Fund Development
Steve Sheridan, Deputy Director
Mission: To provide services and programs to low-income people that address their basic needs and help them achieve economic independence
Jo Ann Emerson & Steve Sheridan
The Center has been fighting poverty in Lincoln, Nebraska since 2003. Founded in a house on Holdrege Street, the Center began by distributing truckloads of household and office goods to area nonprofits. Five years later, we dramatically expanded our space and programs to better serve the community. The new-to-us facility on North 27th Street included 80,000 square feet of office, warehouse, and classroom space, which allowed us to hold food distributions and develop educational and training programs.
Since moving to 3901 N. 27th Street, the Center has been able to provide regular food distributions both on- and off-site. We are the Food Bank of Lincoln's largest partner, distributing food to more than 3,450 low-income families in 2019. Through a strategic partnership with the Junior League of Lincoln, we also co-founded Lincoln's first Diaper Bank to meet the growing need for diapers in our community.
Education is the key to helping low-income individuals obtain economic independence. As such, the Center developed educational and training programs to help people obtain employment with a living wage.
- English Language Learning courses are offered for free to refugees and New Americans for whom English is not the primary language. Classes are taught at three skill levels and are geared toward obtaining or bettering employment.
- The POP (People Obtaining Prosperity) program provides full-tuition assistance and additional support services to make obtaining an education at Southeast Community College feasible for low-income individuals. POP participants can identify a new career path or expand existing job skills to improve their employment and wage.
- The Center's TRADE (Tackling Recidivism And Developing Employability) program, funded through a grant from the State of Nebraska Department of Corrections, provides education, training, and assistance to current and formerly incarcerated individuals. The program's hands-on training and mentorship ensure participants have the knowledge and skills necessary to successfully reenter the community and secure employment.
The Center actively advocates for regulations and legislation to remove the barriers that trap people in the cycle of poverty. We are dedicated to the fight against poverty in our community and will continue to provide basic needs and educational and training opportunities for low-income families until there is no longer a need.
It doesn’t seem possible that we have come to the one-year mark of the pandemic. We’ve all endured a lot; some so much more than others. At the Center, we’ve had moments of laughter and tears of sorrow—not enough of the first and more than enough of the latter. Over these long months, many of us have used words and phrases like “unprecedented,” “heroes,” “out of an abundance of caution,” and “in these trying times” so often that our high school English teachers would have handed us a thesaurus. But bear with me, please, as here I go again.
There are so many heroes in our little corner of the city. We’ve been able to make a tremendous impact on families with insufficient access to food because of these heroes. You, dear reader, are our heroes. Without your outpouring of support over these months (and ongoing), it would not be possible to continue our food distribution. We would not have the resources to provide support for people needing to apply for SNAP benefits, we would not have the wrapped diapers for babies, and we would not have the temporary staff members who have toiled alongside permanent staff