Lincoln’s Community Learning Centers (CLCs) are a strategy that brings schools, families and neighborhoods together to provide what youth and their families need to be successful. CLCs strive to promote collaboration between each host school and its community. Through strong school community partnerships CLCs are responsive to the needs of students, families and their neighborhoods. Community partners are lead agencies that assist with promoting and implementing a successful CLC at their schools. Community partners are lead agencies that assist with promoting and implementing a successful CLC at their schools. The CLCs also work with other organizations like Partnership for a Healthy Lincoln, who coordinate wellness clubs in several CLC locations.
Highlights
Among the many highlights, in December, 2024, the CLCs received national recognition as an “Engage Every Student” champion. Across the country, thirteen Community Schools programs received this recognition from the U.S. Department of Education. Also in December, the Lincoln Community Learning Centers, Partnership for a Healthy Lincoln and the Spring Creek Prairie Audubon Center received a combined $264,000 from the Nebraska Department of Education’s Expanded Learning Opportunity grant program, to grow their afterschool programming.
In April, 2025, CLC Director, Nola Derby-Bennett was invited to present alongside Dr. John Skretta, Interim Superintendent, and two LPS School Board Members at the National School Board Association conference in Atlanta, Georgia, where Lincoln CLCs were recognized as a successful example of CLC programming and outreach.
The CLCs also collaborated with the Lincoln Lancaster County Health Department in the school year to connect families and kids of all skill levels and backgrounds with affordable options for sports registration and equipment for the volleyball, track and field, and soccer seasons, to bring more sports and physical activity opportunities to families of all incomes.
Partnership for a Healthy Lincoln/CLC Collaboration
Partnership for a Healthy Lincoln (PHL) oversees Wellness Clubs in eleven CLCs, serving over 500 children in 39 clubs. PHL manage AmeriCorps members who work alongside CLC elementary schools with the goal of teaching and encouraging students to develop healthy eating habits, learn how to grow and enjoy fresh produce, participate in and enjoy physical activity. AmeriCorps members serve at elementary CLC sites at no cost to the CLC programs.
Programs like Harvest of the Month (HOM) give kids an opportunity to taste fresh Nebraska produce from local farms (Farm to School), many for the first time. Kids tasted apples, kale, radishes, carrots, asparagus, sweet potatoes, and cauliflower with a wide majority loving or liking what they tasted. Taste tests gives kids an opportunity to see how delicious nutritious foods can be, and programs like WeCook and Food Smarts teach kids and their families how to make healthy snacks and meals. Over the school year, HOM provided over 1,000 taste test to kids.
SPARK programs engage kids in fun physical activities to help develop a life long fitness habit, while indoor and outdoor school vegetable Garden Programs teach kids about the science of growing and connect them in a fun way to healthy foods.
For more about the CLCs, email Emily Trauernicht, etrauer@lps.org. For more about PHL Wellness Clubs and the AmeriCorps Program, email Matt O'Rourke, morourke@healthylincoln.org.
