Long-Standing Nebraska Early Childhood Initiatives
Unite as Early Futures Partnership
LINCOLN, NE—Two of Nebraska’s most trusted voices on early childhood issues have joined together as the founding initiatives of Early Futures Partnership, a new nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening local and statewide systems that support the early care, education and healthy development of young children. Early Futures Partnership unites Communities for Kids (C4K) and First Five Nebraska (FFN) in a collaboration that aligns deep community-based experience with policy expertise to ensure Nebraska’s youngest children have the foundation they need for lifelong success.
The two founding initiatives bring over a decade of complementary work to the partnership. C4K has worked in communities across the state, building local capacity for quality early care and education. FFN has been a leading voice at the policy level, translating research and data into actionable solutions for a broad array of early childhood issues. Together, as Early Futures Partnership, these initiatives are positioned to pursue systems change by enhancing their distinct strengths while creating new opportunities for collaboration, innovation and statewide reach.
“Our work is built on the understanding that we can achieve more for our state’s communities, families and children when public policy and community practice move in alignment,” said Marti Beard, Early Futures co-president and C4K founding director. “A large part of Early Futures’ work focuses on how we can leverage experience, insight and thought leadership at the community level to help promote effective, strategic and well-informed policy solutions for Nebraska’s most urgent early childhood challenges.”
Communities for Kids: Building Child Care Capacity Statewide
Established in 2017, Communities for Kids was created in direct response to a widening crisis: insufficient options for quality early care and education in communities across Nebraska. C4K provides expert technical assistance
tailored to help local partnerships identify and coordinate those assets to build quality early care and education infrastructure that reflects the specific strengths and needs of each community. The initiative helps community partners develop a core team of highly engaged stakeholders, develop a work plan reflecting local priorities and coordinate strategic relationships and local resources to achieve their goals.
The results have been substantial. C4K has supported 89 community- and county-level partnerships statewide across nine cohorts, helping to add 1,155 new child care spots in 2024-25 alone. A tenth cohort of community partnerships will join the network in July, continuing the initiative’s steady expansion.
First Five Nebraska: Leading Policy Change for Children and Families
First Five Nebraska leads the policy, research and advocacy work that ensures children, starting prenatally, have every opportunity to thrive. FFN’s team offers expert policy advisement grounded in rigorous data analysis, conducts strategic messaging and public education and helps coordinate grassroots advocacy efforts across the state to build momentum for meaningful change.
FFN’s influence has been seen in some of Nebraska’s most significant early childhood policy wins in recent years. The initiative recently played a central role in creating a $25 million tax credit package, providing much-needed annual economic relief for families with children in child care as well as incentives for child care programs and professionals. FFN also helped advance expansion of prenatal Medicaid coverage for at-risk mothers through the Prenatal Plus Program, ensuring that more of Nebraska’s most vulnerable families receive critical health support before a child is born.
Stronger Together: A Unified Vision for Early Childhood in Nebraska
Early Futures’ work creates a two-way connection between communities where early childhood challenges are met through local leadership and organization, and the policy arena where lasting solutions to those issues take shape. The impact of this approach has already been seen in the collaborative work between C4K, FFN and other partners to promote LB304 during this year’s legislative session, a landmark bill that made permanent current income eligibility levels for child care assistance, keeping affordable child care within the reach of thousands of Nebraska families.
“The challenges facing Nebraska’s youngest children and their families are real and urgent,” said Jason Prokop, Early Futures co-president and FFN director since 2019. “An insufficient supply of quality, affordable child care, gaps in child and maternal health care supports, food insecurity—these are significant obstacles to making Nebraska a viable place to live, work and raise a family. Bringing the resources and expertise of C4K and FFN together as Early Futures Partnership isn’t just a natural next step in confronting those issues—it’s a force multiplier for the work we do on behalf of every community, family and child.”
About Early Futures Partnership
Early Futures Partnership is a nonprofit organization that aligns community practice with public policy to grow Nebraska’s quality early care and learning infrastructure and ensure children, beginning prenatally, have every opportunity to thrive. Early Futures is the organizational home of its founding initiatives, Communities for Kids and First Five Nebraska. Learn more at EarlyFutures.org.