Children First: CEO Kansas Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in Wichita, Kansas, with a mission to equalize educational opportunities for the children of low-income families. The goal is to provide children with a pathway out of poverty through higher paying jobs. Our program, “Promise Neighborhoods,” is a strategy to improve educational and developmental outcomes of low-income children and youth through an entire neighborhood. Using the Department of Education Office of Innovation and Improvement model, our program builds a continuum of cradle-through-college approach to increase graduation rates for living wage employment, particularly introducing higher paying careers (such as science, technology, engineering, and math- STEM). Two projects include: the Neighborhood Impact Project and the Youth Innovation Project. The Neighborhood Impact Project is long range goals include: 1) increase fresh food eating habits for students and their families to address food insecurities, at the same time, to decrease obesity and diet-related diseases, and 2) increase employment opportunities for youth who are unlikely to find work and create micro businesses for families that struggle with consistent or no employment. Strategies for the Youth Innovation Project in 2016-2017 will work in targeted Title I schools to: 1) provide a Social Worker to connect existing community services to the students and their families who need the most assistance, 2) maintain a basic needs pantry for children/youth to increase success rate in school, and 3) create the GO 4 STEM Program. The long range goal is to stabilize low-income students to increase graduation rates for higher paying jobs, particularly in STEM careers.
