City Impact was selected to receive a $5,000 Strive to Thrive Lincoln grant in Fall 2019. This nonprofit focuses their efforts on empowering under-resourced communities through holistic youth, family and neighborhood development. City Impact serves low-income, ethnically diverse urban kids and families in the core, central neighborhoods of Lincoln. City Impact is a strengths-based organization focused on teaching, learning and cultivating personal responsibility, servant leadership, and wise stewardship of resources through relationships.
They will use their grant on The Impact Reading Center (IRC), which is a relationally-based, volunteer-driven, intensive reading program that utilizes research-based curriculum and teaching techniques to get students at or above grade level in reading. It is designed to empower all children, especially those most vulnerable, with the life-changing benefits of literacy. Over 500 students at Clinton, Elliott and McPhee Elementary Schools are paired with 200+ volunteers who sit weekly with students as they discover the joy of reading. By equipping low to moderate-income children with the power of literacy, City Impact can be a part of positively transforming Lincoln's urban neighborhoods. During the 2019-20 school year, the IRC will operate in three schools with a future goal of managing in all 18 of the community's Title 1 elementary schools and ensuring that every student in our city is reading at or above grade level in reading by fourth grade.