Nessie Foundation Inc

Our overall goal is to connect the underserved children and their families to individuals and organizations that can be a positive influence on their lives today and into the future. Through our work, we hope to engage the entire community we serve so that even if people do not actively participate they are aware of our work and mission.

Our number one strategy is to not reinvent the wheel. We make great efforts in collaborating with others that have more experience and resources to offer services that are much greater than what we alone could offer. We are careful in partner selection and we stay focused to ensure the partnership is beneficial to who we serve. We believe in staying focused on generating the best influences on the kids and families we serve.

We have demonstrated our ability to create and manage our summer bus program and outdoor activity club. We have created an internal framework that has continued to provide these programs even as bus drivers and program coordinators have come and gone. Our fundraising platform is in place to fund these programs now and into the future. We have grown slowly and do not plan to expand or create programs past what we are safely able to fund or manage.

Our greatest asset has been our ability to work with other non-profits and government agencies to bring resources and programs to the community that we alone could not provide or most likely would not be able to provide as well.

We have made a lot of progress since our beginning with 7 kids riding a school bus for the 2006 summer. Today our summer program runs two routes and some days sends over 50 kids to summer camp. We have expanded to four area Boys and Girls Clubs from just one in the beginning. Our hope is to add one after-school day each week to the bus program during the school year. We have experimented with this last year but have not worked out all the kinks to offer it full time.

Our outdoor activity club has grown from serving 15 kids in the summer of 2011 to over 30 kids in the fall 2014. We have altered our model from two coordinators to one coordinator and three assistants who work just during the actual program. We have created several behavioral incentive programs for the kids and have had success in teaching the kids life lessons during their outdoor activities.

Our long range desire is to have a community center near the recreation field so we can offer more indoor and year around programs. We have new and current partners that could use the space to intensity their reach into the community and bring greater resources to benefit the community.