1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Brenda Weyers- Nebraska Children & Families Foundation: May 26th, 2026, 11:00am

Episode Date: May 26, 2026

Brenda Weyers joins the show as Give To Lincoln Day approaches.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

D.P. Coming at you live from the heart of Lincoln America, a 937 the ticket and the ticket FM.com. Sponsored by the downtown Lincoln Foundation. Here is your host, Derek Pearson. It is 1102 in the city. Lincoln, Nebraska. You're gorgeous. Is gorgeous, I tell you. Oh, the weather is spectacular and thank you for doing it. Seventy-four degrees is what they say. Feels a little bit better than that. You can be a part of what we're doing, and you want to. Sartor-Hamond text line is 402, 464, 56685. If you want to be a part of the show, text in,

and we will include you in the program. You can follow on all the live video streams, Facebook, YouTube, X, Allo Channel 961 as well. As we start each day, question number one. A. Bach, kind, sir. How the heck are you? Hey, not doing too bad today.

I'm losing my voice a little bit so that I don't know if that's going to be great for radio. But, yeah, hanging out with Patty and Selma from the Simpsons' All weekend. So apparently that's caught up to me. It's the thing. I understand. I had the voice thing last week, trying to get through baseball and softball. But we manage. And then we've become professionals.

We figure out how to treat it. special guest today. It is, Thursday is a big day for the city. It's a big day for the hearts of the city and the people in this city. I have to repeat it that good cities make good people and good people make good cities. And on Give to Lincoln Day, we get to see the best of ourselves in several different forms and fashions. We have the honor of being partnered with some fine folks. And in this space, we wanted to bring it. And our guest today, Brita Wires from Nebraska Children and Families and the Foundation itself.

Brenda, as I ask, how are you? I'm great. Thank you so much to the ticket for inviting me. Well, this is, it's always special. I talked to Dr. Chatters last week just to go over and he and I kind of expanded on some things. He and I have some different conversations. But to ask you, what drew you to this foundation and this mission? Yes.

Well, I've worked in marketing a long time. And I learned a long time ago that I didn't want to use my marketing skills to help sell widgets at, you know, like a manufacturing. place or things like that. And when I saw the mission of Nebraska Children and Families Foundation, it was like, all right, this really speaks to me. And realizing that there are so many families in Nebraska that are struggling and kids that don't have a family support that I was lucky to grow up with, it was like, I want to use my marketing skills to help this organization. To pull back the curtain and often cities are often surprised at the actual state of the union, right?

That you like to believe, I mean, you can partition yourself off to the good parts of town and the better stories. But the reality is, as you said, there are quite a few families that are in need. What are, if we, if we start to build a pyramid of needs, how would you, how would you approach that? Yes. Well, right now in our state, poverty is the biggest issue. And that manifests itself with lack of stable housing.

lack of affordable child care, sometimes food insecurity, and all of those things affect a family deeply, but it also affects our city's bottom line. And if you're an employer or just someone you know at your work, if they're struggling, they're probably not the best employee that they can be, and they're probably not able to be the best parent that they want to be. So poverty is probably the biggest bottom line in Nebraska is what we see families struggling with right now. And as you know, prices are going up on a lot of goods and that obviously hits families really hard.

Listen, goodhearted people have this real dilemma in wanting to live in a positive space. But often to do that, you have to say that pause, I need to check on my neighbor. because as you said, poverty affects, it affects family, but it also affects neighborhood and community and in all directions. In every direction, that the small thing, we cannot expect young people to be healthy, happy. We can't expect families to prosper if we don't check in. And I think a big part of what you do is giving people the ability with some pride to just say, hey, listen, we're in a situation where we need help.

Right. I mean, all of our help is meant to be temporary to help a family find stability. And then once they find some stability, they can keep their family together because what we're trying to prevent is kids ending up in the child welfare, excuse me, welfare system, if at all possible. But when a family is stable, like I said, they can be a better employee, be more productive in the community and be the parent. want to be. Does that lead to to a safer society, a happier society when basic needs are met? And it just seems too, too logical for people to not get it. Right. Oh, that's, yes, exactly. If those families find stability, it's, it's definitely a safer community. And I think about the little kid who's going to kindergarten and maybe didn't get a great breakfast or wasn't able to afford to bring a lunch or

something like that. It's like, or just something's going on in their family. How do we expect them to sit there and pay attention to class and be the best student? So then it just starts a kind of a cycle of them falling behind a little bit. And then unfortunately, maybe they drop out or don't see education as for them. And it's just a snowball effect. Like to think that, you know, they may not eat at home. They may not have slept well at home. The rest part of it, the connection part where the parents may have to work two or three jobs and not be home and you're left in the space. And for the parents, that disconnect, that disconnect that happens isn't on purpose. It's necessary because they're not getting the help. And it just cycles and

cycles and cycles. So I'll ask about the history of this foundation and its mission. So folks will know where it comes from and how it started. Yes. We were formed in 19. So almost 30 years. And we were started with federal dollars that were called family preservation dollars. And the immediate goal for that was, can we try to keep families together if at all possible? Because at that time, Nebraska had one of the highest rates of removal of kids from homes. And in Nebraska, the vast majority of those removals are because of neglect, not necessarily physical abuse. and neglect is often tied to poverty.

Isn't that just like, I want to put a pin there because that's not what Nebraska or Lincoln wants to say about itself, but it quite frankly is the thing it needs to say about itself. And why this day is so important and why the foundation is so important. And then it's not just that. You're getting into services. You're getting into actually figuring out what families need. So what is the process in the building for how that's handled?

Figuring out what family and children need. Well, I'm sure you know living in Nebraska that greater Nebraska loves to be told what to do by Lincoln and Omaha. They just, they love it. Not having it. Right. So we have 19 different community collaborative. across the state that work in the community and they help us understand what families need, what they're seeing in their community, and maybe what even the solutions could be.

It's like if we cut this red tape on this particular program or something like that, it would help way more families. And so listening to the people who maybe have had children removed or actually the children who were in foster care, and it's like, what, if something had been in place before you ended up in care, would that have made a difference for you? Would you be further along and things like that? So listening to the people who've actually experienced these issues is hugely important to us. If I asked if you could define the list of services, the things that are done from your foundation,

and how it sets up. You bet. Well, like I said, we support these 19 community collaboratives across the state so that they are the booths on the ground in the communities helping families find stability. But we also have a program called Rooted in Relationships that helps,

well, what we had seen was that all these child care providers were saying, I'm having to suspend or kick out two-year-olds from my program because of behaviors and our rooted in relationships comes in with these providers and helps solve some of those issues. We also have a program called Connected Youth Initiative that works with these young people who've been in foster care. And in a lot of instances, when they get 19, they're just done. There's not a lot of support for them. They don't have family support. And I don't know about you, but when I was 19, I was an idiot. And I could not

have taken care of myself. But we're expecting these kids to just with no family support be on their own. Car carrying member of the 19-year-old idiot. club. And we're expecting them to be productive and do all those things. So we have some program to try to wrap around them, help them get to education goals, to their career goals, to financial goals and things like that. So we help support them that way. One of my favorite programs we do is called Camp Ketchup. And it is for young people that have been in foster care. And if you probably know this, but a lot of kids get separated from their siblings. when they go into care. So for Camp Ketchup, they come in for a weekend of fun, ziplining,

kayaking, but mostly they get to just hang with their brothers and sisters because that doesn't sometimes that's the only time they see their brothers and sisters all year is at Camp Ketchup. So they get to be a kid. They get to have fun. That is stunning to me. I guess I think of Lincoln and the state of Nebraska as producers of abundance. right it just and and and i can be corrected on that but that was my the way i thought of nebraska good-hearted folks hardworking folks living in abundance because you make your own you produce enough for yourself and others so it's i would hope and think that those things are

are covered and it it's a bit stunning to me but this is why i give the lincoln day is so important because it gives you a chance and it gives the city a chance to pause of all the business and pause from all the things that are normally there to say, even in your struggle, there's enough to get. And it doesn't take much. So you don't have a minimum donation that you have in play that affects what you do on a daily basis. What do you tell folks when it comes to donations? Any amount helps. Nebraska children, we work with all different kinds of funding sources. We do get some national grants, some state grants, but individual private donors are a huge part of our mission too. Well, and I think it helps people to feel like they have some skin

in the game. Yes, we will take whatever you want to give because I think that shows that Nebraska wants to wrap around some of these families and these young people and say, we want to help you because it is selfish too. It's like we're helping them, but it really is helping our community. When everybody is doing well, then we're all doing well. Any Nebraska family,

any Nebraska child is every Nebraska family and Nebraska child. And I've just as a coach and a mentor and I've been in these buildings all over the country, and it's fascinating to me that we can forget. And sometimes that's the mission, but I would say, I would ask this,

is what you do more preventive or proactive? Are you reactive or proactive? We are, well, for a long time, our mission has been prevention. Okay. Trying to keep families together, trying to keep kids out of the child welfare system. But by the definition of prevention, that means that something doesn't happen or it's the absence of something. Right. And so several years ago, we're like, we have to move beyond that to,

being more proactive to not just an absence of something, but let's add something so that they are thriving. And so like I was talking with these young people, help them meet their career goals, not just keep them out of child welfare or whatever, but like here's this financial literacy program that's going to help you save with match dollars as well as teaching you maybe financial things that your parents for most of us teach. And just like if I'm 19 and I've been in the welfare system, college probably doesn't seem very realistic to me. But through some of our programs now, we're helping them meet those dreams that they have

for career and education. And that requires some organization, the word that Dr. Chatter's used as a toolkit, that you have to put things together to make things simple, right? I can tell you the dream, but if I can put something in front of you, that not only explains it, but gives a path to it, help folks understand the toolkit that would be in play when it comes to Nebraska children. Right. One of the things that we've heavily invested in is coaches, which I know you understand, but throughout the state. So if I'm in alliance, I can get hooked up to a coach that is going to help me, meet my family's immediate needs, but also put a plan together for my future.

Yes, let's maybe help you get with some rental assistance just for short term so that your family isn't homeless because if you're struggling with that, I don't even know how you would begin to focus on your future. Let's meet a few of those immediate needs and then let's talk about, all right, what is the job skills training that you need to get a better job? to make more money, to be more stable for your family, not have your children removed, if at all possible, and just have a little hope that you can turn things around for your family. How important is it to kind of identify to people what normal is and what normal could be, right?

That they've lived, and there are people who are listening, who are so used to the grind and so used to the struggle and so used to being in a situation that's not ideal that they have normalized it. It's just how they get through. But to those people and their friends, your best friend that is struggling and grinding, a lot of what you do is based on the referral, somebody identifying that a problem exists, a blind spot exists, and you're there to add to and fix it. Absolutely. And for the community work that I was talking about, it is voluntary for a family, whereas if a family gets referred to CPS, that's out of your hands now. That's the government coming in and saying, you need to do this.

We want to get to these families before that happens and where it's voluntary. It's like, we want to work with you to help you meet your goals, keep your family together and be the most productive, brass can be. It becomes the thing that in order to ask for help, those in the struggle and in a grind also need a thing that we don't often think about, which is to feel safe, which is to feel safe in asking for help, to feel safe in receiving help, whatever that is. So what is the, what is the philosophy on that? Yes. Well, you hit the nail on the head. a lot of people don't want to ask for help, especially with their family, because it's like, if I say that I'm struggling, are my kids going to be removed?

So we just keep talking over and over that this is a voluntary program. And actually, I wanted to bring up one point about that is that in Nebraska, we have a lot of calls that go to CPS about a family. and a very small majority of them, usually under 20%, actually get substantiated. So that means what's going on if that family doesn't get leveled up to something where the government would take action.

But we know that family is obviously struggling with something because someone referred them, or called CPS about them. What about that huge number? Those are the people who could use a little stability in their life and could be, you know, we want them to know that we are out there. Those collaborators are out there. Nebraska children is out there to help them find that stability. Bach and I often talk about it that the greatest thing, motivator and mover of things is evidence.

It's actual evidence. And your opinion of a thing versus somebody giving a good referral, but somebody says, saying to Nebraska children and families actually help. They actually have a plan. They actually have resources in play. How important is it that this is fact-based? This is evident-based rather than just, you know, word or mouth. It's huge. We can tell all kinds of stories about people affected, but we've also seen numbers, you know, the rate of removal in Nebraska has gone down the last few years. And we are absolutely sure that it's because of a lot of this prevention work. And it's not, it's not just Nebraska children. I mean, we'll never try to own all

of it. But even at the state, the state, they recognize the importance of prevention is like, in 2024, this legislature did a study that said it costs about $32,000 a year to have a kid in the child welfare system. There's lots of expenses that go into that. We know it is much less expensive to help those families up front before they get to that crisis. We know that it's a, it can be a cost savings too. Plus the trauma of removal affects a lot of kids. Even a city that removes,

that is proactive and removing trauma. Like, it's just such a utopia, and it shouldn't be. It should be the norm. It should be the norm that you want you and your neighbor to be, to have enough and to be safe. to have a place to turn to, somebody to turn to. That's why neighborhood, that neighborhoods matter.

That's why when they say be a good neighbor, that's what this means. And you're the North Star and you're showing this thing. And that's why, again, give the Lincoln Day is so important. Because you could be angels on earth and you couldn't do it alone. So it's required. You have partners that help out. Give a shout out to some of the partnerships that help this thing happen. Well, right here in Lincoln, Lancaster County, there's a collaborative called Lancaster Connected.

And they're within the United Way here in Lincoln, Lancaster County. And they are on the ground. They have like a hundred different members here in Lincoln, different organizations that all kind of touch these, some of the same families. And by working together, they're working to solve some of these problems. Like the school counselors might be talking to some of these same families, sometimes maybe law. enforcement knows these families. Sometimes these families are coming to the emergency room for care because they don't have a primary doctor. So they're kind of touching some of these families. And by having a coordinated effort supported by Nebraska Children and Families Foundation,

trying to move that needle to get that family what they need to be healthy and safe. Let the folks know. We'll close with two things. One, let the folks know how to get. how to give and what ways to give. Yes, absolutely. You can find us on the give to lincoln.org platform, Nebraska Children and Families Foundation. There are a couple of other organizations that have Nebraska children in their title,

and they are wonderful, worthy organizations, but we're the one that has the watering can in our logo. Yeah, again, the depth of this thing, I'm a bit of an emotional wreck when it comes to, children and families in the struggle. So it's always a wonderful reminder, a necessary reminder for folks. Give what you can give, do what you can do. And if you cannot give, you may be the one that is in need. And don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to reach out. I'm pretty sure Brenda Brenda, don't meet you at the door. Absolutely. Brinna, let them know how to look at how to find

Nebraska children and families for giving the Lincoln Day. Yes. You can just just find us on the website, give to lincoln.org, backslash, non-profits, then Nebraska, children, and families. Brenda, thank you for what you do. Thank you for what this day allows. And what a wonderful reminder of the best idea of Lincoln. Thank you so much. Thanks to the ticket for having us on. This is what we're here for.

And you are appreciated. We truly appreciate it. We'll go to break. more one-on-one here coming up. Download our app by searching 93.7 the ticket in your app store. You're listening to one-on-one with DP on 93-7 the ticket

and the ticketfm.com.