CEDARS Manager Receives Award

Kristi Chambers walked into what she thought was a typical meeting on the 29th of April and met something quite unexpected: she had been chosen to be the co-recipient of this year's Carmel Sheppard Award.

"It was a total surprise," Chambers said. "I didn't know they had nominated me."

The award from Lincoln Public Schools speaks for Chamber' dedication to the Community Learning Center (CLC) program during the past 3 years, specifically her work with the Clinton and Hartley elementary schools.

Chambers' achievements include helping create and serve as the PIRC (Parent Information Resource Center) Facilitator at both Clinton and Hartley elementary schools, as well as being an integral part of founding the Clinton-Hartley Coalition, a group created to unify the schools and to better serve the students and community.

Chambers, who has her Masters degree in teaching and came to CEDARS three years ago from Washington State, has made many connections and is a source of stability and consistency for students, family and faculty in the Clinton and Hartley schools and surrounding community.

"We want CLC to be a constant place for (local children) to land," Chambers said. "It offers them something different from school, and it'll be there during transitions."

Chambers was also an integral part of founding the Clinton-Hartley Coalition, a group created to unify the schools and to better serve the students and community. In her nomination for the Carmel Sheppard Award, Principals Jo Thesis at Clinton Elementary and Jeff Vercellino at Hartley Elementary said Chambers' work was valuable to Lincoln and should be recognized.

"Kristi works with both schools to create strong academic connections between the CLC program and the school day," they wrote. "She works closely with teachers, administration and students to align club offerings with school improvement goals and areas of need."

Amara Vakoc, Therapist and CLC Behavioral Consultant for CEDARS, has worked closely with Chambers and said the community outreach is much more unified, organized and direct since Chambers' leadership.

"It feels much more like a community and team approach, rather than various individual programs and agencies doing their own independent thing," Vakoc said. "She reaches out to a wide variety of community players and resources to initiate communication and collaboration."

Chambers said the CLC programs have 3 goals: to increase student learning, to engage families and to engage the neighborhood. Since she's started working with the programs, her focus has been on involving the neighborhood.

"When I got here, CLC was doing well with students and families," Chambers said. "I saw the need to get active with surrounding neighborhoods and the groups within them."

Chambers has seen attendance at the after-school programs increase, and said that although these programs are one layer of a bigger outreach, they are one of the most important in that kids have somewhere positive and constructive to go after school.

"By 1st or 2nd grade even, students are heading home to be alone after school," Chambers said. "We offer a free place for them to seek out an interest in a club, such as photography, and it's a safe and positive place for them to spend the afternoon."

Chambers said her future plans for CLC focus on continuing to strengthen the programs she's helped put in place. She's seeing positive results of this in the recently founded Hartley's Family Literacy Program, which provides English, computer and parenting classes.

"It was just founded in February," Chambers said of a recent visit to the program serving 20 Spanish-speaking parents. "But I sat and had a conversation with a mom that I couldn't have had before, and she had just been there the three months since it started."



See Kristi Chambers' award announcement in the Lincoln Journal-Star.

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