On October 6, 2023, our speaker at Lincoln South Rotary Club was Macala Carter of the Center for People.
The Center for People provides the basic needs and educational opportunities necessary for low-income individuals and families to improve their lives.
Mission: We support low-income families by providing services and programs to meet basic needs and achieve economic independence.
The organization name was change to Center for People. The tag line shows
Center for People
in need, in growth, in prosperity
The change in the name helps display dignity and empathy for their clients.Micala explained that when people are tagged "in need" they often don't see a way out. The Center for People provides them with immediate needs but also tools to grow and to prosper.
For taking care of needs, The Center provides basic needs including diapers and food.
The center currently serves 2,000 families per week which calculates to 10,000 individuals per week. Pre-pandemic they would serve 2,000 per month. But the needs have increased dramatically over the past few years. They do not serve hot meals - instead the people come in and it is a grocery store experience. They can get produce and meat - everything they need to make meals at home.
We talked about the changing demographic of the people served.
There are new Americans. The Center understands that there are different foods available here than in their home countries. They are setting up a kitchen with the ability to hold classes to teach people how to make nutritious meals with the food available here.
The elderly population is growing. There are a number of people in retirement that thought they would be comfortable with their retirement and social security. But, with inflation and changing needs, that client base is increasing.
For growth, The Center provides a number of educational opportunities.
They have free classes in ELL. They don't just teach English but they include learning terms that are important to succeed such as terminology to be successful in the workforce.They offer virtual reality training for skilled trades.
Coming soon is a partnership with Southeast Community College - they will be a branch of SCC. Their first course will be CDL. The course will be totally conducted at The Center - from beginning to end.
In the area of prosperity, Micala was sharing that they are working with "Employers of Choice". The employer pays a fee for The Center to provide trained employees. The selected employers must have benefits as well as a career path - a means for the employees to move up in their job.
Micala shared her story - why she knows what people need.
When she was 19, she found herself pregnant and not married. Her family did not know how to handle her situation and decided that they would not support her financially or in any way. She was on government assistance for housing and also food stamps. She wanted more for her child than for herself. She was able to secure a job in banking which provided her child with some security. That also provided her with a career - an opportunity to move upward and do the things that she wanted for her and her child.
BIO
Inspired by its mission, Executive Director Macala Carter accepted leadership of Center for People in July 2022 after an accomplished 21-year career in banking. Since then, Macala has worked tirelessly to preserve the organization’s critical needs programming and honor its history while also ushering in a new era of reflection and renewal that has garnered unprecedented level of public sector support for its growing workforce development programming. Having strong ties to the nonprofit community, Macala previously served on the board of the Nebraska Bankers Association and currently serves on the boards of Leadership Lincoln, Family Services of Lincoln, and the Lancaster Foundation for Adults with Disabilities.