A new app aims to reduce youth suicides. University of Nebraska Public Policy Center Senior Research Specialist Quinn Lewandowski, who serves as the current president of the Nebraska State Suicide Prevention Coalition, helped developed the app with partners Bryan Health, The Kim Foundation -...
Video voiced by Matthew St. Cin. In 2021, the Public Policy Center (PPC) impacted thousands of people spanning the entirety of Nebraska and beyond. PPC's efforts were aimed at improving community support and outreach through disaster recovery, behavioral health services, public health programs...
Dr. Mario Scalora, director of the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center and professor of Psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, recently spoke with CBS news about the current landscape of threat assessment and violence prevention with respect to members of congress and other public...
“Nebraska needs you. “We need your smile, creativity, ideas, kindness, care and spark. There is only one you, and we need you here.” As of late September, some 5 million people were exposed to that and similar positive, empowering messages through a campaign via digital, print, TV and radio. More...
For this month's partner highlight, we spoke to Barbara Bartle, who has served as president of the Lincoln Community Foundation (LCF) for the past twelve years and will be retiring later this month. LCF has been a longtime partner of the PPC, collaborating on Prosper Lincoln and Lincoln Vital Signs...
When Michelle Fries thinks about her Panhandle communities’ needs during the pandemic, she remembers people asking for housing or utility assistance, for food and for emotional support. “It’s been humbling to me because you don’t realize what your neighbors might be going through,” said Fries, the...
A project that aimed to connect residents in 17 west-central Nebraska counties to crisis counseling services and other resources found that being out at public events that drew crowds sometimes missed those most in need. “A lot of times, if someone is in need, depressed or fearing covid, they’re...
LINCOLN, Neb. – A new Nebraska Public Media television program produced in partnership with the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center will focus on support during stressful times. “Nebraska Strong: Well-Being During Trying Times,” will air at 7:30 p.m. CT, Thursday, Dec. 30 and 12:30 p.m. CT...
One day it was Loup City’s Polish Days or Grand Island’s Husker Harvest Days. Other days it was a college campus visit on game day, a preschool reading session or one of Two Rivers Public Health’s vaccination clinics. In all of those places across 22 counties in south-central Nebraska, the Nebraska...
Verdigre librarian Katie Hollmann believes few people in the state’s 22 northern-tier counties served by the Region 4 Nebraska Strong Project team do not know who the team outreach workers are and what services they provide. When the project formed after widespread flooding in 2019, Britt Foster...
When senior facilities closed to visitors in 2020 to protect residents from COVID-19, the isolation of residents weighed heavily on outreach workers for the Nebraska Strong Recovery Project. Charged with providing crisis counseling and other resources to help people cope with the pandemic, the...
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? I am from West Omaha and grew up in Elkhorn. I graduated from Elkhorn High. My family are Afghans, and my mother fled the Soviet invasion in 1981 and came to Omaha. What are you studying at the university and what are your future plans? I’m a double major...
When Nebraska Strong Recovery Project outreach workers got the chance to transition from virtual contacts to in-person contacts, the struggles people were dealing with from COVID-19 became more obvious. People were having trouble sleeping, businesses were wondering if customers would ever come back...
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? I’m currently a junior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln majoring in political science and mathematics with a minor in leadership and communications through the ALEC Department! On campus, I’m involved in NHRI Leadership Mentoring and the University...
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? I am currently a junior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I am a member of Pi Beta Phi on campus and am the Social and Recruitment Chair for the club MEDLIFE. In my free time, I love reading, going to coffee shops with friends, relaxing and watching...
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? I am a second year student at UNL who is originally from Lake Winnebago, Missouri. On campus, I am involved in the Business Honors Academy, Clifton Builders program, and as a Residential Assistant for the honors dorm. Off campus, I am a CrossFit coach and...
Dr. Jolene Palmer, School Safety Director for the Nebraska Department of Education, has been a longtime partner of the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center. Over the past year, Dr. Palmer and her team, along with Dr. Mario Scalora and Dr. Denise Bulling, have been leading efforts to provide...
Meet one of our threat assessment students at the PPC! We spoke with Lillian (Lily) Bopp whose research interests center on the assessment and management of individuals with sexual and stalking offenses, and the effectiveness of different intervention strategies used to manage the individuals...
Meet one of our threat assessment students at the PPC! We spoke with Rasmus Grydehoej whose research interests are currently centered around the identification, assessment, and management of targeted violence, with a particular interest in furthering the empirical understanding of the warning...
Staff Snapshot: Meet some of the researchers and staff members who make PPC such a great place to work! For today's staff snapshot, we spoke with Research Manager, Jennifer Farley, whose work focuses on education, and includes research and evaluation projects specific to school culture and climate...