Nebraska Education and Training Voucher Program (ETV)

07/01/2024

Central Plains Center for Services, which facilitates the Nebraska ETV program, now has a refreshed website! While the look of our website is updated, our programs and approach to high-quality services remain the same. Thank you to Firespring for all of their help.

Please go check it out at

06/24/2024

We are excited to share this blog post created by the Nebraska Children and Families Foundation about one of the wonderful youth served by Central Plains. It highlights the excellent and supportive work of one of our longstanding, outstanding coaches, Tanya! Please read this transformative story and learn more about how coaching services can nurture hope in young people!

Nyaruot’s early life was marked by frequent moves and instability, but after finding stability and support in a foster family, she faced new challenges in college. With the help of her coach,…

05/30/2023

Holistic Time Management “Your likes, dislikes, needs and desires must be the foundation of your time-management system. You come first, the system follows, not vice versa.” Julie Morgenstern, Time Management from the Inside Out What is Holistic Time Management? It is a form of time management.....

05/22/2023

Photo by Isabella and Zsa Fischer on Unsplash Learn to Shut out the Noise of Life The Internet has brought a lot into our world: convenience, social networking, the ability to work from just about anywhere. But with it comes an extraordinary ...

05/19/2023

3 Powerful Ways to Calm Your Mind and Manage Your Stress Oftentimes stress will manifest when we carry over yesterday’s concerns into our present day concerns. An accumulation will almost always end up in a high stress level. Therefore, we must be able to “dump” all of our concerns from the pr...

05/18/2023

Making the Most of your Online Learning Photo by Emmanuel Ikwuegbu on Unsplash Online learning for college students is very popular and sometimes a requirement for students trying to work and go to school and fit it all in. However, there are some differences between on campus learning and on...

08/04/2022

All ETV and Current PALS youth are eligible to attend a free Love & Logic Virtual Training-5 Sessions-Contact your Pals coach or your ETV coach for more information or contact [email protected] to register.

08/04/2022

Parenting with Purpose

Article from June/July 2022 ETV Newsletter

Photo by Elisabeth Wales on Unsplash

In my former job, I was a parent educator in the Sixpence Program. The Sixpence program works with expectant parents and parents of children from birth to 3 on parenting issues and sharing activities to do with young children to boost social emotional skills, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, cognitive skills, math skills and creative art skills. One of my favorite activities that I did with expectant parents was an activity to plan your parenting role with purpose. We often either did a tie blanket or a baby book while doing this activity but it often really got new expectant parents to really focus on what they wanted for their child and what they needed to do to teach their child the skills they wanted for their child. I would have the parent say something they were hoping for their child. Then I would go through a list of questions helping them to narrow down what is important to them as a parent, what they want their child to learn, and how they can teach their child those specific skills. This isn’t a difficult activity, it is just one that we don’t do often as we don’t take time to really reflect on what we want for our children and what we need to do as parents to teach them the skills, values, and principles that we want them to have. We often think that children will just learn by watching us or by just being alive. While they do learn from observation, they also need to be taught the skills, values, and principles that you want them to have. For instance, is sharing and getting along with others important to you? How will you teach that to your child? Do you plan to parent the way you were parented? If not, what would you want to change and why? What values are important to you as a family and what do you want to instill in your child? What are the hobbies that you possess that you want to share with your child? Will you be okay if they don’t enjoy the same hobbies? How will you encourage their own individual strengths? How do you envision disciplining your child? What message will you be sending if you discipline in that manner? Do you plan to instill a love of reading and encourage learning? Make a list of all of the things that are important to you and you want your child to exhibit, and then make a list of what you need to teach your child or have them experience to be able to learn these specific things. Once you know or prioritize what is important to you, you will parent your child with more purpose and more deliberation, and not have as much tendency to fall back on how you were parented or just get caught up in the daily struggles of life. You may have to revisit this list from time to time and update as your child grows and becomes their own unique individual. It’s all about moving towards what you focus on and when you parent your child with purpose you are far more likely to actually guide your child to the life that you are imagining for them.

08/04/2022

Ideas/Apps to Help with Budgeting

Photo by Katt Yukawa on Unsplash

With the rise in inflation, all of us can use ways to cut back on expenses or to get money back on items that we already have to buy. It can be very difficult making the paycheck stretch these days! So here are 5 ideas for either reducing spending or getting money back on items you already buy.
Do menu planning around items that are already on sale and plan your whole week or two weeks in advance and then purchase only what you need to make those meals/snacks for the week.
Learn how to store produce to make it last longer. Here is a link to help with storing produce to make it last.
Make sure you don’t do your grocery shopping without a list or when you are hungry. Shoppers tend to over purchase if they are hungry or don’t have a plan about what they actually need.
Reduce electricity bills by unplugging unused devices or appliances, using a fan or ceiling fan instead of air conditioning, use appliances that add heat to the home at night such as ovens and dishwashers, use efficient light bulbs, wash more clothes in cold water rather than hot, shut off lights or having them on automatic programs. See this article for more helpful tips https://www.oppd.com/residential/energy-efficiency/energy-efficiency-tips/. Here is a website to search for assistance in paying your utility bills. https://www.needhelppayingbills.com/html/nebraska_utility_and_heating_a.html
Apps that are helpful in saving money or getting money back on items that you already must purchase such as groceries and gas. Fetch Rewards is a program that you can snap pictures of all of your receipts for items that you purchased and you will get 25 points for every receipt and some items such as grocery items get many more points. You can cash out for a $3.00 gift card with 3000 points and sometimes you can get 3000 point just for buying a pop. Last week, if you purchased a fountain pop or bottled Pepsi product at Casey’s you received 1500 points, two pops and you received 3000. Other times you can get a bunch of points just for spending a certain amount such as spending $40 at Safeway grocery store. These change all the time and you have to look at the app to find out what is being featured, but you can get gift cards to many locations. You can find it here https://www.fetchrewards.com/. Another app that I recently started using is https://www.upside.com/. It is an app that you get money back for purchases at gas stations, grocery stores, and restaurants. Since I live in the boonies, the options are limited, but for those of you that live in more populated areas, you probably have more options. Even in Broken Bow, NE, I always get two options for cashback on gas. You have to claim the offer you want and purchase your gas with a debit card or credit card within 4 hours of claiming it. You then snap a picture of your receipt and upload it. Within two days, you will have a cash back amount. You can cash it out by either linking it to your bank account, Paypal account, or by getting gift cards in that amount. Another app that you can use to specific stores to get cash back is https://www.rakuten.com/. It helps you find coupons or cash back offers for specific items that you need or you can look up specific stores. The downfall is that you do need to have a credit card to use this app but it is a way to earn some cash back on items that you were already going to purchase anyway. I am sure there are many more apps out there, but these are the ones that I know about and use. If you know of any that are great at helping you save or earn money back, make sure and share with your ETV worker to have your name put in drawing to win a $50 gift card just for reading this newsletter, what a great way to earn a little extra money!

08/04/2022

Food = Mood

articles from June/July 2022 ETV Newsletter

If you have been feeling a little blue, it might be your food choices. Your brain is a highly metabolic organ and depends on food for energy. Your brain never truly shuts off, so it needs lots of energy to work efficiently, and eating the right kinds of food can truly make a difference in how you feel physically and mentally. So, what types of foods are good for you and can help you feel your best?

Fatty Fish or foods high in Omega 3’s such as salmon and albacore tuna may actually lower your risk of depression. They contain docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) which help with brain development and cell signaling. Every adult should aim to get a combined DHA and EPA of 500 mg per day.
Dark Chocolate is packed with health boosting flavonoids and studies have shown that it helps with blood flow, reduces inflammation, and can boost and help regulate mood. Since it is a high caloric food and does contain added sugar to help take away the bitterness of the cacao bean in dark chocolate, it is suggested that you only eat 1 to 2 small squares per day.
Fermented Foods such as kimchi, yogurt, kefir or sauerkraut can help produce the healthy bacteria in your gut that helps produce 90% of your body’s serotonin. Serotonin helps with managing stress, regulating emotion, regulating appetite and sexual drive. If you totally hate these types of food, a probiotic can help produce the healthy bacteria in your gut which leads to more serotonin.
Bananas are a good fruit choice as they contain a lot of fiber as well as natural sugars. The fiber will slow the absorption of the sugar down in the body which helps to not have a blood sugar spike quickly and then plummet leaving you without any energy. So, when choosing good fruit choices, look for fruits that also have fiber in them.
Oats are high in fiber and in iron, which makes them a good health choice. The fiber will slow down your absorption of sugar and carbs and the iron will help you not to have an iron deficiency which can cause extreme tiredness, lack of energy, and mood disorders.
Berries are great for you because they contain a lot of antioxidants and phenolic compounds. They also contain anthocyanins which give them their color and anthocyanins are known to lower the risk of depression by 39%. Again, they do contain sugar, so pair them with the oats or some food with lots of fiber and it will slow the absorption of the sugar down so that your body can get a continuous supply of energy instead of a load of energy that dwindles quickly. Frozen berries are just as good for you and are sometimes less expensive and easier to buy at all times of the year.
Nuts, Seeds & Legumes are important to the diet because nuts and seeds contain high levels of tryptophan and amino acids which help produce serotonin. A moderate nut intake can lower the risk of depression by around 23%. Nuts are usually high in calories, so consume moderately. Legumes such as beans and lentils provide a lot of B vitamins which also help produce serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine, and GABA which also help to regulate mood, sleep, and energy in the body.
Coffee is not only the drink that gets you started in the morning, it also contains flavonoids and polyphenols in the coffee beans that make your morning cup of coffee. These are good for the body and good for mood regulation. Coffee is found to release dopamine and norepinephrine in the body which as we discussed earlier helps with mood regulation, sleep, and handling anxiety and stress.
Dark Green Leafy Vegetables can help with reducing anxiety and help with a reduction in cognitive decline in aging.

If you would like more information about how nutrition matters to your overall health and well-being, here is a link to an online class:

https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/an-introduction-to-nutrition/s05-00-nutrition-and-you.html

If you would like to watch a couple of videos instead here are some good ones to look at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhzn3IC7cc0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbLFsQubdtw

If you would like to have the opportunity to take a class free every Wednesday, Hyvee has a free nutrition class every Wednesday and has other programs as well, you can find out more at

https://www.hy-vee.com/recipes-ideas/advice-how-tos/wellness/hy-vee-health-services

08/04/2022

June/July 2022 ETV Newsletter

08/04/2022

Education Quest is a great resource for helping to fill out your FAFSA and for locating scholarships. Check out this post!

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