The D2 Center will be closed Monday, December 24, and Tuesday, December 25, reopening on Wednesday, December 26. We will also be closed Monday, December 31, and Tuesday, January 1, 2013, reopening Wednesday, January 2. Have a safe and happy holiday season!
Last week, D2 Center co-director Greg Emmel, Barb Farho from the City of Omaha Mayor's Office, and I flew to Denver to attend this year's Dropout Re-engagement Network meeting along with representatives from seventeen other cities across the U.S. The conference was...
A new D2 Center elective credit math class starts Monday, December 17, 2012. The class, taught by Nebraska certified math teachers Ms. Donna Trout and Ms. Jackie Thomas, allows for ongoing participation every week on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. Online global...
Omaha Area Health Education Center (AHEC) will be offering a CPR / First Aid and Infant CPR certification course for D2 Center students at the D2 Center, Monday, December 10, 2012, from 4-8 P.M. We're excited to provide this service at no cost to our students. This...
The Rennie Center has published a case study about Massachusetts' efforts to reconnect out-of-school youth. Called Forgotten Youth: Re-Engaging Students Through Dropout Recovery, the case study focuses on the Boston Re-engagement Center, which co-director Greg Emmel...
The D2 Center will be closed Thursday, November 22, and Friday, November 23. We will re-open Monday, November 26. Happy Thanksgiving!
Representatives from our parent organization, Building Bright Futures, our partners at BBF Early Childhood Services, Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle and staff, IBM, Good360, and Mainfreight Inc. volunteered on October 20, 2012 to assemble twenty IBM Young Explorer computers....
Check out our colleague Andrew Moore's blog post on the National League of Cities Blog: Education Re-engagement Centers Spreading. Andrew's post focuses on thirteen new re-engagement centers that opened this past week in Los Angeles, CA. These new centers are a...
Building Bright Futures (BBF), a local non-profit organization serving the Omaha area, seeks an experienced professional to join its team as a full-time Youth Academic Navigator (YAN) for the D2 Center|Directions Diploma (D2 Center). The individual selected must be...
Update May 2013: René no longer works at the D2 Center. Good luck in your new endeavors, René! Next in our series of “Meet the Staff” posts: René Gosch, our new Career and Community Engagement Project Coordinator. Read previous “Meet the Staff” posts on the “Meet the...
The D2 Center will be participating in a special screening and discussion presented by the League of Women Voters of Greater Omaha. Patriocracy is “a new documentary that drills down to the roots of political polarization and offers sound solutions to move beyond it.”...
The D2 Center is offering a Reading Strategies class starting October 3, 2012, with a schedule that's extremely flexible to meet the needs of our students. Students will have the opportunity to earn an elective credit through their ongoing participation every...
Yesterday, co-director Greg Emmel and I shared the D2 Center's efforts, activities and some early results at the annual Youth Transitions Funders Group (YTFG) annual meeting in Detroit, MI. The YTFG is "a network of grantmakers whose mission is to help all youth make...
American Graduate, an initiative supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, has published some telling facts about dropouts in the United States. Did you know: -- One in four high students drops out each year -- High school graduates are more likely to be...
Congratulations to Alberto Gonzales, who was inducted into the Omaha South High School Hall of Fame on Saturday, September 8, 2012. Beto, who works for Boys and Girls Club of the Midlands and is a D2 Center Youth Academic Navigator (YAN), is a 1977 South High...
This past summer, the D2 Center kicked off a partnership with our colleagues at the UNO Service Learning Academy P-16 Initiative, a program that brings together area P-12 students with UNO curriculum through service learning experiences that "connect learning outcomes...
The D2 Center Student Resources page contains information for students and parents, including links to: -- our Student Facebook page -- the Building Bright Futures Early Childhood Services Teen & Young Parent Program -- Nebraska Career Connections -- the Omaha...
On Sunday, August 12, 2012, the D2 Center celebrated the start of the school year with our students, parents, youth advocates (Youth Academic Navigators, called YANs) and staff. We started off with a meal of pizza, pop, veggies, and cookies, followed by an...
Students and parents, please join the D2 Center directors, staff, and YANs for a Back to School Blitz, Sunday, August 12 from 4-6 PM here at the D2 Center. The start of the new school year is almost here, and it's time to come together to think about how to tackle the...
The D2 Center is hiring a Project Coordinator for our Careers & Community Engagement Program. Please see the listing on Careerlink.com for more information and to apply. Details Building Bright Futures (BBF), a local non-profit organization serving the Omaha area,...
Summer break is drifting by and we've finished up two elective credit classes here at the D2 Center -- and we still have two to go! This is a great opportunity for you to brush up on your skills and start the school year off with a couple of credits under your belt....
This Thursday, June 28, D2 Center Careers and Community Engagement Class students will participate in a food tour to learn more about careers in agriculture and culinary arts. The tour starts at an urban farm here in Omaha, followed by a trip to Nebraska City. In...
Check out this video from Need to Know on PBS about Philadelphia's Project U-Turn and their efforts to re-engage out-of-school youth, including their re-engagement center, which opened in 2008. As part of our participation in the Re-engagement Center Network,...
One of the most important elements of the D2 Center program is the YAN, short for Youth Academic Navigator. A YAN is an advocate for the student who connects with them frequently to see how they are doing academically, specifically checking in on credit accrual,...
Our Numeracy: Fundamentals and Connections elective credit course starts this Monday, June 11. The class, taught by certified teachers Jackie Thomas and Donna Trout, runs for 3 weeks from 2-5 PM. This is a great opportunity to sharpen your math skills and earn a...
This Thursday, D2 Center students who participate in the Careers and Community Engagement Class will visit the award-winning Grey Plume restaurant to learn about culinary careers. Our host for the workshop is Chef and Owner Clayton Chapman, who will give a brief Grey...
Our partners over at Child Saving Institute have shared this positive profile of one of our students and her case manager, Tricia Wagner, on their blog. The D2 Center partners with the Building Bright Futures Early Childhood Services (ECS) Teen & Young Parent...
Here at the D2 Center, we view summer as a time for good weather, fun outside, maybe some travel, and... the perfect opportunity to catch up on elective credits! This summer the D2 Center is offering four classes for students who need elective credits toward their...
Here are some upcoming activities that are part of the D2 Center Careers & Community Engagement Class. Students who participate in these activities will earn hours towards a Careers & Community Engagement elective credit. If you have questions or want to...
Next week is Nebraska Digital Citizenship Week, a time to remind students, parents and teachers of the importance of being a good digital citizen. Common Sense Media has put together a toolkit with activities for families, lesson plans for teachers, and more to...