What We Do
Giving kids and struggling families a hand up.
Caring Professionals Working Together
The OKF is made up of a group of caring professionals working together to give struggling kids and their families a hand up toward self-sufficiency. We are here to remove obstacles and get a child to school, through school and on a path to success. OKF provides youth and families valuable connections to our vast network of community service organizations, businesses and good-hearted volunteers that partner with us through five phases of support.
5 Phases of Support
When children and youth have their basic needs met, they are more willing to attend school and be mentored and tutored, with a fighting chance for success.
Our relationship with struggling or homeless youth and families often starts with emergency help for transitional housing, needed when stress has boiled over from multiple families sharing a home, when parents part ways or when fall turns to winter, making nights in a car unfeasible. A few nights in a hotel, transportation or help with a security deposit can be all that is needed to begin to stabilize a family in crisis.
It’s been said that the most basic barrier to escaping poverty is isolation, simply not trusting or knowing where to find help. Even a few supportive relationships can be a life-changing source of hope and empowerment. Some of the greatest riches we share with families are connections with our social service partners. We make referrals to affordable housing, mentoring, tutoring, transportation, furniture and so much more.
Hundreds of children and youth living in unstable conditions are truant in Oshkosh every year, but rarely out of defiance — just embarrassment or a lack of resources or someone to care. A bus pass, bike and lock, or just an alarm clock can make all the difference getting youth on the same page with the adult world and restoring hope. The Oshkosh Kids Foundation has partnered to provide students with haircuts or clothes, which stopped teasing or bullying, and has installed washers and dryers in school district buildings to give students reliably fresh clothes. When children and youth have their basic needs met, they are more willing to attend school and be mentored and tutored, with a fighting chance for success.
Our growing network of businesses is willing to work with single mothers needing adequate first-shift work to both support and be available to their children. Meanwhile, we connect parents to their own continuing education and career plans, where a computer, night classes or work clothes may be the only needed support to revive a dream and pave the way toward self-sufficient, stable lives.
Benjamin Franklin once said, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” Yet struggling families focused on survival can hardly afford to think beyond tomorrow. The most rewarding phase of our relationship with children and youth is broadening their horizons through field trips to Fox Valley workplaces, career counseling, college visits, savings programs or scholarship applications to support their dreams until they become a reality.
Crisis and Need Advocacy
For 10 years, Oshkosh has had the most extreme poverty per capita of any city in Wisconsin. We want to change that, and we CAN with your help! Oshkosh has become a “port of entry” for refugee families and even for homeless youth leaving Milwaukee and Chicago in hopes of a better life. We see this as our call to compassion and hospitality. With a little support and care, children can have opportunities their parents never had. The Fox Valley has been blessed for generations with a strong economy, plentiful hands-on jobs, a good work ethic and strong families. This is our opportunity to give, to learn and to serve those in need. Join us as a volunteer and/or donor and you will be enriched by stories of courage like this.
Join us in going deeper to understand the many needs around us, the investments that pay the greatest dividends, the internal and external assets children need to pull themselves up and how you can help!
Join us in going deeper to understand the many needs around us, the investments that pay the greatest dividends, the internal and external assets children need to pull themselves up and how you can help!
- Up to 200 Oshkosh students have been homeless, living in hotels, cars, on couches, etc.
- 46-70% of the children in 16 of our 21 Oshkosh schools are in poverty, qualifying for free or reduced-cost lunch.
- 2/3 of parents work one to three jobs. though many don’t have cars.
- 61 languages are spoken in the school district, which is another barrier to education.
