On a chilly day in January, students in the Children 1st program meet at the St. Anne Catholic Church pastoral center in south Wichita to fill backpacks intended for the homeless with food, hygiene supplies and hand-crafted messages of hope.
As the middle-schoolers find their seats, Children 1st executive director Kathleen Webb talks about some important lessons she’s learned in life.
“Learn to say thank you to people,” she says. “It will surprise them. People don’t hear it enough. I want you to take the time right now to say thank you to the people around you.”
After the room erupts in expressions of gratitude, a small brown-haired girl raised her hand and asks Webb, “What motivates you?”
Children 1st participants pen hopeful messages to be given to homeless people along with food and sanitary supplies.
Webb smiles and says, “You do.”
Children 1st is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization serving children and families in Catholic schools and their neighborhoods. Webb has led the group since 2016.
Webb grew up in Bel Aire and earned a history degree from Newman University in 1979 before embarking on a 14-year career in radio advertising. After being exposed to the work of several nonprofit organizations, she took a job with the ALS Association in Wichita.
When she wasn’t at work, Webb was busy as a single mother.
“Right after I became single with these children, it was a very scary time for us,” she said. “And luckily, I had parents who were able to help us. But without that, I would have been in a really bad situation.”
The experience inspired her and made her think: “How do we not only help someone in that crisis but get them stable and even get them out of poverty?”
When Webb’s daughter graduated from college in 2010, mother and daughter looked at a list of organizations that were about to lose their nonprofit status and focused on Children 1st. It had been launched in 2000 to help low-income students attend the public or private school of their choice but had become dormant when its founder became ill.
Webb and her daughter, Amber Beck, transformed the organization into a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) program for girls and ran it until 2016 when Amber decided to change careers. Webb then transformed it again, inspired by the financial hardship she had witnessed living near St. Patrick Catholic Church in north Wichita. The goal: breaking the cycle of poverty by helping children and their parents.
Today, Children 1st is active at St. Patrick, St. Anne and five other Catholic schools in Wichita, plus Catholic schools in Haysville, Parsons, Independence, Chanute, Coffeyville, Fort Scott and Hutchinson.
Children 1st operates four programs:
• Garden to Kitchen is a United Way-funded project consisting of three education gardens and a teaching kitchen. The aim is to help children become self-sufficient by teaching them how to grow and cook their own meals. The project offers an annual month-long summer camp at two Wichita sites to which both neighborhood kids and Catholic school students are invited.
• Brighter Futures connects Catholic schools with social workers to provide individual and group counseling for students. This project also encompasses the Ambassador program, a career exploration program preparing middle school students for the future through service-based learning projects such as organizing food banks and the backpack-filling event at St. Annes.
Ambassadors attend talks by professionals in various careers and learn about college by going on campus tours and hearing first-generation WSU students speak about their experiences. Annual meetings are held for the Ambassadors’ parents to learn about college and savings plans. In the future, Webb would like to expand the Ambassador program to focus more on college preparation.
“Middle school is a great age to talk about careers and higher education,” she said. “High school is almost too late because students can start earning college credits and should have knowledge about their career path already.”
• Project Starfish helps Catholic school children experiencing homelessness and poverty by providing families with food, coats, shoes, school supplies and Christmas presents. Project Starfish also offers classes designed to help parents find jobs and handle their finances. This facet of the project is called Bridges out of Poverty.
“Project Starfish is really helping low-resource parents with employment,” Webb said. “They take a class called Getting Ahead in a Just Gettin’-By World. It’s a national curriculum, and we hope to add someone who’s going to do home ownership and credit repair (instruction). So it’s a complete continuum of helping someone leave poverty.”
According to Webb, one person who took the course paid off $20,000 of debt in one year and another started her own business.
• Journey Home works with families who are homeless or fleeing domestic violence. Children 1st has an arrangement with a hotel to give people a room for up to four weeks while they search for housing.
“We had one woman fleeing domestic violence, and because she was living in her car, DCF had put her children in a respite care program,” Webb said. “On a Wednesday night we put her in our hotel program, and the very next day DCF brought her children to her.”
In 2023, 15 homeless families secured housing, and 19 families who were at risk of homelessness received support through Journey Home.
In addition to Webb, Children 1st employs 25 mental health professions, educators and social workers on a full- or part-time basis.
But it relies on volunteers for many supportive roles. Children 1st gets volunteers from the AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps Senior program, which offer a stipend in return.
“I’d just like to encourage (Active Age) readers to look at that AmeriCorps program because it’s a great way to volunteer with some perks,” Webb said. “It’s a great way to make a difference, but not work full-time, but still have the structure of work.”
Those interested can email Children1st@children!stks.org or call (316) 303-4083.
Kierra Koeber is a recent graduate of Emporia State University who intends to pursue a master’s degree from Wichita State University.
