
Essential FamiliesTM: Everything Starts at Home
Essential Families, a state of Missouri-registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, provides crucial children and family development services, virtually, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from anywhere, just like AMAZON delivers products and services to your front door!
The Essential Digital Equity Program has seven services designed and built to stabilize children and families, leveraging affordable and reliable broadband Internet. Once the individual or family is stable, Essential Families has nine Digital Workforce Development services and job training programs designed to enable participation in the digital economy, by way of well-paying work-from-home digital job or starting a business.
The Essential Families, Essential Digital Equity Program, is a proven and sustainable model that solves the Digital Divide.
Furthermore, the Essential Digital Equity Program “scales” to any rural or urban community in the United States.
All Essential Families programs and services have established key performance indicators and are measured in real time. Program data is reported in real time to funders, donors, families and providers. As of today, Essential Families has served 540 households and has 1,280 households on the waitlist.
Essential Families reflects its founder and CEO Terri English-Yancy, who from an early age combined the take-charge attitude of the oldest sibling with an innate love for children. A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Terri and her family moved around a lot with her father’s job as regional territory manager with John Deere. The family ultimately returned to the Kansas City area, where Terri graduated from Olathe North High School.
Nine years older than her sister and six years older than her brother, Terri was the one who handled pickup from sports and other duties while her parents were working. Terri was also the go-to babysitter in the neighborhood. Maybe she was a little bossy. But in hindsight, Terri does not see it that way. “I was just a leader in the making because I always wanted to take care of everyone.”
Before founding Essential Families, Terri spent 24 rewarding years with the Family Conservancy, a respected nonprofit that has served young children and families from its base in Kansas City, Kansas, for nearly 150 years. At the Family Conservancy, Terri served as the program manager of the Head Start Home-Based program. She oversaw a 12-person staff.
While she was program manager at the Family Conservancy, one mom in particular helped propel Terri to start Essential Families. This mom was a single, working parent with a three-year-old at home being watched by her grandma. The childcare arrangement was problematic since Head Start required a natural parent to fill that role. But the bigger problem was that the mom earned slightly over the income eligibility guidelines for Head Start. This single working young mother touched Terri in such a way that motivated her to start Essential Families, because this mom was desperate for Family Conservancy services and wanted her son in the program but was denied.
Terri holds an undergraduate degree in child and family development from Southwest Missouri State University, now known as Missouri State University, and two master’s degrees from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in curriculum and instruction and from Webster University in management and leadership.
For more information go to efamilies.org.
Closing the Digital Divide
In July, Essential Families celebrated closing the digital divide for 500 families. There are still more than 1280 families waiting for services.
Ryana Parks-Shaw, Mayor Pro Tempore, Kansas City, Missouri, noted, “Kansas City is prioritizing closing the digital divide to ensure that all residents have equal access to technology and the internet. This partnership with Essential Families is crucial as it promotes equity, economic development and opportunities for all individuals in the community. By bridging the digital divide, Kansas City aims to empower its residents with the necessary tools and resources to thrive in the digital age, fostering a more connected and inclusive city.”