Approximately 28 years ago, members of the Harvard Law School Class of 1958 created an organization to help establish, and provide guidance for, nonprofit centers across the country. They were designed to address and reform systemic societal issues.

Known as the Appleseed Network, the goal was to provide startup money for the centers that would then identify and focus on the areas of societal strife that were not being addressed in a legal manner.

Named for Johnny Appleseed, the idea was to “Sow the Seeds of Justice.” The national organization was officially founded in 1993 and facilitated the growth of centers across the country that would grow into justice organizations in their local communities. They now have 16 affiliates across the states—largely in the South and the Midwest—as well as one in D.C. and one in Mexico. Nebraska’s is currently the largest.

“One of the things I think is really unique and effective about that whole seed model is that centers like ours really have a local focus…we get to decide what issues we work on and what strategies we get to use to work on them, based on what we hear from the communities,” expressed Becky Gould, executive director of Nebraska Appleseed.

The Nebraska center was formed in 1996, a few years after those former Harvard students put their idea into play. Five years after that, Gould started working as a staff attorney for their Economic Justice Program. At that time, there were only six full-time employees. In 2007, Gould became the executive director, and since then the full-time staff has increased from 12 to 40, with 10 part-time members as well.

Their early focus was on programs that are run at a state and federal level to address poverty and welfare reform, as that was a big issue at the time.

There are now four areas the Nebraska affiliate focuses on: economic justice, immigrants and communities, child welfare, and health care access.

“We have our economic justice program that’s looking at those core drivers of poverty in our state and how can we address those, [to] reduce and mitigate the effects of poverty,” explains Nebraska Appleseed executive director Becky Gould. 

The immigrants and communities’ program was the second area of development for the Nebraska affiliate. “In the early days of Appleseed, Nebraska was experiencing pretty rapid direct migration for the first time in a while, and so there was a lot of demographic change happening in communities,” Gould said.

Gould said their child welfare program looks at issues affecting youth and the state’s foster care system. They recently tackled the privatization of Nebraska’s child welfare case management services.

According to Gould, they’ve done a lot of work on Medicaid through their health care access program, including pushing for the Medicaid expansion. “Our job is to stick to the issue until we get to the finish line, and you don’t get a lot of finish lines, to be honest, in this work…But Medicaid expansion was one of those cases where there really was a definitive finish line. The program was implemented, people have been enrolled, and now I think we’re somewhere in the ballpark of 65-70,000 Nebraskans who are enrolled in expanded Medicaid. And that’s a pretty amazing thing to have been a part of, for a decade.” Next on the agenda for health care is looking at some of the other pressing issues, such as mental and reproductive health.

They are currently in the process of setting their next three-year strategic plan, gathering input from community members about what issues are most pressing and important to them. Gould said they filter that through where they have the expertise and skill sets that would be helpful and plan work from there.

To support Nebraska Appleseed, visit their website at https://neappleseed.org to donate, volunteer, or become a sponsor. Those who wish to help can also attend their Good Apple Awards celebration on Thursday, Oct. 6, at the Livestock Exchange Building Ballroom, where there will be an hors d’oeuvres dinner, live music, and a short program honoring the 2022 winners.