Local faith-based organization, City Impact (CI), has recently been under investigation for their discriminatory practices and enforcement of ministry standards. Former employees, amongst other former participants and volunteers of CI, spoke to 10/11 News about the discrimination that CI displayed towards the LGBTQIA+ community, revealing that staff and volunteers coming in to CI are not allowed to be in support of or involved in same sex relationships.Aside from being a popular organization for Lincoln Public Schools (LPS) students to volunteer at, CI serves as an academic support to many students throughout LPS with their reading program. CI typically holds programs on Tuesday nights for children in grades K-5, and Thursday nights for grades 6-12. However, due to short staffing, these programs have been halted.
According to the statement released by LPS in regard to CI, all volunteers that enter into a school building should “leave personally held beliefs behind and focus solely on completing the outlined task and serve ALL students”.
Additionally, the statement says that organizations and volunteers may not use their position to either advocate for their beliefs or discriminate against students.All LPS students enrolled in Government & Politics are required to engage in 20 hours of community service work before receiving a final grade in the class. According to the Volunteer Hours Handbook, LPS states the purpose of this requirement is for students to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are essential for living in a democratic society.
Jaclyn Kellison, K-12 Social Studies Curriculum Specialist, commented on service hours and the approval process that an organization must complete before being added to the approved LPS list.
“The ’Agency Application’ must be completed by an outside organization in order to be added to our Volunteer Handbook. Students are not encouraged or discouraged to volunteer with any organization and, instead, can choose from the hundreds listed in the handbook. City Impact has not completed an ‘Agency Application’ and is therefore not included in our current handbook. We do not have any official ties to City Impact in our Government & Politics (or any other) curriculum.”
Senior Jaydlynn Tontegode was formerly involved with CI. She first attended CI on Tuesday nights in preschool, then became a youth leader in sixth grade until recently departing from the organization.
“I came [to City Impact] in preschool and then I stopped going [senior] year…I was a volunteer with the kindergarten classroom, then I moved to third grade, fourth grade and fifth grade,” Tontegode said.
CI was a community for Jaydlynn. A large portion of her adolescent life was dedicated to the organization. Friendships, relationships and lifelong memories were created within the CI buildings. However, when the news came out that a contract, which volunteers and staff members were required to sign, stating that no volunteer or staff member could be in support or apart of a same sex relationship, Tontegode’s views on CI changed.
“[City Impact] is supposed to accept everyone. So the fact that they’re like, ‘we accept you, but you can’t do this’. It’s like ‘okay, what’s the point of this?’” Tontegode said.
Even though CI is not an official LPS approved service hour organization, Tontegode believes it should no longer be an outlet for school-sponsored volunteer work.
“That’s just almost giving the school a way of promoting that [discrimination]. They’re [CI] discriminating against people. So if the school is involved with it, then it looks like the school is bad as well. And if they continue to be a part of it, and they openly know what they are promoting,” Tontegode said.
City Impact was contacted and asked to give their perspective on the incident, but as of now there has been no response.