Operation Breakthrough helps local K–12 students close the gaps.
Two nuns, teaching on the east side of Kansas City 53 years ago, were approached by group of parents who asked if they could please watch their children so the parents could go to work. The nuns agreed, knowing they could use their convent, and within weeks they had opened a childcare center for only four children. The nuns had $200, but soon, the center hosted 40 children, and before long 400. Today, Operation Breakthrough has about 1,500 kids move through its doors on a weekly basis during the school year.
Mary Esselman, president and CEO of Operation Breakthrough, has worked in education for close to 40 years, and believes that much of the necessary work the organization does is looking at education in a new way. “A lot of my work has been in urban settings, catching kids up who have fallen behind and looking at how to disrupt public schooling in a way that puts kids at the center and starts them where their gaps begin. Because that’s how you really accelerate,” she shares. “Operation Breakthrough offers an amazing opportunity in preschool, early education, to make sure that kids enter school with the requisite skills that they need. To be able to ensure that every child starts school ready is our goal because that is a predictor for third grade reading levels, which we know is a predictor for a lot of different long-term success metrics.”
Operation Breakthrough currently has a K-ready rate of 85–90%, compared to a national average of less than 50%. But the work the organization does goes way beyond kindergarten. Thanks to donations from local partners such as athlete Travis Kelce and funders like McGowan, Operation Breakthrough is now able to service children all the way through the end of high school.
“I’ve been at Operation Breakthrough for 15 years,” shares a program participant. “The ability to make movies when I was younger and do robotics since fifth grade, really prepared me for the types of projects we do in our new Ignition Lab. As Operation Breakthrough expands, for me to be able to expand the things I am able to do too, feels like that’s a big part of why I continue to come—the evolution of Operation Breakthrough and the evolution of me alongside it.”
Operation Breakthrough has always had a strong belief in STEM and what it can do for kids, especially through a hands-on, real-world approach. “We’ve been able to add a Maker space for our preschool, and a huge MakerCity for K–8, and now most recently Ignition Lab, which has workforce development and entrepreneurship for teens as well,” Esselman explains.
Each week, 200 students work in the Ignition Lab on projects including graphic design, computer repair, product design, robotics, fabrication, digital electronics, film and music production, green tech, culinary arts, and automotive and engineering. The goal is to give the kids industry recognized skills that they can use right out of high school, either to enter technical training or have a more focused pathway as they enter college. “I’ve learned how to weld and program microchips,” a 14-year-old participant explains. “I’ve learned how to use the laser cutter and the programs that come with it. It makes me feel powerful. Operation Breakthrough has made a big impact on my life. It’s my go-to place now.”
Operation Breakthrough also buses in local schools to help more students study math and science through a real world lens and do workforce development and entrepreneurship training. “The Sisters, our founders, knew that what happened outside of Operation Breakthrough was just as important as what happened inside,” adds Esselman. “They created this strong support system around families that included social services and health. We look at community needs always. We have a Children’s Mercy Clinic. We have a dental clinic. A huge nonprofit comes in and does vision checks for kids. And we have a full behavioral health team, as well as social services helping families work through crisis. This work takes a village. From our diaper bank partner, Happy Bottoms, to Pete’s Garden, which is a nonprofit that works on food stability, we’re all working towards the same goal, community wellness and betterment.”
With new classrooms being added regularly, and innovative programing like Outdoor Classroom—where the students learn urban gardening and more, and Opportunity Interns, which provides financial incentives for teen participants—it’s clear that Operation Breakthrough will continue to be a resource its community can count on and one that the Sisters who first opened their doors could be proud of.