| Name of Organization | Mission Statement | A Brief Description Of How The Organization Would Spend The 1.000 Grant Money If Awarded |
|---|---|---|
| Arts For All, Inc. | Arts For All, Inc. is a dynamic arts education program developed to be affordable and accessible for all. We provide quality culturally-enriched classes that encourage personal growth. | Arts For All would use the money to offer our classes to families that are unable to pay tuition. Arts For All never turns a student away for any reason, including inability to pay tuition. Our classes are set up in a manner that allows for students that can not afford to pay for them the opportunity to attend because the tuition paying students have covered the cost of the class. With enrollment numbers down due to the pandemic, the ability to offer the tuition free spots in classes are down as well. The money would be used for scholarships for disadvantaged students. |
| BFF Omaha | Creating community through arts engagement. | BFF would love to use this $1000 micro grant to further our Green Team Initiatives. Green Team was started as a sustainability effort through the Mayor’s Grant. The green team is a group of volunteers that hosts monthly community clean ups, Earth Day events, and promotes green living through our composting program in association with Hillside Solutions. This year we are hoping to have more of a presence in the city and at all of our BFF programing. This would allow us to pay our admin and create more activities, including digital programming to promote a sustainable green Omaha! BFF Green team is passionate about its community and creating a network of amazing folks who want to actively create a better Omaha! |
| Big Muddy Urban Farm | Big Muddy Urban Farm is dedicated to making sustainable agriculture education accessible to all. | It would help us cover the costs of supplies for gardening. Part of our supplies budget for this upcoming year is to rebuild 18 raised beds and refortify our three chicken coops. |
| Brighten Our Future Early Learning Center | Brighten Our Future Early Learning Center’s mission is to provide access to quality childcare, early childhood education, and positive support and resources for all families regardless of socioeconomic backgrounds. | We would use the $1,000 to purchase necessary items for a science center. These items include an exploration table, microscopes, telescope, coding toys, and other STEM/Science related items. |
| Child Saving Institute (CSI) | CSI opened its doors to children in 1892 to “Respond to the cry of a child”. Today a two-generational approach is applied: To thrive, children must be exposed to and given tools to live beyond poverty; and brain science proves that learning starts well before formal learning emphasizing the maxim “start early and start well”. |
CSI’s Emergency Shelter (ES) provides a space for youth while they are in transition; youth for whom juvenile detention centers, which typically operate using punitive methodologies, would be a detriment. In juvenile cases, a “status offense” involves conduct that would not be a crime if committed by an adult. In other words, the actions are considered to be a violation of the law only because of the status as a minor. Common examples of status offenses include underage drinking, skipping school, and violating a local curfew law. In an average year, approximately 20% of all juvenile arrests involve status offenses. ES is a safe and supportive environment providing housing stability, physical and mental health care, food security, crisis support and intervention. Nearly all have experienced trauma: abuse, abandonment, neglect and homelessness. Youth receive individualized, therapeutic care, emphasizing strengths and positive, pro-social behaviors while addressing behavioral obstacles. ES provides personal clothing and personal hygiene products, and continuance of the youth’s normal routine wherever possible, including: schooling, physical activity, recreational activities, facilitated and encouraged relationships. |
| City Sprouts | We help cultivate healthy communities and sustainable, equitable food systems through gardening, education, and youth employment | City Sprouts is very excited to be adding a geodesic greenhouse to our North community garden this year. The Growing Dome greenhouse will be installed at the beginning of June. We will use this greenhouse to expand our classroom space, growing season, and sensory opportunities for all ages. The dome will be ADA compliant and accessible to the general public, gardeners, staff, and volunteers. We have a grant to cover the building of the greenhouse, but still need funds for educational signage, high quality soil, and fruit trees. $1000 would completely cover those needs. |
| Civic Nebraska | Civic Nebraska works to create a more modern and robust democracy for all Nebraskans. | We would apply this towards our after school programs in Omaha and the incredible work they do! Specifically, Lewis and Clark Middle School’s mentoring program. |
| Coalition Rx | Coalition Rx is a community organization based in Omaha. Founded in 2015, our mission is to reduce the misuse of all substances of abuse by raising awareness and partnering with community organizations to provide public and professional education, prevention and treatment resources, and policy advocacy. | Coalition Rx is starting a youth-based program in partnership with Hope of Glory Church in Omaha. The program is called Too Good For Drugs & Violence, is a substance abuse prevention curriculum for students K-12. The program empowers children with social-emotional learning and substance abuse prevention skills they need to lead happy and healthy lives. We would use the $1,000 to launch the program in the spring or summer of 2021. With COVID-19 guidelines still in place the start date flexible. The money would be used for purchasing the needed materials to get the program started. Materials for the program include basics, paper, writing utensils, games, books, snacks etc. We plan to serve high risk youth in the area around Hope of Glory’s Church which is located at 3402 Burt St. Omaha, NE. This is an after-school program and will also probably be used during the summer in a similar setting. In addition to serving youth, we plan to have a family night once a week and invite parents/caregivers to attend, share a meal as a family and then go through a Too Good For Drugs and Violence lesson together. We hope to not only give our local youth life skills but also help strengthen the families in our community. |
| Collective for Youth | Collective for Youth’s mission is to advocate for, facilitate resources, and provide quality training for afterschool providers. |
Collective for Youth serves 36 schools in Omaha Public Schools by offering high quality out of school time programming. We do this in partnership with 9 local youth serving agencies. Collective for Youth is seen as a backbone organization offering resources, professional development and funding to the the organizations we work with. Collective for Youth is committed to helping combat ignorance through racial equity training. Since February of 2020, Collective for Youth has offered 21 professional development opportunities to youth workers across Omaha. These training opportunities are at no cost to the agency or youth worker. We have conducted book studies, movie watching sessions, and dissected articles together all in our quest to learn more about racial equity both locally and nationally. We would like to continue to expand our offerings and grow the numbers of individuals that attend. |
| D2 Center | The mission of the D2 Center is to connect out-of-school and disengaged youth ages 15-21 to and educational pathway with other resources and suppots needed to earn a high school diploma and preapre for post-secondary opportunities and a career. | The money would be spent to pay for Nebraska-certified teachers (part-time, retired) to tutor students virtually or in person. |
| Easterseals Nebraska (ESN) | Since 1924, Easter Seals Nebraska (ESN) has provided exceptional services to help ensure all people with disabilities have an equal opportunity to live, learn, work and play. ESN’s mission is to change the way the world defines and views disability by making profound, positive differences in people’s lives every day. |
ESN offers the only overnight recreational camp and respite program in the state that accepts all individuals, regardless of age or ability. Camp addresses a two-fold need in our community for (1) enriching, community-based activities for individuals with disabilities and (2) respite for families of those individuals. A team of a camp director, counselors, public health nurses, and other specialized staff care for campers with the most complex needs, making it possible for all campers to enjoy the same experience of a standard camp. Grant funding would allow ESN to purchase essential items for camp; to included medical and craft supplies, sports and outdoor equipment, first aid kits, sunscreen, bug repellent, and personal hygiene items. If ESN is unable to operate camp in person due to COVID-19; camps will be modified to day camps for individuals, family sampler camps (controlled family/household pods), or virtual. Before the pandemic, people with disabilities reported significantly higher rates of social isolation and loneliness than those without disabilities. Camp is a valuable solution in supporting and connects individuals with disabilities and their families during these unprecedented times. |
| Felius Cat Cafe & Rescue | Our mission is to transform cat welfare through rescue, inclusive experiences, and educational programming. | Felius would use grant funding to expand our trap-neuter-return program (TNR). TNR helps feral community cats get spayed/neutered and vaccinated, humanely controlling their population. Over the last year, we have helped over 150 community cats live longer, happier lives through TNR. |
| Film Streams | Film Streams is a 501(c)3 nonprofit arts organization dedicated to enhancing the cultural environment of the Omaha-Council Bluffs area through the presentation and discussion of film as an art form. | Film Streams is requesting a $1,000 grant to provide 10 paid opportunities to publish the work of young critics in our HOMEROOM email. HOMEROOM was originally envisioned as a digital expression of our monthly Student Night, sponsored by UNO and UNMC, for socially distant times. Prior to our pandemic-imposed closure, any student in Omaha or surrounding areas could come to either of our theaters on Student Night and watch movies for free. HOMEROOM is filled with free film content, and allows students to engage with substantive and thought-provoking works of art in lieu of attending the theater in person. Proven to be an effective way to reach students, HOMEROOM will continue into the post-vaccine era. HOMEROOM already spotlights student-written reviews, and we believe paying students for their words would be advantageous for a number of reasons. First, it presents an ideal opportunity to do outreach with student publications and film groups across the metro. Second, as an organization that champions artists, we feel that it is important to pay creators for their labor. Finally, and most importantly, we hope that this initiative will foster a new generation of critical voices in our community. |
| First Responders Foundation | The mission of the First Responders Foundation is to serve and honor all our First Responders, Veterans, and their families, build appreciation and respect for their work, and enhance public safety. | Provide programs and services to first responders. |
| FITGirl, Inc | The mission of FITGirl, Inc is to empower young girls as they develop and mature by demonstrating positive lifestyle choices: physical, mental, nutritional and relational. | If awarded, FITGirl, Inc would use the funding to develop an inclusive fitness program that provides exercise modifications to students who are disabled. |
| Girls Inc of Omaha- Pathfinders Mentoring | Girls Inc of Omaha inspires all girls to be strong, smart and bold. The Girls Inc. Pathfinders Program is a mentoring program devoted to providing one-on-one female support to girls in need of/desiring social development, recreational opportunities, and emotional support. The mentors assist their mentees in developing and achieving positive academic, career, and personal goals. In 2021, much of this program will take place in an online setting until social distancing allows for in-person meetings once again. | With Girls Inc of Omaha currently closed to students, all of our programming has moved online. We have been finding creative ways to engage with our matches in the virtual world, including celebrating National Fast Food Day (Winners received gift cards to their favorite places) and National Ice Cream Day (Making ice cream in a bag while listening to “Shake It Off” by Taylor Swift!) We know that our mentees will come online with their mentors if they have something enjoyable to look forward to. As we plan for the coming year, we expect to be closed many more months. We have plans to make pizza flavored lipgloss, decorate flower pots, and paint canvases with melted crayons. Our plans always come from what the girls want, and we can’t wait to make it happen. This $1000 would allow us to help cover the costs of all these events. |
| Habitat for Humanity of Omaha | Habitat for Humanity builds strength, stability, and self‐reliance through shelter. Serving Douglas, Sarpy, Burt, and Washington counties in Nebraska, Habitat Omaha works to eliminate substandard housing by providing families with low-to-moderate income opportunities to successfully achieve and maintain homeownership while improving the safety, appearance, and value of neighborhoods. | As the coronavirus pandemic continues to make close contact and convening of large crowds too risky, Habitat Omaha has temporarily replaced our Rock the Block neighborhood beautification events with Neighborhood Clean Up Days. In 2020, this change was quite successful, with our neighborhood revitalization team hosting 7 clean up events that served 337 households. The Clean Up Days provide large Dumpsters for neighborhood residents to dispose of unwanted items they would normally have to pay a fee to rid their homes or yards of. In a time when many of us are spending more time at home and considering the health and cleanliness of our surroundings more and more, this service was incredibly needed in 2020. Like our Rock the Block events, Clean Up Days inspire neighbors to become active participants in their communities, contributing to the beauty, safety, and health of their neighborhoods. A grant of $1,000 would help fund the efforts required to host a Clean Up Day, including postage and printing to mail invitations to residents, the Dumpster fees, the hauling fees, and other costs related to disposal of large waste/junk items. |
| Harbor House and Hospice House-The Josie Harper Residence | Hospice House is our community’s shared home for compassionate, expert care and leads the conversation to ensure comfortable, dignified and rich end-of-life experiences. | The funds would be used to help offset the provision of unreimbursed care and charity care. The prospect of death can become even scarier when one is unable to be in a safe, caring place during the end-of-life. Hospice House provides more than 2,000 days of care each year to those who are unable to afford residential Hospice care. The $1,000 from the project would be used to give a needy family the peace of mind that their loved one will be in this homelike setting, surrounded by caregivers, and ensured a dignified death. The reason for someone needing charity care varies – unemployed/underemployed, homelessness, lack of family in area, etc., but once in the doors of Hospice House, all residents are equal. Residents are provided bedside care, spiritual support, and compassion. Our hope is that a person’s inability to pay, will not prevent that person from having appropriate residential hospice care in a time of great need. Each year, Hospice House provides an average of 22% of its annual days of care to individuals who are unable to pay fully or at all. The cost of our charity care is approximately $500,000 annually. |
| Heart Ministry Center | The mission of the Heart Ministry Center is to provide food, healthcare, and a way forward to people severely affected by poverty in the Omaha area. | The Heart Ministry Center (the Center) is requesting funding for its general operations. If awarded, funding for general operations allows the Center to be flexible with where these funds are allocated. Often, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, the actual program budget can be different from the budgeted amount because adjustments were necessary to meet the shifting needs of the community. As such, the Center is requesting funding for its general operations but most likely these funds will go to help support one of the Center’s major programs i.e. food pantry, case management, Fresh Start job training/placement, laundromat, medical clinic, or dental clinic. |
| Heartland Equine Therapeutic Riding Academy (HETRA) | HETRA’s mission is to improve the quality of life both physically and emotionally of adults and children of all ability levels through Equine-Assisted Activities. |
Our Therapy Services Scholarship Program ensures that those at the greatest socioeconomic disadvantage can receive the benefits of Equine-Assisted Services. Through our Therapy Services, Occupational and Physical Therapists work one-on-one with participants using Hippotherapy, a treatment strategy in which we partner with horses to achieve clinical results in areas like coordination, posture and muscle development. As stated by Sandy Rafferty, Occupational Therapist & PATH Intl Advanced Instructor, “A horse can provide the same intervention as 35 pieces of therapy equipment.” Therapists use traditional techniques like neurodevelopmental treatment and sensory integration as well as movement of horses. The program is often an alternative for those who don’t respond to traditional therapy. Many state that it doesn’t feel like therapy, but an enjoyable activity in which they aren’t limited by a diagnosis. A difficult challenge faced by those with disabilities is the high cost of care. Our services are affordable thanks to support of our donors. We’ve never turned anyone away due to the inability to pay. Support of this program would ensure that we can continue to offer services to all regardless of socioeconomic status. |
| Heartland Family Service | The mission of Heartland Family Service (HFS) is to strengthen individuals and families in our community through education, counseling, and support services. Whether challenges arise from stress, sexual abuse, mental health conditions, substance use disorder, learning disabilities, homelessness, or any other trauma which can create instability in our human family, HFS strives to serve each person holistically to improve their safety, self-sufficiency, and wellbeing. | HFS’ Ready in 5 is Omaha’s only kindergarten-readiness program specifically designed to serve newly arrived refugee children, ages 3-5, and their parents. Our comprehensive, culturally responsive program equips children with academic and socioemotional skills to successfully transition into the American school system while empowering parents to be their children’s first teachers. If awarded, your dollars will ensure that our client families have equitable access to children’s books and preschool supplies by enabling HFS to provide these items at no cost to our clients. These items will help families work through obstacles to teach children early childhood education concepts while informing parents and assisting eligible families with school enrollment. With more systems to navigate now due to COVID-19, limited English speakers such as our refugee families are less likely to receive benefits than American-born populations. As a trusted source of support for these communities, our staff are committed to providing unwavering wraparound services to these vulnerable communities to ensure families are being connected to key resources and public benefits during this unprecedented time. Outreach is being conducted through virtual check-ins, virtual groups, case management, and mailing out school supplies and information packets in our clients’ native languages. We continue to field an increased volume of phone calls from our refugee parents, helping talk them through immediate concerns, such as filing for unemployment, getting connected to culturally appropriate food pantries, or helping parents navigate school assignments with their older children, in addition to their Ready in 5 preschoolers, since schools have transitioned to alternating in-person and remote learning schedules due to the pandemic. |
| Hot Shops Art Foundation | Our mission is to be the place where ideas, dreams and what ifs are explored, created and shared. We are an arts organization that provides education to explore creativity through a variety of artistic and creative processes. Our values are to celebrate the individual through education, inspiration and creation, providing a place to share and develop ideas and creative expressions. |
We are working to build capacity for operations. This is currently our most important need; human capital is launching point for all of our initiatives. We are a living museum. We provide opportunities for guests to observe and interact with working artists in their studios. Guests take part in the creative process led by a pool of 80+ talented artists, creatives and educators who inspire, expand thinking, and communicate ideas. We teach the creative process, we help kids and adults understand how to take an idea to marketplace, learn to hold focus, collaborate with others and find their voice through art by providing: -Free tours, demonstrations and hands-on experiences -Art experiences for some of the most vulnerable, such as people with disabilities and refugees -A community studio stocked with books and art supplies -CreativeMornings/Omaha, a free monthly lecture series -300 creative, arts based educational programs, with 2 designed as a result of needs from the events of 2020: - An online class catalog – to make art instruction more accessible to all - A workshop series that will bring together groups to learn about each other and build relationships through a joint exploration of the creative process |
| International Council for Refugees and Immigrants | To deliver immediate philanthropic support to equip vulnerable, and underserved refugee and immigrant populations by providing culturally and linguistically appropriate client centered services and advocacy. | ICRI has two main programs: a case management program, and a refugee youth mentoring program. If awarded the $1,000 grant, ICRI would use the money to provide food security and snacks to families and youth in those two programs. The main grants that support these programs does not have food as an allowable cost. However, it is a basic need that the families we serve are struggling to meet. ICRI assists families with food stamp applications as well as delivers food to families from Whispering Roots but that still does not meet the food needs of large families. ICRI would ensure that this money is used for food for families and youth that are most vulnerable. Thank you for your consideration. |
| Joslyn Castle Trust | The Joslyn Castle preserves the legacy of George and Sarah Joslyn through stewardship of their historic home and by offering diverse, cultural programming that informs and inspires the community. |
Joslyn Castle Trust is a 501(c)(3) organization located in mid-town Omaha that exists to preserve the legacy of George and Sarah Joslyn through stewardship of their historic home and by offering diverse cultural programming that informs and inspires the community. Joslyn Castle strives to provide affordable quality educational and cultural programs for the Omaha Metro area. Major programs include historical programming for local public-school children, an annual Art and Literary Festival, free educational Spring and Summer lecture series, regular historical tours for the public, and Castlepalooza, a community festival. Though none of us knows what 2021 will bring, we’ve developed an ambitious and flexible programming and education calendar that will allow us to keep connected to the community in a safe and meaningful way, focusing on providing affordable, accessible programming for all residents of the Omaha Metro area. Your financial support of Joslyn Castle will be used to cover costs associated with producing high-caliber offerings for the public. Costs include, but are not limited to, content development, artists’ fees, staff support, printing and marketing, equipment rentals, and buildings and grounds maintenance. |
| Language & Culture School of Omaha | Mission Statement: The Language & Culture School of Omaha (LACSO) seeks to offer English language opportunities for immigrant populations in Eastern Nebraska and Southwest Iowa, while collaborating with other nonprofits interested in establishing programs by offering trainings in the teaching and tutoring of ESL adults. | We are so satisfied with the results of our virtual English classes, which, because of Covid 19, we needed to transition to from our regular face-to-face classes. The pandemic has been especially hard on our immigrant population here in Omaha. It has touched workers and their families; it has touched businesses; it has touched our entire community. But, in many ways, it has allowed us to expand our programming. We now have students who can come to class during their break time (sometimes in the parking lot in their cars), who can come to class because they no longer need to take off work, find a babysitter, or need to find a ride to class. An ongoing expense includes a continual purchase of materials for student use and postage to send these resources directly to students. We would use the money to help fund this project and the new GED project as well. |
| Life Connections Omaha: Global Leadership Group | Global Leadership Group is a 501(c)3 organization established to restore North 24th Street to a place where strong families live, vibrant businesses thrive, and beautiful neighborhoods grow; through volunteerism, community engagement, economic empowerment and neighborhood revitalization. | The Maverick Philanthropy Initiative would help Global Leadership Group promote and execute the Team up to Cleanup: #CommunityCleanupChallenge. The objective is to encourage members of the greater Omaha community to take one hour to pick up litter in their neighborhood. People of all ages and abilities can engage with the cleanup onsite or virtually. During the once monthly Community Cleanup Challenge week, participants can clean up their own block or join a team onsite at the Global Leadership Group Community Garden. Participants are encouraged to take a photo of their work, post a photo to their personal social media platform, and use the hashtag “Community Cleanup Challenge”. The projected budget for this project is $3,200 to cover cleanup supplies like: trash pickers, trash bags, gloves and dumping fees; a marketing campaign that includes: social media boosts (Instagram and Facebook); yard signs, fliers, and branded t-shirts; PPE such as face masks and hand sanitizer; and coffee and other snacks for volunteers. Receiving this grant would help increase awareness around the impact of cleaning litter and the value of community engagement in the North 24th Street and greater Omaha community. |
| Munroe Meyer Institue | The Munroe-Meyer Institute’s mission is to be world leaders in transforming the lives of all individuals with disabilities and complex health care needs, their families and the community through outreach, engagement, premier educational programs, innovative research and extraordinary patient care. | The Caring for Champions program is an exciting new program coming to our new building in the spring. People with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) represent 19% of the population, one of the largest medically underserved population in our community, the region, and the world. Due to a range of systematic challenges, including transportation, limited resources, inadequate provider training and inaccessible facilities, they have less access to quality health care and health promotion programs. As a result, people with disabilities experience dramatically higher rates of preventable disease, chronic pain and suffering and premature death. Leaders at the Munroe-Meyer Institute (MMI) believe this lack of accessibility to proper care is unacceptable and view the challenge as a critical opportunity and responsibility to achieve parity in the health status for people of all abilities. MMI is establishing the Caring for Champions program to provide skilled care for individuals with IDD to provide treatment and prevention for vision, dental, and obesity. |
| My Sister’s Keeper | To reduce the racial health disparity gap and mortality rate for African American women which is over 42% higher than for white women who are diagnosed with breast cancer. | The grant would be spent on training and educational materials for our advocacy program. Advocates (volunteers and survivors) are provided all materials and are trained on breast health, breast cancer prevention, early detection and risk factors. They are tasked to train 10 other women with the goal of assuring they get a mammogram. If the individual is uninsured, the advocate will make referrals to agencies and follow-up making sure a mammogram is acquired. Each person who agrees and provides proof of getting a mammogram will be awarded a $15.00 gift card. |
| Nebraska Civic Engagement Table | The Nebraska Civic Engagement Table works with nonprofits to increase voting and build an engaged Nebraska. | Our organization is focusing this year on community building once the municipal elections conclude. We believe that members of a community know what’s best for their own community and how to improve it. We’ve been exploring new ways to help our member nonprofits engage their communities in ways not necessarily connected to elections, including through art, virtual block parties, etc. This $1,000 would go toward this project, finding new and exciting ways for community members to engage with one another and redefine how we think of civic engagement. |
| Omaha Area Youth Orchestra | The Omaha Area Youth Orchestras inspire and educate young musicians by providing a rigorous and enlightening orchestral experience. | $1,000 in grant money would be used for need-based financial aid for students and for hiring professional musicians to coach sectionals for young musicians. |
| Omaha Girls Rock | Omaha Girls Rock’s mission is to empower youth to find their unique voice through music education, performance and creativity. Our goal is to cultivate strong, contributing members of our community. Their future starts with Omaha Girls Rock. | The $1,000 grant would go to support our summer camp programming. This year, in light of COVID restrictions, we want to pursue our in-person camps but within CDC recommendations. We will be using multiple spaces for our campers to participate on “different” campuses. In addition, we will need to offer stipends to our volunteers who will be with us all day, each day of camp. We are trying to remain accessible and equitable in the programming we offer and feel this is necessary to have the experts we need to facilitate our programs. |
| Omaha Home for Boys | To support and strengthen youth, young and families by providing services that inspire and equip them to lead independent, productive lives. |
OHB will use the $1,000 grant money to support our life changing and life saving programs. Since 1920, OHB has served as a pillar of hope in the Omaha community. OHB provides a true continuum of care to help youth, young adults and families overcome obstacles in order to reach their full potential. OHB’s programs are aimed at empowering clients with the skills and confidence needed to transition from a state of crisis to one of safety and growth. OHB’s program are Residential Living, Jacobs’ Place Transitional Living, Branching Out Independent Living, Supportive Housing, Clinical Services and Crisis Stabilization. Programs address a number of needs: Education Employment Housing Health and Wellness Life Skills Transportation Financial Stability Mentors |
| Omaha Land Bank | Our mission is to serve as a catalyst for transforming distressed properties into community assets. | The Omaha Land Bank would use the $1000 to help improve our outreach efforts. A major challenge we are facing is that the community we serve doesn’t completely understand what we do. We learned this after getting some feedback from an advisory board we formed with members from the target areas of our work. We’ve created an outreach plan with 7 activities to complete during the 2021 year. The activities we will complete are as follows: Hold an annual meeting to inform the community about our work, create an ambassador program, create and implement a plan to reach the Spanish speaking community, establish 5 partnerships with organizations that can help share our mission, increase our social media presence, attend/present in community events, and implement our corporate sponsorship program. Increasing our outreach will help us get distressed properties a new purpose, back into the hands of our community, and create opportunities for wealth creation. |
| Prairie STEM | Prairie STEM is an education-based 501(c)3 non-profit focused on improving critical thinking and creativity in all PK-12 students. Using STEM and Social Emotional Learning (SEL) integration combined with teacher professional development, students are empowered to understand their greatest value. | In the era of COVID, the Digital Divide has lasting implications. Students without devices or connectivity are without education, healthcare and resources. The gap between the haves and the have nots is growing exponentially. Prairie STEM’s response to this growing issue is our Virtual STEAM Curriculum. We have developed lessons that align to educational standards in Science, Math, and Technology while matching the scope and sequence of the districts. These lessons are multifaceted, they can be completed remotely, in class or hybrid and can be completed with or without connectivity or devices. Not all students have the materials at home and teachers and schools don’t have the manpower to assemble kits. In response to this Prairie STEM’s STEMKit division was born. STEMKits contain required materials, printed lessons and resource sheets for families and a Social Emotional Learning component. We work with partners to fund the assembly and distribution of these STEMKits to students in the area. These lessons bring an engaging and educational experience to students, aid teachers, and provide families with printed resources for healthcare, financial assistance and food pantries. This grant would help provide these resources to students. |
| Ronald McDonald House Charities in Omaha, Inc. | The mission of Ronald McDonald House Charities in Omaha (RMHC) is to create and operate programs that directly improve the health and well-being of children. RMHC strives to achieve this by providing opportunities that strengthen children and families during their most difficult and challenging times. |
Illness does not pause for crisis, therefore RMHC continues to address the unmet need of housing critically ill children and their families. The cost to deliver RMHC’s House program is approximately $120 per night. A generous gift of $1,000 from UNO’s Service Learning Academy would provide around 8 days of support for a family staying at the House which includes all of the basic necessities of home like a warm bed, hot showers, and nutritious meals. RMHC has two goals which it achieves through the House program, including:
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Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum (SAC Museum) |
The Mission of the Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum is to preserve the history of Strategic Air Command, the Cold War and aerospace artifacts and to inspire learning through imaginative, innovative, and inspirational programs and exhibits. |
Last year’s “STEM in the City” event was postponed to 2021, with some changes. This year we would like to continue to fundraise for this public event that would enrich the lives of Omaha’s under-served youth. “STEM in the City” is a career connection event that will focus on solidifying the association between academics learned in the classroom and real-life job opportunities. Students and community partners will host booths with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) activities to create career connections and the Museum will provide science demos, planetarium shows, educator-led activities, entertainment, inflatables, and prizes. Granted funds will be used to support this one-of-a-kind event |
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The Hope Center for Kids |
The Hope provides a safe after-school and summer program where children and youth can take part in academic support, youth development, faith-based learning opportunities, and receive a hot meal every night. It all started with a vision in the heart of the late Pastor Ty Schenzel who saw the need for hope in the lives of kids who could not see beyond their circumstances, and his vision became a reality in 1998. |
The Hope Center for Kids serves roughly 150 K-12th grade students in the North Omaha area. Due to remote learning and education relying largely on internet access and online databases, The Hope Center is using technology to assist in the education of its Members. By the summer of 2021, The Hope Center hopes to update the technology library of our K-5th grade classroom. The Hope Center would use the $1,000 grant to purchase new technology equipment to help support the ongoing online education. The funds would ensure that K-5th graders have access to their online classrooms, forums, educational websites and our new reading curriculum – Headsprouts. Currently, The Hope Center does not have the technology capabilities to support all K-5th graders’ education. Being awarded the $1,000 grant would help guarantee that all students can access their education and The Hope Center’s curriculum. |
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The Refugee Empowerment Center |
The mission of the Refugee Empowerment Center is to resettle and empower refugees to become self-sufficient through direct services and educational programs. |
If we should win the grant, it will go to the Project Refuge Scholarship. This is a new program that we implemented in 2020, during the pandemic. We know that refugees are under a lot of pressure to acclimate to their new environment extremely fast. They receive less than 1200 upon arriving to the United States and that is all. They are pretty much forced to become self-sufficient within months of leaving the airport. With little to no English, they have to settle for jobs that could be dangerous or they actually have education in their native country, that they shouldn’t be doing certain jobs. We set up a scholarship to pay for their needs for 6 months. If they do this, then they have time to take English or enroll in classes at a school in Omaha. |
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Tri-Faith Initiative |
Inspired by the faith of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim congregations, Tri-Faith Initiative cultivates inclusive environments to advance interfaith relationships and understanding. |
We would be able to expand our community garden to further reduce food insecurity and encourage collaboration across lines of diversity. |
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Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) |
VNA is a nonprofit organization with a mission to “delivering community-based care that provides peace of mind, quality of life and independence.” Since 1896, VNA has operated innovative programs that serve the unique public health, home health, and hospice needs of at-risk individuals and families throughout Omaha and Council Bluffs. |
VNA provides Parenting Support as part of a strategy to strengthen children and families at highest risk of adverse childhood experiences and poor lifetime outcomes. Registered nurses, parent coaches, a social worker, and lactation consultants target the needs of low-income families with children by providing intensive home visitation services over a period of 1-3 years, ideally beginning prenatally or shortly after birth. Our program uses a strengths-based approach and evidence or research-based interventions that focus on supporting parents to develop the skills necessary to protect and nurture their children, increase their understanding of developmental stages of childhood, and improve child-rearing competencies. Grant funding will allow VNA to purchase board books to promote positive parent-child interaction, brain development and communication. We estimate that each family will receive five books for their child’s library. These books will have brightly colored pages without words, making this the perfect book for all families, no matter their language or literacy level. VNA staff will help parents learn to make up stories or songs by describing the pictures on each page while promoting positive parent-child interactions. |
| Voices of Hope | Voices of Hope’s mission is two-fold: 1) to provide confidential 24-hour-a-day crisis intervention services to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, incest, stalking and related forms of abuse; and, 2) to provide presentations for the purposes of citizen awareness and prevention and offer training opportunities for professionals who work with individuals who have experienced the trauma of relationship violence or sexual abuse. | Our project focuses on enhancing our violence prevention programming by providing healthy relationships presentations to middle and high school students, and college students. A central component to these presentations is distinguishing healthy characteristics in relationships and making a commitment to engage in healthy relationships with current and future partners. We discuss the importance of maintaining relationships based on respect, equality, trust and honest communication as well as helping students to understand consent, bystander intervention, media literacy, and healthy conflict resolution. Students pledge to create relationships established in these qualities and also to help a friend if they are in an abusive relationship by saying something, modeling healthy relationships and connecting them to resources. |
| WhyArts Inc. | WhyArts, founded in 1990, is dedicated to providing Omaha’s underserved populations with access to inclusive quality arts programming. We believe each individual, no matter their circumstance, has unlimited creative potential. We also believe the arts are an incredibly powerful means of communication for the nonstandard learner. That’s why we meet each individual at his or her level and work from there. |
We will use it to provide arts programming to children or adults or disabilities. WhyArts will be adding a series of new dance programs this summer. We will be adapting these programs for persons with limited mobility or with non-non neurotypical responses. We are calling this program Across the Floor and it is designed to combine dance & social skills to have fun, gain exercise and also develop skills that can help them in their social world outside of the classroom. |
| Wisdom House Collaborative | Cultivating Well Being Through a More Mindful Community | This grant would be used for scholarships for mindful schools online courses and local mindfulness retreats - see mindfulschools.org |
| Youth Emergency Services (YES) | Youth Emergency Services assists youth experiencing homelessness and near homelessness by providing critically-needed resources which support them in their desire to be self-sufficient. | This is a difficult question to answer because we have so many different ongoing needs. Most likely, this money would go into our weekly meals fund to provide food for youth currently living on the streets. We provide hundreds of meals each month to this youth at our Street Outreach Center. This money would definitely help meet those needs. |