Grow Omaha
Non-Profit News

Metropolitan Community College is hosting its first car show at its Automotive Training Center. The free event, called Cars and Coffee, takes place on Saturday, August 9 and will feature free coffee, live music and tours of the training facility, which opened in 2021.

At a fundraising event on Saturday, The Angels Share Committee, along with Main Street Cellars and Qwest Distributing, raised $270,000 for renovations at Dana Village, a Lutheran Family Services project focused on youth aging out of foster care. Situated on the former Dana College campus in Blair, Dana Village is now a multi-generational community that offers housing as well as other wrap-around services for those young people, like job support and therapy.

After the City View apartment complex was put into receivership in April, local nonprofits like the North Omaha Community Partnership have been helping residents move out and find new homes. The deadline to move out was extended from July 25 to July 31 for residents working with these organizations, which also include Metro Housing Collaborative, ReImagine and the Omaha Housing Authority.

Thanks to the vision of two local moms and their nonprofit Imagine Inclusion, an inclusive playground has opened at Zorinsky Park. Built in partnership with Omaha Parks & Recreation, the playground features a wheelchair-friendly surface and accessible play equipment.

Front Porch Investments and New Visions Homeless Services announced a Request for Proposals from “qualified and mission-aligned real estate developers to lead the development of a transformative, community-centered, affordable or mixed-income housing project” on a currently vacant 4.72-acre site located south of 96th & Cady Avenue. NVHS is in the early stages of developing 46 units of permanent supportive housing for senior veterans on the parcel to the north of this site.

Project Intentional, a local nonprofit which coordinates donation drives and intentional outreach programs, has relaunched after a “purposeful pause” in 2024. To kick off its return, Project Intentional is partnering with Max I. Walker this August on the Coats for Kids campaign—collecting and distributing winter coats to Omaha children at no cost. This collaboration is the first of several planned as Project Intentional resumes programming and broadens its reach. From August 1 through October 31, customers and community members are encouraged to donate new or gently used children’s coats at any of the 10 Max I. Walker Dry Cleaners locations across the metro.

Metropolitan Community College’s 180 Re-Entry Assistance Program, the nation’s largest college-based, re-entry program, celebrated its 10-year anniversary with a luncheon and awards ceremony Thursday, July 17, at the Swanson Conference Center on the Fort Omaha Campus. In the past decade, the program has served more than 11,500 people transitioning from incarceration and court-imposed issues through holistic programs and services, including education, workforce training, job placement assistance, peer mentoring, transition support, basic needs fulfillment and more. The program also provides on-site credit and noncredit classes at Nebraska prisons and work-release centers.

Dunham House executive director and U.S. Marine Corps Colonel John Folsom laid out plans on July 15th to construct a permanent national memorial honoring the more than 6,500 U.S. servicemembers who were killed in action or died of wounds in named operations between October 2001 and August 26, 2021. The etched granite memorial is estimated to cost $2.5 million and will sit at the front entrance of Omaha’s Dunham House, the nation’s first long-term residential facility built specifically for combat-wounded veterans who have suffered catastrophic wounds, such as multiple amputations and traumatic brain injuries. Dunham House is scheduled to open next spring.

After opening its new entrance on Douglas Street, the Child Saving Institute has announced that its Early Childhood Education Center on 45th & Dodge Street will now be known as the “A.W. Clark Child Development Center,” named after the organization’s historical founder.

Yates Illuminates is hosting its third annual 2025 Summer Drum Camp from July 14 to 25. Presented by the Omaha Chamber Music Society and the Heartland Integration Center, the camp invites participants from 8 to 16 years of age to learn different drum techniques before they perform a free concert at Yates Illuminates on July 25 at 7 p.m.

Habitat for Humanity of Omaha is partnering with Charles Schwab on July 19th to host “Rock the Block” beautification projects at 10 homes in the historically significant Kountze Park neighborhood in North Omaha. Kountze Park was the site of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in 1898. Volunteers will assist with landscaping, yard cleanup and other exterior improvements.

Christian Heritage has named James Pruch as its new CEO. Pruch joined Christian Heritage in 2022 as program director and stepped into the role of marketing and development director in 2023. Since expanding to Omaha in 2002, Christian Heritage has provided critical support to foster children, and since 2008, has also served incarcerated individuals and their families.

Earlier this month, the Child Saving Institute announced the completion of their new entrance and the expanded Youth Shelter and Behavioral Health Center. The entrance is moving from Dodge to Douglas Street and will be open to the public starting July 21. The full capital project will be completed later this year.