FOR MAKING OUR COMMUNITY STRONG!
Together, we raised more than $36 million to help those who need it most in the Omaha-Council Bluffs metro.
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PROVIDING A CIRCLE OF SUPPORT
Learn how your gift builds a stronger tomorrow for our community.
RAISED
NONPROFIT AGENCIES
LOCAL PROGRAMS
SERVICES PROVIDED
Together, we will provide more than four million services that will address social and economic disparities in the areas of basic needs, education and financial stability throughout our community.
Thanks to your generosity and support, we raised more than $36 million through campaigns and programs in 2022 to help those who need it most in the Omaha-Council Bluffs metro. We are grateful to our donors, corporate partners, family foundations, campaign leadership, the United Way of the Midlands Board of Directors and people like YOU who make this possible. Your commitment to giving back truly makes our community stronger!
With your belief and trust in what we do, United Way of the Midlands is able to maintain multiple layers of investment in more than 100 local nonprofit programs and direct services that address social and economic disparities and meet community members’ essential needs. It’s this Circle of Support that allows us to help our neighbors overcome difficult challenges – such as the pandemic and rising inflation – and start building a better future for themselves and their families.
- Access to healthy food
- Domestic violence services
- Physical and mental health services, including medical research
- Safe and stable housing
- 211 Helpline
- Early childhood education programs that focus on improving literacy and school attendance
- Mentoring
- Out-of-school-time programs
- Asset development
- Job training
- Omaha Federation of Labor
- Personal finance classes
- Post-secondary education support
COMMUNITY CARE FUND
Through our multi-year funding process, we are investing $8 million from the Community Care Fund (CCF) into 140 programs, along with $2 million in donor-directed designations.
DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION (DEI) FUND
For its first year of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Fund, UWM is investing $400,000 in 12 programs that specifically support racial equity, and Black, Indigenous, (and) People of Color (BIPOC) populations based on socioeconomic and health outcomes that are widely disproportional by race.
The DEI Fund will advance racial equity by supporting BIPOC-led nonprofits that are empowering BIPOC community members such as low income, women and refugees/immigrants through the following funding categories: Workforce Development, Entrepreneurship, Employment and Financial Empowerment.
CITY OF OMAHA ARPA COMMUNITY GRANT PROGRAM
Through our partnership with the City of Omaha, we will administer $2.5 million annually for the next two years in investments from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Fiscal Recovery Fund to 33 programs and 24 agencies. These agencies will specifically focus on basic needs including access to food and shelter, services for persons experiencing homelessness, access to health care, behavioral and mental health services, health promotion and education, financial literacy, and family support.
INVESTED
PROGRAMS
AGENCIES
The 211 Helpline, housed at United Way of the Midlands, serves people in need across Nebraska and Western Iowa 24/7. It acts as a single point of contact for thousands of health and human service programs, community services, disaster services and governmental programs.
JAG Nebraska helps junior high and high school students overcome obstacles and build skills so they are set up for success in the classroom and workplace.
The Housing Stability Program convenes and collaborates with more than 50 nonprofit agencies, UWM worked to provide Nebraskans impacted by COVID-19 with direct assistance to pay their rent, mortgage or utilities in 2020. Moving forward, UWM will continue to provide assistance through the Omaha – MACCH Emergency Rental Assistance Program.
The Seimer Institute’s Family Support Program is a collaborative partnership that addresses the needs of families on the edge of homelessness. The program, managed by Family Housing Advisory Services Inc., provides financial education to ensure families can stay in their homes and children can stay in school.
Shine Bright occurs annually before the start of each new school year to provide students with the hygiene essentials they need to feel good and build the confidence necessary to thrive in the classroom.
During this event, volunteers help assemble over 5,000 hygiene kits that are distributed by social workers, school counselors and school nurses to local Kindergarten, sixth-and ninth-grade students. The hygiene kits serve students in Omaha Public Schools, Council Bluffs Community Schools, Papillion La Vista Schools, and Jobs for America’s Graduates classrooms across the state of Nebraska.
Nebraska Center for Workforce Development and Education (NCWDE) is focused on increasing the qualified workforce in Nebraska by creating opportunities for Omaha’s young people to gain exposure to and pursue careers in the trades, while also developing the skills to support the infrastructure of Nebraska.
Mental Health Awareness Campaign, we aim to bring to light the many resources available to help anyone struggling with mental health concerns and reduce the stigma of asking for help. As part of the campaign, we will invest more than $1 million in programs that provide mental health supports to community members.
ADDITIONAL INVESTMENTS MADE IN OUR COMMUNITY
UWM and the Omaha World-Herald are pleased to partner to administer the Goodfellows program, which provides help to those in our community who have fallen on hard times, including people between jobs, the elderly, the ill, those who have experienced abuse and those facing a personal crisis with nowhere else to turn.
The Karnett Trust was created in 1969 by Ellen C. Karnett and entrusted to UWM in 2012. United Way directs Karnett Trust funding to local programs that focus on the care, education and training of children up to age 21 with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their caregivers.
partners:
Autism Action Partnership
EasterSeals Goodwill
HETRA
Legal Aid of Nebraska Ollie Webb Center Sheltering Tree
Through our partnership with the Combined Health Agencies Drive (CHAD), health charities receive funding to conduct innovative research, provide critical client services and offer education and prevention programs to members in our community. CHAD Agencies:
- The ALS Association Mid-America Chapter
- Alzheimer’s Association Nebraska Chapter
- American Lung Association in Nebraska
- Arthritis Foundation Nebraska
- Autism Action Partnership
- Brain Injury Alliance of Nebraska
- Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, Nebraska/Iowa Chapter
- Cystic Fibrosis Foundation – Nebraska Chapter
- Epilepsy Foundation Nebraska
- JDRF – Heartland Chapter
- Leukemia & Lymphoma Society – Nebraska Chapter
- March of Dimes, Nebraska & Western Iowa Market
- Muscular Dystropy Association of Nebraska
- National MS Society – Mid America Chapter
- Nebraska AIDS Project
- Nebraska Chapter of National Hemophilia Foundation
- Nebraska Community Blood Bank
- Nebraska Health Care Foundation
- Nebraska Hospice and Palliative Care Association
- Nebraska Kidney Association
- Susan G. Komen ® Great Plains
- Team Jack Foundation
- United Cerebral Palsy Nebraska