Women’s Fund of Omaha Invests $10 Million in Local Organizations

The Women’s Fund of Omaha awarded $10 million in grants to local organizations working to improve the lives of women and girls in our community. The announcement of grant winners was made during the Lead The Change annual event.

“Today, we announce another year of substantial grant funding to make a bold impact in our community. When we collectively remove barriers for women in the workplace and in our communities, everyone benefits,” said Jo Giles, Women’s Fund executive director. “Our work will continue to focus on addressing gender-based inequities and collaborating with others to create solutions that advance, educate and fund lasting impact.”

With a commitment to supporting barrier-free access to sexual and reproductive health care, the Women’s Fund will invest more than $9 million throughout the year. These grants will focus on improving and increasing access to the sexual and reproductive health care that all young people in Nebraska need.

The following organizations receiving grant funding to provide free STD testing and treatment and condoms include:

  • Charles Drew Health Center, Inc.
  • Children’s Physicians / Children’s Hospital & Medical Center
  • Douglas County Health Department
  • Nebraska AIDS Project (NAP)
  • Nebraska Medicine Girls Inc. Health Center & Fontenelle Clinic
  • Nebraska Urban Indian Health Coalition
  • OneWorld Community Health Centers
  • Planned Parenthood North Central States
  • Pottawattamie County Public Health Department
  • University of Nebraska Lincoln Health Center
  • University of Nebraska Omaha

The grant recipients who provide barrier-free access to birth control include:

  • Charles Drew Health Center, Inc.
  • Choice Family Health Care
  • Community Action Partnership of Western Nebraska
  • Family Health Services
  • Good Neighbor Community Health Center
  • Mary Lanning Community Health Center
  • Midtown Health Center
  • OneWorld Community Health Centers
  • People’s Family Health Services
  • Planned Parenthood North Central States 
  • Three Rivers Public Health Department
  • Western Community Health Resources

“Aligned with our values of equity and bodily autonomy, we continue to work to remove barriers to sexual and reproductive health care and education because it is truly life-saving,” said Lynette Ingram, Women’s Fund adolescent health project director. “We are dedicated to ensuring that all young people have the education and resources they need to lead healthy lives.”

In bringing together a cross-sector network of survivors, service providers and community stakeholders, the Women’s Fund is working to create a community where all women and girls can live free from domestic violence, sexual assault, sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation. With an investment of nearly $1 million, a network of organizations will aim to expand training and education, increase service provider support and capacity, strengthen and expand services while continuing to support the development of a community of practice for shared learning and meaningful use of data.

To advance this work, the following organizations will receive funding from the Women’s Fund:

  • Black & Pink
  • Immigrant Legal Center
  • Heartland Family Service Sanctuary House
  • Magdalene Omaha
  • Nebraska Alliance of Child Advocacy Centers
  • Nebraska Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence
  • Project Harmony
  • Survivors Rising
  • Women’s Center for Advancement 
  • YouTurn

“We deeply value collaboration and know that we go further together than alone,” said Christon MacTaggart, Women’s Fund freedom from violence project director. “Through investing in services for survivors, we can build mutual trust and understanding and work together to create communities where all individuals are free from gender-based violence.”

In addition to announcing grant winners, the event welcomed business and community leaders in person and online, and featured activist, author and founder of the ‘me too.’ Movement Tarana Burke as a keynote speaker. Not just an overnight hashtag sensation, Tarana has dedicated more than 25 years of her life to social justice and laying the groundwork for a movement that was initially created to help young women of color who survived sexual abuse and assault.