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* Visiting Nurse Association - $25,000 merit grant recognizing excellence in programming for women
* Camp Fire USA - Midlands Council - $20,000 merit grant recognizing programming excellence for girls.
* Grants totaling $10,500 honor seven women who have previously received the WomanSpirit award. Recipients are American Red Cross, Camp Fire, Girls Inc., Heartland Family Service, Planned Parenthood and YWCA.
Community initaited grants:
* American Red Cross – $4,950 to integrate HIV and STD prevention education into its popular Babysitter’s Training course, targeting underserved teen girls. Participants will be given information on at-risk behaviors and related topics so they can make healthy choices.
* Camp Fire USA (Methodist Health System and Little Women awards) -- $6,000 to support sexual literacy programming for at least 50 girls ages 13 to 18. Twenty-five of the attendees will then teach other teens about healthy relationships and body image.
* Catholic Charities -- $7,500 for Immigration Legal Services to provide low- to no-cost legal service to women seeking U-Visa relief. This process enables women to escape abusive relationships, obtain U.S. residency, and achieve self-sufficiency.
* Essential Pregnancy Services -- $3,500 for “The Healthier, Stronger, More Beautiful You” is a peer support group for high-school-age women. It strives to teach that healthy sexuality comes from physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health.
* Family Housing Advisory Services (Weitz Award) -- $9,000 for the $mart Change Program providing single, low-income women knowledge to improve their financial condition. Workshops and counseling cover topics such as saving, tax benefits, credit issues, housing opportunities and community resources.
* Girls Inc. -- $7,000 for “Sexpertise,” a year-long program to educate 200 girls ages 13 to 18 about reproductive health and sexuality, dispel pregnancy and STD myths, increase the likelihood they will use resources available to them and will delay sexual activity, and reinforce their vision of a self-sufficient, successful future.
* Justice for Our Neighbors -- $7,500 to step up education and advocacy efforts regarding domestic violence and other violent crimes toward women and children. Focus is on the Violence Against Women immigration provision, as well as the U and T visas, to ensure clients, crisis workers and social service providers have current, correct information about these laws.
Nebraska Children’s Home Society -- $10,000 to expand its “Teen Girls Chat Program.” Up to 120 teen girls will participate in the program, which focuses on STD education and development of a healthy sense of sexual well-being and helps participants with self-empowerment skills.
* Planned Parenthood of the Heartland -- $3,000 to expand educational programming for women and adolescent girls in a substance abuse treatment facility. The program, which focuses on sexual health literacy, STD prevention and relationship issues, addresses the high rates of STDs among girls and women who abuse alcohol and/or use illicit drugs.
* R.E.S.P.E.C.T.2 (Lozier award) -- $2,500 to develop educational theatre to teach middle school students about STDs, risky sexual behaviors, making healthy choices, and how to support peers and access resources. R.E.S.P.E.C.T.2 is collaborating with schools and girl-serving organizations to develop and present these programs.
* YWCA - $10,000 to develop the “Self-Sufficiency Pilot Program” to streamline and improve delivery of programs and services to 30 under-served, low-income women through the collaborative efforts of nine agencies. Participants will work individually with a YWCA case manager to develop short- and long-term goals.
The Women’s Fund of Greater Omaha dispersed grants totaling $125,000 during its ninth annual fall luncheon.
“We are excited to announce these grants for programs that will make a substantial and sustainable impact on the well-being of women and girls in Omaha,” said Debbie Fraser, grants committee chair.
“It’s heartwarming to realize that we are exceeding the $1 million mark as the Women’s Fund approaches its 20th anniversary in 2010.”
Over the years, Fraser said, more than 100 organizations have benefited from the awards.
“Across the nation, women and girls’ programs traditionally get about 7 percent of the philanthropic dollar,” said Ellie Archer, executive director of the group. “So I think that speaks for itself, especially since so many women and their families are the ones that are living in poverty. We just feel it’s really important to help them.”
This year’s grants, announced Thursday, brought the cumulative amount awarded by the Women’s Fund of Greater Omaha to more than $1 million.
Christy Nicolaisen of Justice for Our Neighbors said the grant was “critically important.
“The reason we receive monies from the Women’s Fund is for domestic violence and women who are crime victims. It’s crucial . . . because we have over 200 cases of domestic violence or women who have been in a victim situation, and it helps us help them. And it helps them become self-sufficient and shows them that there’s a community out there supporting them.”
Natalia Peart, chief executive of YWCA, said the funds can help form some collaborations in the community.
“This is a grant that we’re going to use to bring other partners, so that we’re really providing them a holistic way in which we’re understanding ‘what do the clients need?’ And ‘how do we actually talk on a regular basis?’ Do a full intake, full assessment and get them to self sufficiency?”
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