Protecting the planet starts by improving your own neighborhood. Neighborhood groups in the Omaha metro work locally to improve their neighborhoods one park or street at a time.
Earth Day 2023’s global theme is to act boldly, innovate broadly, and implement equitably. To honor that theme, we are highlighting local community organizations and projects that focus on sustainability and environmentalism, bringing innovative projects to neighborhoods that create a sense of community pride and environmental awareness.
Below are local nonprofits that received funding for environmental clean-up projects through our Community Interest Funds in 2022. We will highlight more throughout the month of April.
Community members take care of their neighborhoods, making each part of the Omaha metro a greater place to live, walk, bike, and experience the outdoors.
The Global Leadership Group Omaha brought a Community Cleanup Challenge to the North Omaha 24th Street corridor last year, to grow volunteerism, create cleaner neighborhoods and foster a sense of community pride. With a $5,000 award from our resident-led grantmaking committee, they accomplished great things: 234 people volunteered 822 hours, collecting 191 bags of trash and filling 16 dumpsters.
Upland Park is a small community park at 30th and Madison Streets near Bellevue. The Highland South-Indian Hill Neighborhood Association requested $2,500 for a bi-weekly clean-up of this much-loved outdoor space. “Upland Park is a focal point in our neighborhood, people from all over visit it to grill out, meet with friends, and watch their children play. We want to keep it clean and continue making it a place that we can all be proud of and a place where our children can have a fun, safe, clean environment,” they wrote.
Before and after images of a lot in Plum Nelly, a historic North Omaha neighborhood.
Plum Nelly is a historic North Omaha neighborhood established more than 100 years ago around 31st and Maple Streets. Recently, it has been considered a forgotten area in the larger Omaha View neighborhood, and the Plum Nelly East Neighborhood Association wanted to revitalize it. They were awarded $5,000 from our resident-led grantmaking committee to convert an empty lot into a community vegetable garden. It was covered in dumped garbage, old tires, and abandoned tent camps. With this grant, the neighborhood association established garden beds to provide free produce to the neighborhood. They not only created a public garden but made residents feel safer with this lot repurposed.
These projects are funded through our Community Interest Funds, where donors choose to fund grants decided upon by members of the community. To learn more or donate, click here.
*The Omaha Neighborhood Grants program supports community leaders doing impactful work in their own neighborhoods; it’s about supporting residents who are making a difference right where they live and empowering neighbors to work together. Through practicing and growing active citizenship, we are building communities that reflect the vibrancy of Omaha.