Omaha is a great place to live and work, but like many urban metro areas, poverty has been a persistent and growing problem. In 2016, the founders of Omaha Bridges Out of Poverty began looking at poverty in the metro area. They discovered that more than 100,000 people were living in poverty in metro Omaha/Council Bluffs. They visited more than fifty agencies serving lower income families and individuals. These agencies were meeting urgent needs, but what was lacking was a permanent solution for under-resourced individuals living at or below the poverty level.
After looking at the big picture, the founders went to work to develop a top-down approach and come up with an effective solution to essentially eliminate poverty in Omaha. That’s when they discovered Omaha Bridges Out of Poverty and the Getting Ahead curriculum. Both programs were being successfully used in 300 US communities as well as in six foreign countries, with a 75% success rate of helping individuals to lift themselves out of poverty.
Omaha Bridges Out of Poverty took a collaborative approach with existing agencies and now partners with more than 100 Community Agencies to defeat poverty in the community.