Our community services and centers enhance daily living for special populations. Participants enjoy friendship, fun and food to fill out-of-school time and long, lonely days. Good nutrition and education are important components of these programs.

Family & Child Resource Center
This neighborhood facility provides the richest sources of information and materials on family issues and child development in North Omaha.

Senior Center
Our Senior Center provides fun, food and friendship to area seniors over the age of 55. Lunch and limited transportation are available.

Service Learning
Research shows that students are more successful in school when they are involved with community service. This program guides middle-school students in developing and conducting service projects.

Solomon Girls Center
The Ruth K. Solomon Girls Center is the oldest girls center in Omaha, established in 1966. It is a place for girls age 5-18 to find fun and friendships, and for parents to have a low-cost option for their daughters’ after-school and summer hours.

Ways to Work
Because reliable transportation is so important to successful job and parenting responsibilties, Ways to Work helps working parents repair poor credit scores by providing low-interest auto loans.

Volunteer Opportunities

Contact the volunteer coordinator to:

• Host a birthday party
• Help with homework
• Mentor a girl
• Present speeches or classes on leadership, career and senior topics
• Be an arts and crafts instructor
• Sponsor a field trip
• Serve lunch
• Be a friendly visitor
• Sponsor an outing
• Serve on a loan approval committee

Donation Opportunities

• Items from the Solomon Girls Center Wish List (PDF)
• Items from the Senior Center Wish List (PDF)
• A field trip
• Auto services
• A monetary gift

Programs in this Category

Family & Child Care Resource Center
Senior Center
Service Learning
Solomon Girls Center
Ways to Work Auto Loans

Family & Child Care Resource Center

The Family & Child Care Resource Center is a neighborhood facility in North Omaha that provides free and low-cost partent and child care materials. The center is designed for partents, child care providoers, teachers and others who are concerned with family and children’s issues.

Heartland Family Service is one of the leading sources of early childhood training courses in the metro are, and assists in planning and conducting major training conferences for the local child care profession.

Senior Center

The Heartland Family Service Senior Center, located at 2101 so. 42nd Street, supports the recreational, social and nutritional needs of the senior citizen over 60 years of age in the Midtown Omaha area. The center offers area residents a variety of activities including classes, speakers, movies, discussion groups, exercise classes, excursions, and parties, which are scheduled regularly every month. Tai Chi classes are offered on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. In addition, geriatric counseling is available, as well as direct assistance in obtaining needed services, through a case manager from the Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging (ENOA). The senior center serves an ENOA- sponsored hot lunch at noon for a $2.50 contribution. Hours are 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Transportation is available within a limited area. There is no fee to join the center, which is a collaboration among Heartland Family Service, ENOA & United Way of the Midlands. Stop by to visit or call (402) 553-5300 one day in advance to reserve a noon meal or for information. Click here for Senior Center Activities.

Service Learning

Middle school is a critical time when students begin making personal decisions that result in whether they continue to remain in school or drop out. Engaging them in community service is one way to teach useful skills and social empathy. It also elevates them from the elementary “child care status” to adolescent “project management status.”

Service Learning is a class provided to Omaha Public School (OPS) middle school students participating in its After School programs. A Heartland Family Service instructor guides youth in researching, developing, planning, proposing and carrying out service learning projects.

The class meets twice weekly for six weeks and utilizes many of the key academic concepts taught in the middle schools. Once approved, the students carry out their project, then reflect on and share the experience with their peers and parents at a Family Night.

Solomon Girls Center

The Solomon Girls Center is a summer and after-school recreational program that offers tutoring, career education, social skills development and leadership guidance to girls age 5-18 years. School-year hours are 2:30 – 6:30 p.m. Summer hours are 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Girls may attend every weekday. The center is located at 6720 North 30th Street, as part of the Heartland Family Service North Office.
Solomon Girls Center offers year-round educational, cultural, social and recreational programming to the daughters of approximately 250 families in the area. Activities promote skill development and provide assistance in dealing with the issues that challenge today’s girls and young women. The ultimate aim of the Center is to provide its members with those qualities that enable them to have positive social interactions and relationships. The Summer Program is offered at Trinity Lutheran Church, next door to the Solomon Center. Field trips and activities are offered for recreation, leadership and social skills. Call (402) 455-1755 for more information. Click here for Solomon Girls Center Activities.

Ways to Work

The purpose of Ways to Work program is to help low-income parents to buy reliable transportation necessary to remain employed and take their children to doctor appointments, daycare, school, and to access goods and services. Loans as much as $6,000 are available to qualifying working residents of Pottawattamie & Mills Counties in Iowa and Douglas, Sarpy & Washington Counties in Nebraska. The program does not compete with mainstream loan programs, but rather offers an alternative for high-risk people with a demonstrated commitment to achieving increased self-sufficiency, and who are intent on pursuing a higher degree of success in mainstream financial markets. Loans must be repaid and case management services provide support to ensure successful repayment of the loan. Offices are located in Omaha and in Council Bluffs.

For more information on the local or national Ways to Work program, to serve as a volunteer or partner in the program, email Jenny Stewart, Ways to Work director, or call (712) 325-5619.

Click here to start your application process for a Ways to Work loan or contact Lisa Picker, Ways to Work loan coordinator at lpicker@heartlandfamilyservice.org or (712) 435-5368.

How to Qualify for a Ways to Work Auto Loan
To qualify for a Ways to Work auto loan, an applicant must be a resident of Douglas, Sarpy or Washington Counties in Nebraska; or Pottawattamie or Mills County in Iowa. Applicants must have been employed for 20 hours or more weekly for six consecutive months, and meet low-income standards for the community. Because the program is set up to support families, each client must be responsible for dependent children. All clients lack or have poor credit histories, and are ineligible for low-interest loans through mainstream financial institutions that are not set up to accommodate high-risk applicants. The Ways to Work program requires applicants to take a financial education course as part of the loan process.

How Heartland Family Service Staff Helps Applicants
To increase the client’s success in repaying the loan, Heartland Family Service Ways to Work staff guides borrowers through the loan application process and provides case management support regarding budgeting, credit ratings and financial planning. They help clients find reliable cars, keep in touch with them throughout the loan repayment period, and refer them to additional services to strengthen the borrower’s success for repayment. As with any conventional loan, fees apply and all loans must be repaid.
Watch Jennifer, a Ways to Work client, get her car washed at the Kwik Shop fundraiser!
Ways to Work flier.
Click to visit the National Ways to Work website.

Thanks to our local Kwik Shop employees and customers for their second annual donation to the Ways to Work program. Read more at Kwik Shop Donation

Thanks to the Walmart Foundation for providing funding for this program!