Past Grant Awards

WIN has awarded more than $2 million in grants since 2011.  Hover over the photos below to see more information about the projects.

2024 Nebraska Nonprofit Award
$122,376

Foster Care Closet of Nebraska

Foster Care Closet, Lincoln, Nebraska

New Vehicle, Lincoln, Nebraska — For Nebraska’s 4,000 youth in care, the need for new clothing is urgent, critical and ongoing. Out of those 4,000, there are 3,380 youth who cannot conveniently come to Lincoln to shop at the physical store. A youth who does not have their basic clothing needs met can hardly participate in the resources available to them in foster care. The clothing that youth in care choose at Foster Care Closet can give them comfort and confidence as they face the many challenges of life in care. The Mobile Closet program is designed to bring the intentional shopping experience for foster youth to them, in their neighborhood.

2024 University of Nebraska Award
$122,376

University of Nebraska Medical Center, College of Nursing

University of Nebraska Medical Center, College of Nursing

There are currently no fellowships or academic programs offering emergency training for nurse practitioners (NPs) in the state of Nebraska. After surveying key stakeholders and consumers across Nebraska, the College of Nursing found 22 of the 23 health care facilities responded that they have previously and/or currently have provider shortages in their emergency room settings, utilizing NPs to fill this gap when they are not properly trained. The Emergency Nurse Practitioner (ENP) certificate will expand Family NP’s knowledge and training in emergency care.

2023 Nebraska Nonprofit Award
$110,342

Nebraska Panhandle Area Health Education Center

Nebraska Panhandle Area Health Education Center: Connecting Students to Healthcare Opportunities, Scottsbluff, Nebraska

Serve 500 youth throughout the 17 Western Nebraska counties to home grow their own healthcare workforce pipeline in rural and underserved Nebraska through fun and educational hands-on, healthcare focused experiences for increased health outcomes for the citizens of the rural panhandle communities.

2023 University of Nebraska Award
$110,342

University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Law, Children's Justice Clinic

University of Nebraska-Lincoln, College of Law

Children’s Justice Clinic (CJC) law students serve as Guardians ad Litem (GAL) for over 100 abused and neglected children in juvenile court. WIN funding would provide a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW) to partner with CJC students enhancing their advocacy for the state’s most vulnerable children in juvenile court.

2022 Nebraska Nonprofit Award
$92,550

Child Advocacy Center Medical Clinic in York, Nebraska

Child Advocacy Center in York, Nebraska

Respond to child abuse through a team approach designed to reduce trauma, seek justice, and promote hope and healing for children and their families. A key component of this is ensuring the physical well-being of children after trauma. The purpose of this project is to provide access to comprehensive medical care for all children served by the CAC, including those entering the foster care system.

2022 University of Nebraska Award
$92,550

University of Nebraska at Kearney, College Readiness for Hispanics, Las Communidades y LatinX Familias en UNK

University of Nebraska at Kearney, College Readiness for Hispanics

Designed to increase college attendance aspiration among Hispanic youth in central Nebraska through targeted community engagement and campus programming by the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Students and their families will learn about higher education and identify career paths through interactive workshops in Lexington, Grand Island and Kearney.

2021 Nebraska Nonprofit Award
$86,375

Magdalene Omaha New Beginnings Campus
Expanded Programs for Survivors of Sex Trafficking

Magdalene Omaha New Beginnings Campus and Expanded Programs for Survivors of Sex Trafficking

Magdalene Omaha has worked to serve more survivors than the residential program can currently accommodate. The needs of survivors range from food security to substance abuse assistance and job training. The WIN grant will assist Magdalene Omaha with its physical space as well as staffing and development of online and in-person options for its curriculum to reach survivors throughout the state.

2021 University of Nebraska Award
$86,375

University of Nebraska Kearney
Head Start Target STEM in Preschool

Head Start Target STEM in Preschool

The program focuses on early STEM concept development by providing preschool teachers the opportunity to advance their teaching practices. The funding will support up to 20 Head Start educators with four, tuition-free graduate level courses along with individually designed support for increased participant retention and success.

2020 Nebraska Nonprofit Award
$84,000

Legal Aid of Nebraska
Health Education and Law Project (HELP)

Legal Aid of Nebraska
Health Education and Law Project (HELP)

Legal Aid of Nebraska and its Health, Education and Law Project (HELP) provide legal assistance to veterans being treated at the Department of Veterans Affairs Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System in Omaha, who may need a legal guardian, legal action to avoid eviction while hospitalized or access to benefits they have earned.
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2020 University of Nebraska Award
$84,000

University of Nebraska: ITS
Inclusive Access and Open Educational Resources Program

Inclusive Access and Open Educational Resources Program

WIN’s grant to the University of Nebraska ITS supports a program that helps to reduce the costs students incur for textbooks and other learning resources. The program provides access to open educational resources — digital materials available freely or at reduced cost — as well as assistance for faculty members who seek the appropriate academic materials for their classes at lower costs for students.
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2019 Nebraska Nonprofit Award $93,000

Nebraska Children's Home Society Center for Children and Families
Raising Your Grandchildren

Raising Your Grandchildren

The Raising Your Grandchildren program provides a six-week psychoeducation series and support group for grandparents raising their grandchildren. The grant allows the program to expand its offerings for grandparents who lovingly redirect their plans and priorities as family needs arise in Omaha and to offer services in Lincoln.

2019 University of Nebraska Award $93,000

University of Nebraska: Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs
Counselor-in-Residence Program

Counselor-in-Residence Program

The Counselor-in-Residence program is a partnership between UNL's Student Affairs, University Housing, Counseling and Psychological Services and College of Education and Human Sciences that co-locates counselors in residence halls where students naturally gather. The program offers immediate access to services and reduces potential barriers for students who might not otherwise seek help.
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2018 Nebraska Nonprofit Award $91,500

Sherman County Prevention Coalition
Every School After School

Every School After School

Every School After School will provide curriculum materials, training and ongoing support to an additional 15 schools, each with 200 to 2,000 students, expanding the availability of quality, meaningful after-school programming in areas where parents need accessible, affordable ways to care for their children in the time between school and the end of the work day.

2018 University of Nebraska Award $91,500

UNMC College of Nursing West Division in Scottsbluff
Geriatric Cognitive and Mental Health Project for Rural Nebraska

Geriatric Cognitive and Mental Health Project for Rural Nebraska

This project will make early screening and accessible services available to the more than 16,000 older adults living in the state’s 11-county Panhandle region, where there is a shortage of mental health services. The program will provide services to an estimated 500 older Nebraskans through specialized clinics and will conduct approximately 40 comprehensive geriatric cognitive and dementia assessments during 2019. It also provides on-site clinical training to psychiatric mental health and adult geriatric nurse practitioner students, with a goal of having a nurse practitioner remain and practice in the Panhandle after graduation.

2017 Nebraska Nonprofit Award $85,000

Brain Injury Alliance of Nebraska
Brain Injury and Domestic Violence:
Making the Connection and Inproving Care

Brain Injury and Domestic Violence: Making the Connection and Improving Care

Brain Injury and Domestic Violence: Making the Connection and Improving Care will train domestic violence shelter staff, health care providers and others who come in contact with survivors of domestic violence to screen for indicators of traumatic brain injury, including concussions, which might otherwise be mistaken for disorganization, intoxication, fatigue or other conditions. Collaborating with care providers and researchers in the state, the group is widening the reach of its pilot program, which included 93 survivors of domestic violence with 60 percent showing indicators of possible traumatic brain injury.

2017 University of Nebraska Award $85,000

UNMC Munroe-Meyer Institute
Statewide NICU Feeding and Swallowing Follow Up

Statewide NICU Feeding and Swallowing Follow-up

Statewide NICU Feeding and Swallowing Follow-up will make available portable fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation equipment in the Hastings area and training for an existing network of speech pathologists around the state. This project makes it easier for families living outside the Lincoln and Omaha areas to access radiation-free and cost-effective follow-up screening for swallowing development in infants who spent time in neonatal intensive care units after birth. Feeding and swallowing needs change as infants develop, which impacts not only nutrition and growth but the development of self-calming abilities, communication and bonding with families.

2016 Nebraska Nonprofit Award $62,500

Food Bank for the Heartland
Kids Cruisin' Kitchen

Kids Cruisin' Kitchen

Food Bank for the Heartland's Kids Cruisin' Kitchen program provided healthy summer meals to children who qualified for free and reduced-price lunches during the school year. In 2017, Omaha-area summer programs included food for parents or guardians who also might otherwise go hungry. The USDA Food Insecurity Index shows that one in five children in Nebraska is food insecure, meaning they are uncertain from where their future meals will come.
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2016 University of Nebraska Award $62,500

University of Nebraska Medical Center
Simulation in Motion-Nebraska

Simulation in Motion-Nebraska

UNMC's Simulation in Motion-Nebraska grant helped send mobile, high-tech simulation trucks across Nebraska, offering rural first responders, who may provide the only medical care for many miles, training opportunities for life-saving procedures. Training for volunteers and health care professionals is provided at no cost and is tailored to needs in each region of the state. Each simulation vehicle houses human patient simulators and supplies to recreate emergency settings as close to reality as possible.

2015 Nebraska Nonprofit Award $53,700

Tabitha EngAGE

Tabitha EngAGE

Tabitha, which serves 28 Nebraska counties with health care services for older adults began a new program to provide care coordination for adults age 65 and older who are especially at risk because of limited income, chronic or emergent health conditions, or psychosocial concerns. EngAGE by Tabitha provides individuals and their families with personalized support through consultation, advice and coordinated access to health care services.

2015 University of Nebraska Award $53,700

University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Center for Science, Mathematics and Computer Education
Primarily Math

Primarily Math

Primarily Math, a program of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Center for Science, Mathematics and Computer Education, works to transform K-3 mathematics education in Nebraska. The funding allowed Primarily Math to provide training for teachers in high-need school districts across the state, helping with their own knowledge of mathematics and improving the teaching of mathematics in primary grades.

2014 Nebraska Nonprofit Award $75,950

Third City Community Clinic

Third City Community Clinic

Third City Community Clinic's grant funded urgent and critical needs, giving hope to children, women and men with neither funds nor insurance. The clinic supplies medical and dental care and medication to families who otherwise are without access to health care. The grant helped to increase the number of patients served, updated equipment and assisted with pharmaceutical costs and professional staff.

2014 University of Nebraska Award $75,950

University of Nebraska-Lincoln
HearU Nebraska

HearU Nebraska

HearU Nebraska helps ensure that every child in Nebraska has access to sound, regardless of their family's financial means. By giving the "gift of hearing" to children, this project helped minimize the effects of hearing loss on children's language acquisition, cognition and overall educational success. With the grant, HearU Nebraska fit 217 hearing aids on 127 children across Nebraska ranging from 3 weeks to 18 years of age and purchased testing equipment that can be used with babies as young as 2 or 3 weeks old.
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2013 Nebraska Nonprofit Award $76,750

Nebraska Children and Families Foundation
Project Everlast

Project Everlast

Project Everlast is an innovative partnership working with young adults transitioning out of the foster care system and into independent adult life. The grant helped expand the program into Lincoln and northeast Nebraska.

2013 University of Nebraska Award $76,750

University of Nebraska at Omaha
Women and IT Engagement Link

Women and IT Engagement Link

The grant supported a middle school immersion program, high school computing recognition and UNO student and faculty programs to help encourage women to pursue technology careers.

2012 Nebraska Nonprofit Award $77,425

Nebraska Alliance of Child Advocacy Centers

Nebraska Alliance of Child Advocacy Centers

A statewide training initiative focused on prevention, identification and reporting of child abuse and neglect included 1,767 professionals and community members. Training was segmented for law enforcement personnel, adults involved with youth organizations, individuals in mandatory child abuse reporting positions, such as teachers and day care providers, and online learners wanting more information about prevention, identification and reporting.

2012 University of Nebraska Award $77,425

UNMC College of Nursing Mobile Nurse-Managed Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment Project

College of Nursing Mobile Nurse-Managed Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment Project

Funding provided 504 supervised UNMC nurse practitioner training hours to assess the needs and care of 27 older adults in rural Kearney. This program provided needed experience for health care professionals and contributed to improved geriatric health services.