Far too many kids in our communities experience homelessness. CEDARS is reaching and helping more kids than ever find a safe place to spend the night, achieve stability in their lives, and strengthen family connections.
CEDARS was recently awarded a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide Street Outreach Services to youth experiencing homelessness in Omaha, Nebraska.
This historic development allows our organization to expand our existing services in the Omaha area to work with kids who are in critical need of resources or have no other safe place to spend the night.
The Street Outreach Program provides street-based services to meet the immediate needs of kids and young adults who are experiencing homelessness for a variety of reasons. Some are no longer safe in their own homes, some of their families do not have resources to care for them, and some have run away. But all of them need help and safety.
In addition, the program will help youth in the Omaha metro area who are under 21 years of age and who have been subjected to, or are at risk of being subjected to, sexual abuse, prostitution, sexual exploitation, and severe forms of trafficking. The program will aim to build relationships between street outreach workers and runaway, homeless, and at-risk youth by moving them into safe and stable housing or emergency shelter and prepare them for independence and encourage family reunification when in the best interest of the youth. CEDARS vision is to prevent the sexual abuse, human trafficking, or exploitation of young people living on the streets or in unstable housing.
CEDARS has successfully managed Runaway and Homeless Youth (RHY) grants for more than 20 years. CEDARS has the most extensive experience in successfully serving runaway, homeless, and street youth of any organization in southeastern Nebraska. We design each of our RHY programs with the goal of preventing and ending youth homelessness and will continue that high level of service in Omaha.
CEDARS Street Outreach expansion in Omaha is a great step as we continue to grow this work through community investments and expand our mission impact for kids who need us most!
