On Tuesday, March 29th, 2022 we hosted the 3rd Annual Nebraska Day of Empathy! This day was nothing short of spectacular! After two years of hosting exclusively virtual events, we were able to gather a small group and offer virtual for more people to join.

In 2021 the RISE Employment Program built a database of over 200 background friendly employers in Nebraska. The Employment Program also achieved an 89% employment rate amongst of released RISE graduates. By increasing employer relationships in Omaha, Lincoln and across the state, RISE established itself as one of the leaders in the Metro area for successfully navigating employment for the formerly incarcerated.

The RISE Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee invites you to recognize National Second Chance Month and Arab-American Heritage Month during April, as these events directly impact the population we serve and care about.

Nebraska needs criminal justice reform now. Our prison system is in an overcrowding crisis and we have the opportunity to do something about it. We need your help to make LB920 a reality!

Over the last decade, the population of Nebraska prisons increased 21%, differing from the national trend of a decreasing imprisonment rate. Further, there has been a 38% increase in the amount of time people spend in prison, and a decrease in parole grants.

ACTION ALERT: Tell the Legislature Nebraskans reentering society should not be denied food benefits for life.

During my weekly “letter time” where I close my office door to dive into mail received from our incarcerated people, a neatly written envelope with a pink letter folded inside caught my attention.

Scrolled at the top in cursive letters I read,“Please don’t give up on me.”

At RISE, we celebrate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and celebrate Women’s History Month during the month of March. Women’s History Month was founded by the National Women’s History Project and was publicly recognized and put into presidential proclamation in 1987.

The RISE In-Prison Program continued to have programming delays in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic as facilities would go into lockdowns for weeks - even months on end. However, our program participants and peer facilitators stayed focused and determined, often meeting with their fellow classmates in housing units, which allowed the program to stay on course.

RISE is celebrating African American History month this February with a formal presentation by Dr. Nikitah Imani at tomorrow's RISE all staff meeting, February 25th.

Jasmine L. Harris, RISE’s Director of Policy and Advocacy, graduated from Dream Corps JUSTICE’s first-ever Empathy Network Leadership Cohort. The 6-month training program was modeled after strategies Dream Corps JUSTICE used while working to pass the First Step Act in 2018; the bipartisan legislative effort across the country to improve criminal justice outcomes and reduce the federal prison population.

On Friday evening, February 4th, 60 masked people crammed into the Culxr House to listen to spoken word poems, stories and reflections from the RISE Youth & Family Program participants who had just completed a six-week session on effective communication. When we ran out of chairs people sat on the floor and stood in the back, everyone there to hold space and to truly see and hear from people that most have written off, or fear, or don't think deserve everything we all desire out of life, whatever that means.

We are thrilled to share RISE has been selected to receive a $1,000 grant from The Starbucks Foundation as part of their Neighborhood Grants program.

We're celebrating everyone that makes RISE a success. We could not do this work and without the support, engagement, volunteerism, expertise, and hope you give.

We are thrilled to announce RISE's most recent team member, Emma Johnson, as the Director of Annual Giving & Stewardship!