Category: Omaha

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Stories We Shared – Photos from Welcoming Week 2025 & Beyond!

Welcoming Week 2025: Stories We Share

Welcoming Week: September 12-21 and beyond!


Welcoming Week 2025 has been a beautiful celebration of Nebraska’s cultural richness, inclusion, and building strong connected communities – with a few more events still to come! This year, creative Welcomers across Nebraska are hosting over 70 events in more than 9 communities across the state from Scottsbluff and Grand Island to Crete and South Sioux City. Events included local business tours, community celebrations, cultural festivals and performances, main street parades, learning events and conversations, multilingual storytelling, and neighbors coming together to share space in art, music and food, all to ensure everyone in our community can feel a sense of belonging! 

Check-out these photos of a few more of the #WelcomingWeek2025 events that have happened across Nebraska:


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Celebrando Siouxland & Lotería Night with Unity in Action and many local partners

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We Are One & Salsa Night with Grand Island Welcoming Initiative

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Celebrate Crete with Doane University and Crete in Motion 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Family Fun Night with Lexington Public Library & TinaMaria – HOPE Esperanza

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Community Potluck with HOPE Esperanza & Friends

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

Lincoln Unites! Celebration & Karen Society of Nebraska service project

Join the Statewide Celebration: Nebraska Stories We Share!

This Welcoming Week kicked off a story gathering effort that continues after Welcoming Week through the year. Nebraskans everywhere are lifting up the journeys, traditions and roots that connect us all. 

It’s easy to join! Just follow these easy steps:

  1. First, select a story prompt to use to tell your story.
  2. Second, select how to share your story.
  3. Third, use our toolkit to find tools and resources to help tell your story. 

Access the toolkit here to learn more and join us! 

(You will have access to social media templates, and printouts for in-person gatherings)

Don’t forget to submit your own story and be featured on Nebraska is Home social media, helping inspire connection and belonging across our state. Together, we’re showing that We Belong Together. 

 

Beyond Welcoming Week events to come!

Click here to find a few more local Nebraska events NEAR YOU! …And then Nebraska communities’ local inclusion and belonging work continues! Take a moment to reflect on your Welcoming Week and the opportunities to build upon it – whether inviting someone new you met to another community event, continuing your personal learning, expanding community learning, or maybe just regrouping with other Welcomers to say “What’s next?” 

Thank you to all for celebrating Welcoming Week 2025 and for being an integral part of what makes Nebraska home for so many! Please reach out to us to support additional welcoming and belonging efforts throughout the year.

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Welcoming Week Continues! More events across Nebraska!

Welcoming Week: September 12-21 and beyond!

& Public Calendar of Nebraska Events

Nebraskans across the state have kicked off Welcoming Week with a great start and we’re still celebrating! In communities from Scottsbluff to South Sioux City, there are film screenings, dance parties, community art, local business tours, family fun nights & story hours, local service projects, street food – so many ways to connect, learn, and have fun with neighbors! 

There are events every day across Nebraska with more over the weekend. Bring your family! Invite your neighbor! Ask a co-worker to join you! 


 

 

 

 

Community members celebrate Lincoln’s 4 Star Welcoming City Certification reflecting years of community collaboration across sectors to ensure all residents can fully participate in and contribute to community life. Lincoln joins Crete as the second Certified Welcoming City. 


 

 

 

 

Grand Island Neighbors gathered for the 4th Street Business Tour! 


 

 

 


Latino Festivals are happening in many communities during Hispanic Heritage Month. 

 

Click here to find local Nebraska events NEAR YOU! Nebraskans across the state are hosting cultural performances, learning events, festivals and parades, and sharing food and stories of belonging and more! See this calendar of more than 70 events in communities across Nebraska!

Join a virtual event or participate in a Welcoming Week event outside Nebraska if you are traveling – Welcoming Week is being celebrated around the world!

Participate in the Statewide Effort: Nebraska Stories We Share!

This Welcoming Week, Nebraskans everywhere are lifting up the journeys, traditions and roots that connect us all. 

It’s easy to join: share your story using one of our prompts and post on your own social media, share in person or submit your story to us! 

Click here to learn more about the effort and join us!

Don’t forget to submit your own story and be featured on Nebraska is Home social media, helping inspire connection and belonging across our state. Together, we’re showing that We Belong Together. 

 

Print a Welcomer sign for your office/business, post on social media, or use the Toolkit to create social media graphics, email banners or virtual meeting backgrounds in your next video call! 

Reach out to Eric and Christa if you’d like to discuss doing something in your workplace, among friends, at your place of worship or somewhere else. We have some ideas that could be done with quick planning. 

Engage on social media! Share your photos and experiences with welcoming on social media using the hashtag #WelcomingWeek2025. Follow Nebraska Is Home and Welcoming America on Facebook or @WelcomingUSA on Instagram.

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Welcoming Week events across Nebraska! September 13-22

Welcoming Week 2025 is here!

Welcoming Week: September 12-21 and beyond! & Public Calendar of Nebraska Events

Welcoming Week is a great opportunity to get to know neighbors – new and old – to build strong and connected communities, to embrace the universal values of welcoming places, and to celebrate culture, helping everyone to belong and feel at home. Because our communities are strongest when everyone knows they belong. 

This year’s Welcoming Week theme “The Stories We Share“ invites us all to build understanding and celebrate our differences while also finding what we have in common. Through that understanding, we can help shape what comes next alongside our neighbors. 

Join neighbors here in Nebraska, across the country and around the globe, where community members are recognizing, no matter where we’re from and our different backgrounds, our common values and our future call on us to imagine what we can achieve when we listen and learn from one another. Across Nebraska, there are film screenings, dance parties, community art, local business tours, family fun nights & story hours, local service projects, street food – so many ways to connect, learn, and have fun with neighbors!

We know that here in Nebraska, welcoming is a core part of who we are, and we have a proud history of welcoming. No matter our different backgrounds, we share traditions and stories that started first in community, in finding commonalities, and in supporting each other as people, friends, and neighbors. 

You can enjoy Welcoming Week whether you are organizing an activity, sharing a message of community, or are just curious about getting to know your neighbors. 

Check out these Local Nebraska Welcoming Week Events & More!

Click here to find local Nebraska events NEAR YOU! Nebraskans across the state are hosting cultural performances, learning events, festivals and parades, and sharing food and stories of belonging and more! See this calendar of more than 50 events in communities across Nebraska!

Join a virtual event or participate in a Welcoming Week event outside Nebraska if you are traveling – Welcoming Week is being celebrated around the world!

Share Your Story – Be Part of Nebraska Stories We Share!

This Welcoming Week, we are lifting up the journeys, traditions and roots that connect us all. Join people across Nebraska in Stories We Share by posting your own story or photo and using the hashtag #StoriesWeShareNE. 

Click here to learn more about the campaign and join us!

Your story could be featured on Nebraska is Home social media, helping inspire connection and belonging across our state. Together, we’re showing that We Belong Together.

Here’s how else you can participate if you cannot attend an event!

Print a Welcomer sign for your office/business, post on social media, or use the Toolkit to create social media graphics, email banners or virtual meeting backgrounds in your next video call! 

Reach out to either of us (Eric and Christa) if you’d like to discuss doing something in your workplace, among friends, at your place of worship or somewhere else. We have some ideas that could be done with quick planning. 

Engage on social media! Share your photos and experiences with welcoming on social media using the hashtag #WelcomingWeek2025. Follow Nebraska Is Home and Welcoming America on Facebook or @WelcomingUSA on Instagram.

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Nebraska’s First Certified Welcoming City Announced! + Upcoming Events

Nebraska communities across the state are committed to strengthening local economies, building vibrant communities of neighbors, and fostering meaningful connections across differences by creating inclusive practices. One community has been recognized by Welcoming America for their commitment. 

Congratulations to Crete, Nebraska who is officially the first city in the state to be recognized as a Certified Welcoming City from Welcoming America! Strong communities like Crete, are those that intentionally connect and include people of all backgrounds. Certified Welcoming is a formal designation for cities and counties that have created programs and policies reflecting their values and commitment to immigrant inclusion.  

Among the cities and counties that have earned Welcoming Certification—including Tulsa, Louisville, Salt Lake City, Dayton, Dallas, and Pittsburgh—Crete stands out as a uniquely rural community, with a population roughly 130,000 smaller than the next largest certified town. Yet Crete has long been a leader in innovation in efforts to include and welcome immigrant community members in all areas of civic, social, and economic life and foster meaningful connections across differences. 

We joined our neighbors in Crete for their Welcoming City Celebration on February 28th. Our team had a great time connecting with community members and longtime colleagues while celebrating this momentous occasion! Check out some of the images below to get a glimpse of the celebration.

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Other events & announcements:

We’re excited to announce To The State Of The Good Life, a Nebraska film has been accepted into the Omaha Film Festival. The short film explores the American Dream through the eyes of Raúl Arcos Hawkins, a Grand Island community leader and DACA community member. This narrative weaves Raúl’s personal aspirations with the collective anxiety of Dreamers across the country, capturing their hope for a legislative solution that would at last create a way to apply for permanent residency. You can see it with other Nebraska short films at the festival at Aksarben Cinema in Omaha on Thursday, March 13 at 8:40 pm. 

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Join Nebraskans and Welcomers from around the world at the Welcoming Interactive in Detroit, May 20-22. The Welcoming Interactive is a biennial conference that highlights successful local practices and inspiring stories about immigrant inclusion, programs, policies, and partnerships on economic development, civic engagement, government leadership, and more. Come away with energy and new ideas!  

This year, Nebraskans from Columbus, Grand Island, and Lincoln will be facilitating three different sessions to share many of the great local efforts to build strong, vibrant communities of belonging in Nebraska. 

Thank you for your continued work to help make Nebraska a place of belonging for all!

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Photos + Videos from Your Welcoming Week!

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Celebrate and recognize the history of Juneteenth

Celebrate and recognize the history of Juneteenth

The impact of recognizing Juneteenth as the federal holiday with the passing of the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act cannot be understated. Yet many people don’t know the meaning and significance of Juneteenth. 

While it took two and a half years for word of the Emancipation Proclamation to reach Texas, it has taken 156 years for Juneteenth to be recognized as historically significant. 

We celebrate Juneteenth and all it means with the knowledge and reality that we have much more work to do. We must seek to know the history and the barriers and structures of racism that carry forward in order to learn from our mistakes as a country and as individuals to do better in the future. This is a day to reflect and to deeply consider the wound of racism. 

Continue reading “Celebrate and recognize the history of Juneteenth”

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Celebrating Immigrants! June Is Immigrant Heritage Month

Celebrating Immigrants! June Is Immigrant Heritage Month

This is a guest blog post by Zeke Rouse, Appleseed’s Immigrants and Communities Welcoming Intern.

Two Muslim women holding up prints of the “We the People” series.

June is an opportunity to share stories and recognize the impact that different immigrant Nebraskans have in shaping our communities. Storytelling gives us an opportunity to celebrate the diversity of experiences, perspectives, and people that call Nebraska home. 

Since June of 2014, Immigrant Heritage Month has given people across the United States an opportunity to annually explore their own heritage and celebrate the shared diversity that forms the unique story of America.

Continue reading “Celebrating Immigrants! June Is Immigrant Heritage Month”

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Omaha’s International Women’s Day event is vibrant and growing

International Women's DayMarch 8th, International Women’s Day, has long been celebrated by the global community as a day to honor women for their social, economic, cultural and political achievements. On this day, women, communities, and countries the world over enjoy the day with events that range from festivals to tea parties.

Three years ago, a group of refugee women in Omaha came to the realization that the day was, for the most part, ignored in the United States and decided to form a committee for a city-wide celebration of International Women’s Day. That first year, the women asked a few community members to help them plan an event for Omaha that was held at Girls, Inc. with about 50 women who shared food from all over the world and an afternoon of eating, dancing, and socializing.

International Women's DayIn the third annual event this past Saturday, that simple vision has grown to more than 150 guests and 28 agency booths! Held at the University of Nebraska Omaha’s Barbara Weitz Community Engagement Center, Barbara Weitz welcomed the crowd and recognized several women for their local contributions and leadership, including: Alana Schriver, Norma Rahmanzai Isaczai, Carol Tucker, Sayler Moo, Dr. Mackenzie Taylor and Sien Nya Tin.

International Women's DayAs welcoming communities across the country are recognizing, something special happens when we all get involved in creating a welcoming community environment. At Saturday’s event, you could feel the energy in the room as a diverse crowd of new and longtime Nebraskans shared music, food, and lively conversation. As one Omaha dad said, his daughters had the opportunity to travel the world that afternoon and to be inspired by women leaders.

Mark your calendar for next year’s International Women’s Day, which is just one great opportunity during the year to meet neighbors from around the world!

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New Americans share their stories at World Refugee Day 2015

I could list many things that I love about Nebraska. The beautiful countryside, the bike paths, and the friendly neighbors are just a few. After attending Omaha Benson High School’s World Refugee Day Celebration last week, it reaffirmed another thing that I love about my state: diversity.

New to Omaha
Appleseed Intern Olivia Rask (left) speaks with two recent refugees to Omaha at World Refugee Day.

Many may not be aware of the diverse refugee population that has been settled in Nebraska since the middle of the 20th century and long before. For decades, refugees have transitioned from their war-torn, conflicted, or otherwise dangerous homes to a life in Lincoln, Omaha, and the tri-cities area of central Nebraska. As a native Nebraskan, I love the opportunity to eat food from countries around the world, meet friendly people who have started a new life here, and learn about life from the perspectives of these new Nebraskans. At the celebration for International Refugee Day, I was able to witness a handful of the wonderful contributions that these people make to our state.

One of my favorite parts of the event was the welcome and naturalization ceremony. Groups of young people from Burma and different countries in Africa presented traditional dances from their countries. Audience members were also instructed on the basic ways in which refugee resettlement works in Nebraska. Of course, the naturalization ceremony of 30 new American citizens from all over the world was also a very powerful experience to share.

Throughout the day, a number of organizations in the Omaha area presented information to passersby in Benson High’s hallways. A group of Sudanese women had handicrafts for sale as a fundraiser for their organization. Various non-profits provided information for refugees regarding health care, housing, and other important services available to them in the community. Nebraska Appleseed’s table had a tree on which patrons would write something that is welcoming to new residents in Omaha. As an intern with Appleseed, I enjoyed meeting native Nebraskans and new Nebraskans alike as they shared their favorite things about Omaha.

I’m so glad I was able to attend this event. In addition to meeting new people who are interested in similar work within the community, I met friendly people who love their new country. It was such a pleasure spending the Saturday at International Refugee Day.

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Free Omaha tours of The Quilted Conscience project this weekend

This weekend in Omaha, you have another chance to see a pair of powerful, colorful exhibits of memories-and-dreams quilts from Nebraska immigrant and refugee youth (The Quilted Conscience), as well as a rare opportunity to see Fabric of Survival, a stunning series of quilts telling the story of a Holocaust survivor from her village in Poland through Nazi occupation and ultimately moving to America. (This is the final weekend to see Fabric of Survival.)

In The Quilted Conscience project, what started as a documentary film to inform residents of the changing demographics in America has blossomed into a new and unique way to unite communities. Refugee youth in Grand Island were brought together with Nebraska quilters to create images depicting the girls’ memories growing up in their homelands and the dreams they hold of their future in America.

Many of the Nebraska quilters, who grew up in rural Nebraska, related to the immigrant girls’ memories of fetching water and helping on a family farm as children. They also remembered sharing many of the same dreams of becoming teachers or working in medicine. Through these quilts, the new and longtime Nebraskans from different cultures and generations realized that they, in fact, have a lot in common with one another.

Using quilting as a way to bring people together and unite communities is now taking place in other cities such as Hastings, Lincoln, and Omaha, with beautiful outcomes displayed in Omaha this month.

The Quilted Conscience project currently is on display at 3 Omaha locations:

Van tours on March 14th, March 28th and April 11th are available to take people to the three locations. RSVP to reserve your spot for a free van tour. (All van tours run from 1pm-4pm and begin and end at the Joslyn.)

A short clip of The Quilted Conscience, the film depicting the original Grand Island quilting project, will be shown at the Joslyn Art Museum at 1pm on Saturday (at the beginning of the van tour).