Our Programs
Program Referrals
If you or someone you know is in need of our services, please contact us via the button below to make a referral.
If this is an emergency situation, please call 911. Survivors in after hours crisis situations can call the Omaha Women’s Center for Advancement (WCA) 24-Hour Hotline, (402) 345-7273.
New Beginnings Campus
“I feel like here I can finally take a breath and start healing.” - A.P.
After opening our residence in 2017, we soon realized that the need was far greater than we could meet with that limited program. In 2019, we launched our New Beginnings Campus as an innovative new program to support survivors at all points in their healing journeys. In 2023, we completed the transition that moved all our high-quality residential programming to this non-residential site so we could open it for all survivors community-wide.
Our Campus is a safe space where survivors can learn and grow, engage in programming that ranges from peer support groups to life skills classes, share a weekly community dinner together, and realize how much they matter here. They also get to create art and fully express themselves as part of their healing journey. This also is the location for Tamar’s Pantry, our personal items pantry for survivors which also provides assistance to other nonprofits that serve survivors.
Each survivor works with a Success Navigator to create personal success plans. We also provide free transportation to assist survivors in accessing our services as well as additional addiction recovery, medical, mental health, wellness, and other appointments that also are part of their healing journeys. Program participants also have access to Success Mentors who offer additional support.
A list of all the programming we offer at our Campus is on our calendar page!
Residential Services
“Magdalene Omaha provided me with a safe and stable home. It was the first time I had ever had that in my entire life. The key to the house opened many doors for me, including the one to freedom.” - A.D.
Opened in 2017, our residential program offers rent-free, sober living for adult women who survived sex trafficking and addiction. Stays can last from 9 to 24 months, and each resident has her own bedroom. Residential success plans are individually created, focusing on medical, mental health, and addiction recovery needs. The initial phase of the program provides space and time to heal from trauma, both physically and emotionally. The second phase begins to focus on achieving economic independence with our workforce development program (see below for more detail).
Our residential program is unique in its reliance on community and its emphasis on self-sufficiency. Residents serve as peer mentors and survivor-leaders, taking on leadership responsibilities within the program as they progress through it.
To find out more about what residents accomplish in our program, their responsibilities, and entrance requirements, please contact our Director of Survivor Services, Tesa Miller, at tesa@magdaleneomaha.org.
Workforce Development
Our Thistle Lights’ “Handmade Healing” Products
After women began graduating from the original Magdalene residential program in Nashville, they still faced barriers to employment and thus to economic independence. To overcome these challenges, they created their own survivor-run small business, also known as a social justice enterprise. Theirs is a bath and body products company known as Thistle Farms.
In 2018, Magdalene Omaha launched its own survivor-led small business, Thistle Lights, where residents gain job training experience by creating our “Handmade Healing” products.
Job training at Thistle Lights is one part of our workforce development activities. We also offer a Job Readiness Certificate Course, open to all survivors community-wide. Survivors who successfully complete this course also can participate in our Internship/Job Placement program and receive career coaching and mentorship in their chosen career field.
When you shop our small business, you make a big difference for survivor job training!