North Omaha center aims to be hub for health, business, and tech services

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – One building located on the Omaha Home for Boys campus is most known for Omaha 360 meetings.

But once you get inside, you’ll notice a whole list of offices with special services.

“Health-related, education, employment, if they are looking to start a business, grow a business, expand a business, we have all those services here in one location,” said Aisha Conner of the Village Empowerment Center.

The goal is to make all these services accessible to everyone in the community to help grow and develop the workforce in north Omaha. The Empowerment Network has been working hard to bring in community partners to collaborate to make an educational space like this a reality.

“The building is not only a service capacity but it’s also helping our families to become producers, innovators, creators. That’s really what we are talking about here,” said Willie Barney, Empowerment Network President.

The GROW Nebraska Women’s Business Center is one of the latest services that’s moved in here. They chose this location because of the tools this space will offer so many people.

“We know by fact that many communities have been underserved. Well, north Omaha is one. So we want to be close. That’s part of enabling access, how do we make things easier for people to get to the resources that are needed so that businesses can scale and grow so the people have an opportunity to scale and grow,” said Candice Price, executive director of the women’s business center.

The Village Empowerment Center will also have a heavy focus on developing the next generation of entrepreneurs and tech wizards. The center welcomed step-up interns over the summer to experience what the space has to offer.

They learn everything from coding to robotics, all skills that can open the door for kids when they enter the workforce.

“I think a lot of people think coding and technology and websites is all that really is it but the reality is every company is a technology company from HR to bus drivers and how they get paid to honestly, Google and Facebook so for me the economic impact is huge,” said Michael Young, Technology Consulting Solutions CEO.

While the center hasn’t officially opened its doors for all services just yet, it’s already drawing attention.

The Village Empowerment Center just received a $50,000 grant to help expand the technology resources here to make a long-term impact.

“As North Omaha rises, as North Omaha has more opportunities, this entire city benefits from it from an economic standpoint, from a social standpoint, it has a measurable direct impact on all of us,” said Barney.

Leaders with the organization say they plan on having a grand opening in the coming months.

But there are several businesses inside already offering services like Charles Drew, GROW Nebraska, and Technology Consulting Solutions.

Copyright 2021 WOWT. All rights reserved.