A surge in mental illness and an Omaha nonprofit’s 40-year record of responding to that demand has given rise to a $60 million headquarters plan that triples program space for Community Alliance.

Now based at 41st and Leavenworth Streets, Community Alliance expects to move into its new 120,000-square-foot complex at 72nd Street and Mercy Road in late 2023.

The organization’s services for people with mental and behavioral health challenges, meanwhile, will continue uninterrupted at existing locations. Demolition is to start this month on the office property currently standing at Community Alliance’s future corner.

Carole Boye, chief executive since the agency’s founding in 1981, said the new headquarters and service expansion marks a milestone for the nonprofit that served 18 people its first year and now sees about 3,300 annually. That number is expected to triple within five years.

More than anything, Boye said, the project reflects the need for comprehensive mental health treatment and recovery services. Community Alliance reports that one in five Nebraskans experiences a mental health challenge in any given year — but that the number grew to one in three during the pandemic.

“We’ve put so many pieces in place and have learned so much in 40 years,” Boye said. “Now we’ve got to get to the spot where help is available to everyone who needs it, in time to avoid a crisis.”

We looked at, ‘What does it take to live, work and thrive? To have a meaningful and purposeful life?’

– Carole Boye, Community Alliance CEO since 1981

Funding is being raised via a capital campaign headed by advocates and philanthropists Rhonda and Howard Hawks and a mix of grants, investments and public and private sector support.

About $10 million is coming from the American Rescue Plan Act funds that the Nebraska Legislature earmarked this year for construction of mental health facilities.

A goal, Boye said, is to create a setting that offers a full range of services, a one-stop shop for those living with mental illness and for their families.

Indeed, said Boye, Community Alliance was founded by families who sought more than hospitals and medicine for their adult children.

“They wanted decent housing, help with employment,” Boye said. “Certainly we looked to help people with their symptoms, but also we looked at, ‘What does it take to live, work and thrive? To have a meaningful and purposeful life?’”

A decade ago, Community Alliance added primary health care to its programming as workers were cognizant that people with serious mental illness die younger, Boye said.

The current growth plan aims to increase availability and range of onsite clinics and offerings that include primary care, psychiatric and counseling services — allowing professionals a common place to “talk to each other” and to tend to a patient’s overall needs, Boye said.

Fitness, wellness and education components also are to be part of the new campus, helping to ward off aggravating and chronic conditions such as diabetes. Other building highlights include expanded access to employment and family and peer support services.

Residential units are not planned at the new headquarters, but they are available elsewhere within the Community Alliance network. 

This story was originally published by Nebraska Examiner, an editorially independent newsroom providing a hard-hitting, daily flow of news. It is part of the national nonprofit States Newsroom. Find more at nebraskaexaminer.com.