When Coming Home Is Just the Beginning
In Nebraska, more than 2,700 people return home from state prison every year. They return to the community with a small amount of gate money and a set of obstacles many of us will never have to navigate: re-securing state identification, the lack of a permanent address, no phone, no job, and often a complicated family dynamic. Release is a milestone. It isn't the finish line. The real work of rebuilding a life starts the moment the door closes behind them; and for too many, that's where the cycle quietly resets.
RISE exists to change that.
A Different Kind of Reentry
RISE is a Nebraska-based nonprofit working to break generational cycles of incarceration through character development, employment readiness, entrepreneurship, family support, ad advocacy. Our programs begin inside the walls and continue long after release, because reentry isn't an event. It's a process that takes years of consistent support, honest accountability, and genuine community.
In-Prison Programming and Reentry Services.
Before anyone comes home, RISE participants spend months developing personal goals, working on character, and preparing for the realities of life after release. After release, our reentry team helps graduates tackle the logistical obstacle course most people never see: driver's licenses and state IDs (95% of our 2025 graduates needed help getting theirs), housing, transportation, and the dozens of small steps between release and stability.
RISE Business Academy.
For many graduates, traditional employment is only one path forward. The RISE Business Academy equips aspiring entrepreneurs with the training, mentorship, and capital they need to build something of their own. To date, 83 RBA graduates have launched 54 active businesses across Nebraska.
Youth and Family Program.
79% of RISE graduates have had at least one family member incarcerated. The cycle is real, and it's generational. Our Youth + Family Program has served 374 participants as of 2025, including young people at the Nebraska Correctional Youth Facility and the Sarpy County Juvenile Justice Center, to interrupt that pattern before it repeats.
The Proof
In 2025 alone, 119 RISE graduates returned home to Nebraska communities. 74% are employed, earning an average wage of $17.40; well above minimum wage, and a foundation they can actually build on. More than 100 Nebraska employers have hired RISE graduates.
Behind every number is a person who decided, often against long odds, that their story wasn't finished yet.
“RISE taught me that in life, and in business, you have to be strong to withstand the unforeseen. After the cocoon comes the monarch butterfly. Like the monarch butterfly’s metamorphosis, I had to RISE so I too can fly.”
That transformation has a cost. It takes curriculum, staff, case managers, business mentors, and the basic resources graduates need to show up for their own new lives. That's where you come in.
Your Support, on the Ground
On April 23rd, RISE hosts its 4th Annual Giving Day; a 24-hour rally to fund the work above for the year ahead. Here's what support enables:
$25 can stock a Welcome Home bag with hygiene essentials for a graduate walking out with nothing.
$100 can provide professional work boots or non-slip shoes so a graduate can start a job without a financial hurdle in the way.
$500 can fund reentry services for one RISE graduate: the case management, transportation support, and resource connections that turn a release date into a real new chapter.
Every gift on April 23rd goes directly toward breaking generational cycles of incarceration in Nebraska.
Two Ways to Show Up on April 23rd
Give.
Visit seeusrise.org/giving-day on April 23rd to make your gift during the 24-hour rally. Every donation, at every level, moves this work forward.
Celebrate.
Join us at the RISE Business Academy Showcase, open to the public on April 23rd, where our newest RBA graduates will present the businesses they've built. Come meet the entrepreneurs, hear their stories, and see what's possible when a community invests in second chances.
No one should be remembered only by their worst day. On April 23rd, you have the chance to help write a different ending — for individuals, for families, and for generations of Nebraskans yet to come.
