Legacy

Legacy

Vision

To see youth, future generations, and society transformed through a relationship with God and loving adults.

Vision

To see youth, future generations, and society transformed through a relationship with God and loving adults.
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To affect youth and their families with the life-changing love of Jesus Christ, releasing them to be all God intends them to be — safe, together, healthy, free.

Mission

Mission

To affect youth and their families with the life-changing love of Jesus Christ, releasing them to be all God intends them to be — safe, together, healthy, free.
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History

The idea of Release began when a handful of people responded to the needs of kids at the Douglas County Youth Center. Our founder, Bill Ellett, felt called to leave the comforts of his corporate world and served as our first chaplain. As more volunteers joined, a culture grew of being faithful to loving people no matter the cost. It's been a 25 year history of ups and downs that have taught us to keep moving forward and stay faithful for what we know to be true. Somehow, we keep finding a way to build human connections that transform the world we live in.

History

The idea of Release began when a handful of people responded to the needs of kids at the Douglas County Youth Center. Our founder, Bill Ellett, felt called to leave the comforts of his corporate world and served as our first chaplain. As more volunteers joined, a culture grew of being faithful to loving people no matter the cost. It's been a 25 year history of ups and downs that have taught us to keep moving forward and stay faithful for what we know to be true. Somehow, we keep finding a way to build human connections that transform the world we live in.
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  • The DCYC

    Bill Ellett and Al Doney started going to the DCYC with a handful of volunteers from their church. That’s when Bill first had a vision if kids knew how much God loved them, they wouldn’t have to be in chains– physically or metaphorically.

  • Mentoring

    In those early years of service, we soon recognized kids need on-going support and encouragement, both inside and outside the facilities. Woody Winchell joined the team and mentoring was formally added in 2001 as Release grew beyond the walls of the DCYC.

  • Residential Home

    The next major development, we recognized the kids coming out of DCYC needed a place to stay and grow. We opened up our first residential home in 2004.

  • Community Based Initiatives

    From working with the kids in these homes, we also started working more with the kids’ families. This led us to expand into social work

  • Mental Health Services

    We started to offer mental health services in 2017 to meet the needs of our kids. Since then, it has expanded to include kids and families throughout Omaha. 

  • Foster Care

    As an option for permanency for kids who needed it, we established foster care in 2018.

  • Closed Residential Homes

    During the pandemic, we made the difficult decision to close our residential homes and focus efforts on meeting those needs through our mental health and foster care initiatives. 

  • Permanent Building

    For the first time, Release has a permanent home from which all of its programs and staff can work.

Today

Archive

For the past decade, we've been telling stories to share the experiences of people we've come to love and serve through Release. These videos open a small window into the hard and holy work people do every day in our local communities.