MISSION
Founded in 2020, Partners for Livable Omaha is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing the livability of communities throughout the Omaha metro.
VISION
Partners for Livable Omaha (Livable Omaha) partners with organizations, stakeholders and experts who share a common vision for strengthening our communities. Our programs build bridges across disciplines and across community populations. We focus on creative workforce development, arts-based community empowerment, design-based solutions, and creating new livability resources that are accessible to all.
HISTORY
Partners for Livable Omaha began as a community-centered nonprofit focused on creative placemaking, public engagement, and arts-based community development. Since 2020, the organization has used design, partnerships, and public-facing projects to respond to community needs and strengthen Omaha’s livability.
Over time, that work evolved into a focused aging in place and housing initiative shaped by the organization’s experience in community development and founder Jessica Scheuerman’s background in national aging-in-place efforts.
Today, OurStory Small Houses is the organization’s flagship project. The initiative designs and develops small, aging-ready, energy-efficient homes that support older adults, first-time homebuyers, and LMI households seeking attainable housing options. Through demonstration homes in Omaha’s Benson neighborhood, a public design catalog, and partnerships across architecture, construction, philanthropy, housing finance, public policy, and nonprofit development, Partners for Livable Omaha is helping advance practical models for small-scale housing implementation.
CURRENT AND PAST WORK
OurStory Small Houses
Launched in 2024, OurStory Small Houses creates aging-ready homes that seek affordability at the intersection of innovation, design, finance, and policy. OurStory fills a gap in the market for small house designs that are constructible, financeable, environmentally sustainable, and empowering. OurStory added an architectural internship program in 2025.
Omaha Mobile Stage
Launched in 2021 and transitioned to new ownership in June 2026, Omaha Mobile Stage was Partners for Livable Omaha’s first major design-build and creative placemaking initiative. Built from a repurposed box truck, OMS brought free, accessible live performances, youth showcases, creative workforce training, and neighborhood-based arts programming to communities across the Omaha metro. The program demonstrated Livable Omaha’s ability to turn ambitious civic ideas into visible, award-winning public infrastructure and helped build the partnerships, creative workforce development experience, public trust, and implementation capacity that now inform OurStory Small Houses.
STAFF
Jessica Scheuerman, Founder and Executive Director, jessica@livable.org
Kaylea Kuhlman, Marketing and Communications Manager, kaylea@livable.org
Ozborne Eckhorn, Architectural Intern, oz@livable.org
Thank you to our 2026 Omaha Mobile Stage Production Crew
Jim Schroeder
Bobbi Trujillo
Logan Smith
Benjamin Asbach
Nathanael Atwood
MaKenzie Mellem
Laura Vinopal
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Partners for Livable Omaha is guided by a committed Board of Directors with expertise in public policy, housing, real estate, finance, philanthropy, construction, architecture, education, and community development.
Executive Committee
Sara Howard, Board Chair
OPPD Director and Policy Advisor, First Five Nebraska
Eleanore Tiehen, Secretary
CADRE Associate, Omaha Public Schools
Emma Mabry, Treasurer
Realtor, NP Dodge Real Estate and Senior Accountant, Buildertrend
Board Members
Adam Fritz
Tax Manager, Gallup
Paulina Garcia
Architectural Designer, HGM Associates Inc.
Erin L. Moran
Director of Development, Humanities Nebraska
Greg Paskach
Director of Housing Development, Front Porch Investments
Incoming Board Members
Nick Knihnisky
Owner, Platte + Pine Construction and Remodel
Joshua Sullivan
Director of Preconstruction, Immanuel Communities
Partners for Livable Omaha is a member of the Nonprofit Association of the Midlands and Nebraska Housing Developers Association.
All are welcome.
Partners for Livable Omaha does not lawfully or unlawfully discriminate in its hiring practices or service provision to clients and/or customers based on race, ethnicity, religious preference, age, mental, emotional, or physical disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, military service, or gender.