About Us

Our History

After promoting access to the financial mainstream since 2001, the Financial Stability Partnership (FSP) was formally launched in 2006 by the United Way of the Midlands.  Programs included Workplace Financial Education, the Financial Success Program (FSP), Alternatives to Payday Lending and the Omaha EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit now located at Family Housing Advisory Services).

In 2010, these programs were relocated to Creighton University under the Heider College of Business as the Financial Hope Collaborative. To quantify consistent, noticeable changes in financial behaviors and health, a small study began in 2011 to determine the impact the Financial Success Program had on the health of single, low-income mothers. The FHC and faculty from Creighton’s Pharmacy Department leveraged these promising outcomes to obtain a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for what was one of the first clinical trials in the country to study this connection. This clinical trial (Finances First) ran from 2017 until 2020 with 345 participants. Findings showed statistically significant reductions in smoking, consumption of fast food, overdrafts, shut-off notices and late fees among others.  Significant increases in income, promotions, savings and school attendance were also found.  In 2022, the findings were published in the peer reviewed American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine.

These findings leveraged three ground-breaking partnerships in 2022 to further demonstrate the link between the Financial Success Program model and improvements in physical and emotional health for populations at risk.

1)       The first Medical-Financial Partnership in Nebraska, the Cura Project, began in January.  Cura is a Latin word for “respect for the whole person”. The purpose of the Cura Project is to improve health and manage diabetes by focusing on financial and physical well-being for people diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.   

2)       The University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) recruited the FHC to design and teach a modified version of the FSP model to train 240 community health workers across the state of Nebraska as part of a grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH) to decrease health disparities in underserved communities.

3)       A pilot to study the impact the FSP model has on the health outcomes of 100 adults who receive Medicaid benefits began in April 2023 and ended in December 2023.

The FHC’s innovative work has always been generously funded by private foundations, organizations, and individuals.  This novel work would not have been possible without this partnership of outside financial support and the in-kind, internal support from Creighton University 

In July 2024, the FHC separated from Creighton University and became its own stand-alone nonprofit.  The FHC’s innovative work at the intersection of finances and health will continue to evolve.

~Julie Kalkowski

Executive Director