Community Alliance
Christine M. Nielsen CPSWS, PLADC has extensive experience in peer support and recovery services, currently serving as a Certified Peer Support Specialist at Community Alliance since October 2016. Previous roles include Recovery Specialist at Telecare Corporation, where responsibilities involved aiding residents with treatment plans and facilitating recovery groups, and an internship at Siena/Francis House for obtaining certification hours. Christine has also gained experience facilitating educational groups on the "Stages of Change" at Alegent Health, handling client intakes at New Visions Center-Omaha, and advocating for homeless youth through volunteer work with Youth Emergency Services, Inc. Christine holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a minor in Criminal Justice from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and multiple associate degrees in Human Services and Addictive Studies from Iowa Western Community College. Additionally, a background in business management was developed as a housekeeper and owner of Chris's Cleaners from 1990 to 1995.
Community Alliance
At Community Alliance, our sole focus is, and always has been on adults with mental illness. Since 1981, this fact has separated us from more traditional social service agencies and treatment centers in the Omaha area. We are an organization of over 250 dedicated, concerned professionals and volunteers who believe in the potential of recovery for all individuals with a mental illness and we dedicate all our resources to support the journey of each individual we serve. We work to provide programs and opportunities to encourage individuals to develop the strengths and skills to deal with their mental illness or co-occurring mental illness and substance use disorder. Additionally, we serve as an advocate with doctors, social service networks, and throughout the community. We go outside the walls of the hospital and our own facilities to support people in their own neighborhoods and communities, where the strengths and confidences we have helped them develop can be put into practice. We advocate with government and others for greater access to the life-restoring services and needed policy changes that can ease the journey being traveled by so many individuals with mental illness and their families. And we work to help erase the stigma and myths that still surround mental illness and which still serve as roadblocks along the road to recovery.