Yolonda Ross, the Omaha native who spent seven seasons playing Jada Washington on Showtime's The Chi, is coming home next Wednesday to headline Girls Inc. of Omaha's 24th annual Lunch for the Girls fundraiser. The luncheon runs from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the CHI Health Center Omaha downtown, with tickets priced at $100 apiece.
Ross is an actor, writer, director and artist best known for her role on The Chi, according to KETV, which reports she will headline this year's event in Omaha. The drama, on which she starred as a resilient single mother, wrapped its eighth and final season in July, as Grow Omaha notes. This year's luncheon carries the theme “She Is the Proof” and is expected to draw more than 500 people focused on women's success, support for girls, and the opportunities that can shape their future, per the station's report.
A Homegrown Star With Deep Roots
Before Hollywood, Ross was born and raised in Omaha and graduated from Omaha Burke High School, later leaving for New York to pursue a fashion-design career before transitioning into acting, according to NOISE. Her feature film debut came in the 2001 HBO movie Stranger Inside, a performance that won her an IFP Gotham Award for Best Breakthrough Performance and earned her a Film Independent Spirit Award nomination, as detailed by a Charitybuzz listing. She later picked up a second Spirit Award nomination for 2013's Go for Sisters.
A Speaker List That Has Included Presidents
Ross now joins a roster of keynote speakers that reads like a who's-who of national and global figures. Over its 24-year history, the luncheon has hosted Barack Obama in 2005, Bill Clinton in 2006, Hillary Clinton in 2008, Michelle Obama in 2012, Malala Yousafzai in 2016, and Gloria Steinem in 2020, according to Girls Inc. of Omaha. Those high-profile appearances have historically drawn crowds of up to 3,000 guests, far more than this year's expected attendance of more than 500.
First held in 2001, the Lunch for the Girls luncheon has raised more than $2 million across its first two decades to support Girls Inc. of Omaha's mission and programs, according to Vic Gutman & Associates. That total underscores the event's role in supporting the organization's mission and programs.
What the Money Actually Funds
Girls Inc. of Omaha traces its roots to 1975, when it started as the Girls Club of Omaha in the basement of Clifton Hills Presbyterian Church with just six girls, before officially renaming itself in 1990. Today the nonprofit serves more than 1,000 girls annually through its Katherine Fletcher Center in North Omaha and Emma Lozier Center in South Omaha, providing daily transportation from more than 40 local schools, the organization says.
The Katherine Fletcher Center, named after Omaha's first Black suburban public school principal, underwent a $15 million expansion in 2016 that added an on-site health clinic operated in partnership with Nebraska Medicine, offering primary medical care to girls and the broader community. The organization also operates Protégé House, a renovated 16-bed dormitory-style facility opened in 2019 that provides transitional housing for young women aging out of foster care or recovering from domestic abuse, alongside its existing Barker House housing program.
