Supporting North Side Families: Beacon’s Partnership with Project for Pride in Living
Project for Pride in Living Service Provider Spotlight. Written by Dylan Novacek, Content Specialist.
“Northside families and their children are at the heart of our partnership,” said Sarah Koschinska, the Senior Director of Resident Services at Project for Pride in Living (PPL), pictured. “Everything we’re doing at Emerson Village should be centered around them. What they want, need, hope for, and dream about.”
As we work to make the deeply affordable homes at Emerson Village in North Minneapolis a reality, our partnership with PPL plays an important role. As our onsite service provider, PPL’s mission is to build the hope, assets, and self-reliance of individuals and families who have lower incomes by providing affordable housing and career readiness services. With 50 years of experience and deep roots in Minneapolis’ Northside, this collaboration elevates our ability to serve residents in their homes.
“One unique aspect of this partnership is that PPL isn’t just a housing service provider. Like Beacon, we’re also a housing developer. We develop affordable housing, manage properties, and provide services to our residents. Additionally, we partner with organizations like Beacon,” Sarah said. “We’re also active in career readiness. We believe housing stability and career readiness are the core foundations for stabilizing the economics of a household so people can thrive.”
Both Beacon and PPL are leading developers of deeply affordable housing. Our two organizations have crossed paths before in a variety of ways, including our contributions to a Wilder Research Study on the intersection between criminal backgrounds and housing stability.
Emerson Village will be a new, deep way for Beacon and PPL to work together. With our combination of experience and shared values, we’re able to create a building that addresses the unmet needs of the Northside. PPL values systems change, racial equity, and place-based community engagement.
“We believe in walking alongside the families we serve,” Sarah continued. “The service team that will be at Emerson Village will be there to advocate and partner with residents. Housing stability and eviction prevention is the foundation of the comprehensive services we offer. We will do housing placement and stability work interconnected with things around health and wellness, youth development, economic advancement, and community engagement.”
The services PPL will bring to Emerson Village aims to serve each generation in a household – both children and adults. These voluntary services allow residents to pick and choose the resources that work best for them. When residents engage with these services, they become deeply connected to a whole community of opportunities and resources.
As we develop and launch these homes, a strength PPL brings to this project is their deep roots on the Northside. They currently have over 250 units of housing in North Minneapolis, and strong relationships with organizations including the Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ). PPL has been working with since NAZ began over a decade ago.
“By inviting us into this work, we bring a whole ecosystem of resources,” Sarah said. “Bringing PPL to Emerson Village also means we’re bringing our partners like NAZ. We’re their contracted partners to do housing stability and career readiness work for the hundreds of NAZ families. Thanks to this relationship, we can connect the future residents of Emerson Village to more resources. We can deeply integrate NAZ partners and resources into the building.”
Emerson Village is truly a collaborative project. When our partners such as PPL bring their community connections to the table, we grow our ability to understand how to serve the families in this area. This was recently seen in our series of workshops, led by our partners at Juxtaposition Arts, where families gave input on the design of the building.
(Pictured: individuals who participated in the Emerson Village design workshop. Sarah is to the far left. Other’s pictured are individuals from congregations that at working on Emerson Village.)
“In my experience working with Northside families and listening to what they need, we’ve heard that there is not enough affordable housing overall, and especially for larger families,” Sarah said. “Having two-, three-, and four-bedroom apartments with rental subsidy will be so important.
“Another thing we’re hearing is that the community wants to ensure current Northside families live at Emerson Village. We’re laying the groundwork to ensure that those who move-in to the building have children attending Northside schools.”
With PPL’s value of place-based community engagement, their working to ensure that children remain connected to their schools, and families remain in the communities where they have roots and history. In doing so, Emerson Village will help advance racial equity and add community value.
“This work is not just Beacon and PPL. Northside Achievement Zone, Juxtaposition Arts, UrbanWorks Architecture, and local faith communities are all involved in ensuring these homes become a reality,” Sarah said. “What we are able to do would not have the same impact if we’d done it on our own.”
It takes strong partners like PPL to see that all people have a home. It also takes strong community support. When individuals make a gift to Beacon, they help ensure that homes like Emerson Village become a reality.
Sarah said she can imagine the day families move into Emerson Village.
“Every child and parent want a safe home. Emerson Village will be a home where parents and their children can thrive,” Sarah concluded.
Will you make a gift to help see that all people have a home? At Emerson Village, we’re creating about 40 deeply affordable, supportive homes for families who make less than $30,000 a year. It takes a Seeds gift of $15,000 per home to make it happen. Click here to learn more and make your gift today.
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