Project for Pride in Living

Overview

Founded in 1972, Project for Pride in Living (PPL) is a nonprofit agency working with lower-income individuals and families throughout the Twin Cities metro area to achieve greater self-sufficiency through housing, employment training, education, and support services.

Highly trusted and valued for its customized and integrated services, PPL helps people help themselves and strengthen communities by developing affordable housing and connecting families, youth, and adults to a broad continuum of programs and services that provide a process for skill-building and a support system.

PPL has annual budget of $17.87 million and employs 125 full- and part-time staff members; More than 90% of revenue is spent on programs. 1,076 volunteers contribute 50,481 hours every year, including 15 AmeriCorps and VISTA members

Mission results

• New and renovated single and multi-family housing for both low-income people and those who have suffered longterm homelessness lays the foundation for building a stronger future.

• Nearly 800 units of affordable rental housing with integrated resident services support family stability.

• Adults widen their opportunities for economic advancement by setting and achieving job-related goals throughb classroom instruction, counseling, and PPL-operated businesses.

• Students from toddler-age to high school have access to resources and relationships that will help them succeed in school and in life.

• A wide range of educational services and venues connect people of every age to resources and relationships necessary to become self-sufficient.

PPL has long been considered a leader in addressing the needs of low-income area residents.

The agency has won a number of local and national honors, including recognition by the Fannie Mae Foundation as one of 10 national winners in its Sustained Excellence Awards Program for community development, and a 2005 Excellence Award given by the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and Management Assistance Program.

Population Served

We serve lower-income people who live throughout the Twin Cities, with a concentration on the core neighborhoods of Minneapolis and Saint Paul and several inner-ring suburbs.

PPL participants are racially diverse individuals and families, including growing numbers of immigrants, whose incomes are regularly at or below 200 percent of poverty. Women and children make up the majority of program participants.

It’s important to note that virtually everyone we work with seeks out PPL in order to improve their housing, employment, educational or family situation. This desire for improvement is an important starting point in the relationship PPL builds with those we serve.

About the staff

PPL employs nearly 125 full- and part-time staff members, augmented by 15 AmeriCorps and VISTA members, and a changing number of interns and work-study students.

Nearly 50 percent of PPL staff members are persons of color, reflecting the diversity of the people we serve. Staff members facilitate the day-to-day operation of the agency’s direct services under three divisions. Volunteers provide crucial services, skills and expertise to the organization, our programs and the board.

Two-thirds of PPL’s $17.87 million organizational budget is supported through earned income, with the remaining one-third dependent on the generosity of individuals, corporations, foundations and, to a lesser extent, public sources.