The coming together of PPL and Loring Nicollet-Bethlehem Community Centers (LNB) in, January 2007, generated a great deal of enthusiasm among staff and the community. The two organizations share a common history and mission of helping people help themselves. By Joining forces, PPL and LNB have broadened the continuum of services in both education.
With LNB, PPL gained high quality educational and employment services in partnership with the community. Three schools operate within these centers — a preschool and two alternative high schools — as well as an all-year, out-of-school program that helps elementary-aged children with their academic advancement. The agencies’ combined youth and volunteer programs have already made progress finding similarities and complementary differences in the programs.
Adult Basic Education (ABE) programs offered by LNB provide assessment and placement, and youth and adults can access employment counseling. Some services will enhance offerings at PPL’s Learning Center; others broaden our range. Program staff have begun to explore how this comprehensive set of services can be managed in a way to create a continuum of services for adults facing a range of employment-related barriers.
What’s more, the community centers are located near a large cluster of PPL housing, offering resident proximity to a gymnasium, community meeting spaces and programs designed to bring people together to better their live.
About LNB:
The 54-year-old organization traces its roots to the Loring Nicollet Center and the Bethlehem Center, each begun in the 1950s by churches in the local community. Loring Nicollet Centerwas founded by Plymouth Congregational Church; Bethlehem Center, by Bethlehem Presbyterian Church. The two merged in 1972. Programs operate out of the Bethlehem Community Center, 2539 Pleasant Avenue in the Whittier neighborhood, and the Loring Nicollet Community Center, 1925 Nicollet Avenue, in the Stevens Square-Loring Heights neighborhood. PPL intends to keep programs intact at these important community center locations.