Project for Pride in Living

The last couple of years have brought wrenching changes to the real estate market in the Twin Cities. In many neighborhoods PPL serves, property values declined by over 25% since 2006. Foreclosures doubled during that time, contributing to the staggering figure of 33,000 vacant residential properties in the metro area as of September 2009. Stubbornly high un- and underemployment leads many experts to be concerned about another wave of foreclosures attributable to hard economic times facing working families.

As the turmoil that these trends caused in neighborhoods became evident, it was heartbreaking to see years of community development work undermined in a matter of months. More recently, it has been heartwarming to see the response of neighbors, government at all levels, private institutions and organizations like PPL coming together and fighting back to regain lost ground.
Stable neighborhoods are essential in order for the families we work with to thrive.

While our organizational mission focuses on helping people become more self-sufficient, achieving that goal can’t be divorced from the health of the place where our residents and program participants live. Housing projects like those highlighted in this newsletter are an important part of restoring blocks in areas hard hit by foreclosure, abandonment and general housing market decline. But true recovery will require a larger vision.

Restoring healthy neighborhoods in the coming years means more than bricks and mortar investments. Stable, quality, affordable housing is a critical building block: an important starting point but not the end destination.

A comprehensive approach demands paying attention to how well children are doing in their school, addressing the health challenges facing families, helping parents obtain employment or improve their jobs … and on and on. This is a philosophy PPL has long embraced. And if there is a silver lining to the multi-faceted housing and economic crisis, it may be the opportunity to adopt a more holistic approach to re-building communities in the years ahead.

These have been trying times. But it is precisely in times like these that the work of agencies like PPL is most needed. Your support makes that work possible.
Thank you.

It’s a little bit of a joke around PPL – not to mention at home with my daughters – how computer “un-savvy” I am. But increasingly, lack of technology access and knowledge is no laughing matter for the people we work with.

At a recent staff meeting a cross-section of frontline staff talked about the “digital divide” not as an intellectual concept, but as a real life barrier for families trying to find employment, manage their finances, or stay connected with their children’s schooling and it makes for interesting viewing.See video Three years ago I doubt a single staff person at PPL would have advised participants that securing internet service is a priority in a tight household budget. Today, it’s a totally different story.

It’s not a stretch to argue that digital access and capability is a new building block of self-sufficiency, just like access to stable, affordable housing and a living wage job.

For most people we work with, this building block is not yet in place. So we are responding in several ways.

• PPL’s computer access labs and workshops take a “high touch” approach to helping people improve computer skills, conduct online job searches, create resumes, set-up email accounts, and much more. Use of these resources is up 65% this year.

• More of our Service Coordinators are using laptops which enable faster response for and hands-on involvement of program participants as they work together.

• Our mobile technology labs (computers and internet) bring digital access into PPL community rooms and to our after-school program sites. This allows parents and children alike, to engage in activities that they would otherwise miss.

• Through partnerships with the U of M’s Digital Divide Initiative and the Geek Squad, 125 PPL families have received refurbished computers for their home and six hours of instruction on how to safely use and maintain them. In exchange, these families agree to perform four hours of community service.

• Our internal “Tech Direct” staff team is keeping a close eye on a range of technology issues and trends affecting staff and program participants.
  
  
  

The dizzying pace of change in the ways we communicate and access information essential to daily life isn’t a new issue, but the practical implications of being behind that curve are growing more and more serious. PPL is dedicated to addressing this challenge as a core element of our work to help the people we serve move forward in their lives and connect with the larger community.

Thanks for the connections you make with us to enable our work to continue!

-Steve Cramer

Funds have helped our work in housing, employment training, and in reaching the community.

In the months since its passage I have come to better understand the broad reach of the federal stimulus program – known as “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009” (ARRA) – in our community. For PPL alone, ARRA has or will improve our capacity to serve people in several areas.

• Americorps and other National Service Programs: With the addition of four new ARRA funded Americorps positions, PPL now has 25 staff members drawn from various national service initiatives working across the agency. These energetic and committed, mostly young people tutor children to improve their academic standing, connect residents to essential resources, work to improve housing conditions in inner-city neighborhoods, help people learn to use technology to enhance their employment and education, and on and on. PPL’s activities are so greatly magnified by these individuals it’s hard to imagine what we would do without them!

• Adult Employment: PPL has been awarded ARRA employment training funds by the City of Minneapolis to enhance our work preparing community residents for careers in the health care field, with a focus on laboratory tech and electronic health record positions.

• Affordable Housing: Across the country there are stalled, “shovel ready” affordable housing projects which will create both constructions jobs and quality living options once completed. ARRA contained provisions to jump start these projects, and we are pleased that PPL’s north side stabilization proposal is in line to benefit, meaning we should be under construction early in 2010.

• Neighborhood Recovery: ARRA contained a second round of funds to help public agencies and community development organizations like PPL improve conditions in neighborhoods impacted by the spike in home foreclosures. We look forward to continuing our work turning buildings that have become a drag on property values and quality of life into assets which also provide much needed family rental housing.

Other support may become available in the months ahead, in areas like the energy efficiency of our rental housing units, school programs from pre-K through high school, and closing the digital divide.

It’s early yet, so only time will tell about the overall impact of ARRA on the economy, specifically its role in helping us all recover from the worst recession in living memory. But speaking for one community agency working in challenged neighborhoods of one metropolitan region, ARRA has made a huge difference – most importantly for the families and individuals we serve.

Thanks for the difference you make through your support. We are very grateful.

A long national political campaign has ended with a historic result.

Here at PPL we are pleased that well over 100 of our program participants registered and voted for the first time. Whereever one came down on the choice between Senators Obama and McCain, the issues they debated were consequential for the people we work with.

That so many paid attention and cared enough to offer an opinion by casting a ballot for the first time was an important expression of civic engagement. In years to come it will be a point of pride for them to say, “I voted in the 2008 Presidential election!”

The last month of the campaign was animated by Joe the Plumber and debate over taxing and spending policies captured by the phrase, share the wealth.

Emotions run high on this subject even though, objectively, every set of such policies reflect priority choices. In this sense change isn’t right or wrong.

Different policies simply reflect new priorities. But at its best, political discourse is spirited debate about competing visions of the best policies and priorities, which is why “Joe” became such a potent symbol.

For me, leaving the politics aside, this debate had great meaning for PPL’s work in two ways.

The first is how we define value in our community. One commentator on a Sunday morning news show characterized sharing the wealth as taking away from those who contribute “the most” to society. Working at PPL every day convinces me that defining worth on the basis of wealth misses the mark.

My colleagues are incredibly dedicated and passionate, and they work miracles every day. To do their jobs, they interact with teachers, police officers, bank tellers, community agency staff, public employees, local business people – and on and on – who give so much of themselves.

Our participants are amazing, adding their own talents to the mix while overcoming long odds. No one I’ve just listed is very high on the wealth scale, but their contributions to our community’s well-being are immeasurable.

During this debate my thoughts also turned to the greater potential so many people we work with can realize with the right help offered at the right time in the right way.

Offering help often requires tapping resources for stable housing, or better education, or employment training, or technology literacy. Resources have been tight lately. But the payoff is great.

Our entire community benefits when people with a drive to do better can because they receive a hand-up to help meet their needs. Sharing the wealth in this way just seems like common sense.

So as another year comes to an end, 2009 looms ahead with new national leadership, challenging economic conditions, and growing community needs. As always, those of us at PPL are grateful for all that you share with us. You make our work possible.

Many thanks, and happy holidays.

August 5th was a beautiful summer night for National Night Out (NNO) celebrations at four clusters of PPL housing in North Minneapolis, New Hope, Robbinsdale, and St. Louis Park.

Residents, staff, volunteers and neighbors gathered to eat pizza, burgers and ice cream, play games, in some cases register to vote, and most importantly build community with one another by asserting a shared interest to live in a safe, secure and supportive environment.

For my part I walked away with a temporary tattoo gleefully applied by two girls who knew exactly what they were doing; it didn’t come off for two weeks.

Participants having a sense of community is one important result of much of the work done at PPL.

Whether it’s assisting with a neighborhood tree planting program on blocks we are also helping to redevelop, or sponsoring a forum on an important topic like increasing access to quality early childhood education, or promoting gardening by families in our buildings – all recent activities – bringing people together for collective action on common interests promotes the idea that we are all in this together. During tough economic times, that is a particularly important message to reinforce.

It’s hard to believe that summer has come and gone.

In addition to NNO and other community building activities, the past months have been an active time for programming at PPL as a result of the many youth employment and education activities we offered. Approximately 140 young people participated in PPL summer camps at locations in St. Paul, St. Louis Park and points in between. You can read about some highlights on page eight of this newsletter.

Constructive engagement for children and teens, accomplished in a way which helps them develop positive relationships among themselves and with caring adults, is another by-product of the work we do. As in the case of community building, the foundation for a stronger, healthier Twin Cities is being constructed – with your help!

Thank you for your support.