Focus Area: Early Childhood

Grant Amount: $10,000

Based in St. Paul, serves St. Paul and Maplewood. ENS supports women and their families who are recovering from homelessness and experiencing the challenges of mental and/or chemical disabilities at two housing facilities: Emma’s Place in Maplewood, and the new Restoring Waters in the Highland Bridge neighborhood of St. Paul. Most of the clients at Emma’s Place are women with large families in which at least one member has some kind of disability.

Grant supports expanding early childhood education and parent support/education at its supportive housing sites. ENS will hire a consultant to develop this program for both sites. Emma’s Place currently offers an after-school youth program, so this new programming will cover the other members of the families. Emma’s place serves up to 13 large families at any given time. Restoring Waters will serve 60 women and some small families – it is Minnesota’s first trauma-informed supportive housing development.