Freeport West History Highlights

1970 Freeport West is founded by a group of young adults who had attended a deinstitutionalization conference inFreeport, MA. They returned to Minnesota to found a shelter for runaway youth.

Mid 1970s The shelter is re-organized into a group home for adolescent men leaving the corrections system.

1983 Established Family Assessment and Support Services to provide youth and their families with services aimed at keeping their families stable and intact. Staff conducted family assessments to provide insight into the families where young people would return after their residence in the group home.

1985 Established Project SOLO, providing services to teenagers who are homeless, at risk of homelessness or living in unstable homes.

1990 The group home changes into Legacy Shelter, a program more broadly accessible to youth in need.

1991 SOLO receives a US DHHS grant to provide transitional housing, using scattered-site rental housing, for homeless youth.

1992 Freeport West starts quality leadership training at Peoples Institute, Undoing Racism and Beyond.

1993 Freeport West writes a new mission statement: to support the efforts of families and communities to create environments where all children thrive.

1994 Establishes Community Building program, which includes recruiting community members to open their homes and come together to assess their community strengths and be supportive of their community and each other – creating Community Living Rooms.

1994 SOLO calls together other youth providers conducting street outreach to talk about coordination of outreach efforts. Together, eight agencies initiate StreetWorks, a collaborative street outreach program to homeless youth.

1995 Freeport West adopts an outcome-driven evaluation system to better document the change in our participants’ lives.

1995 Freeport West Receives two large HUD grants: One to initiate a large Transitional Living Program for homeless teens and the other in support of the StreetWorks collaborative.

1995–2002 Freeport West first tested our approach to culturally-based and outcomes driven
programming through a pilot program, the Legacy Family Reunification and Preservation Program.

1997 Jan Berry announced her resignation as Executive Director and Repa Mekha succeeded her.

1998 Freeport West's Common Bond project offered community youth and elders opportunities to come together to share the unique strengths of their respective ages.

1998 Freeport West acquires and moves all FW programs into the buildings on its new property.

1998 Established Community Connections program work with families in metro area homeless shelters to assist those families who have children that exhibit emotional or behavioral instabilities.

1998 Freeport West, Sabathani Community Center, and Hennepin County’s Children and Family Services formed a collaborative called Community Passages. They offered a range of voluntary services to families to potential risk for involvement with child protection services, surrounding them with natural systems of care and support.

2000 Freeport West completes a capital campaign to purchase and renovate its buildings.

2000 Freeport West received a Families Count award—one of eight nationally—from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The award recognized our innovative approach to encouraging and supporting natural systems of community support.

2001 The national Points of Light Foundation selected Freeport West as a Point of Light for our community-driven work.

2004 Freeport West begins a collaborative effort with Life’s Mission Link to consider income-generating and entrepreneurial opportunities for the agencies, individually or in partnership.

2005 Establishes Family Fitness Program for African American families

2004 Freeport West, Hope Community, Powderhorn Phillips Cultural Wellness center, collaborated on telling their stories and writing “End of One Way” publication.

2004 Mutual of America gives Community Partnership Award to StreetWorks for the exemplary leadership by facilitating partnerships with public, private or social sector leaders who are working together as equal partners to build a cohesive community that serves as a model for collaborating with others for the greater good.

2006 Receives funding from Blue Cross/Blue Shield to establish Walking Clubs

2007 Freeport West welcomes our newest Executive Director, Ramona Wilson.

2008 Freeport West opens the Freeport Saint Paul Youth Center in the Summit/University Neighborhood.

2009 Freeport West earns the seal of approval from the Minnesota Charitable Review Council.

2010 Freeport West celebrates its 40th year providing services and outreach to homeless and at-risk youth.