Our Saviour's Community Services

Our Saviour's Community Services, based in the Phillips neighborhood of South Minneapolis, supports adults in increasing their skills and improving their lives through access to emergency shelter, supportive housing, and free English classes. 

We provide these services through our two programs – Our Saviour’s Housing and the English Learning Center.  

Our Saviour's Housing

English Learning Center

At Our Saviour’s Housing, we take on homelessness through two different solutions: emergency shelter and permanent supportive housing.     Our emergency shelter is open 24/7, 365 days a year, with every guest receiving their own room, three meals a day, and support from our staff and volunteers. This year, we expanded our capacity from 21 to 38 after extensive renovations at our shelter.   Our permanent supportive housing program serves community members who have experienced homelessness and live with a mental, chemical, and/or physical health condition. For as long as needed, we support residents in affordable rental housing, on-site and scattered throughout Hennepin County.

The English Learning Center is a community of adult learners, advocates, staff, and volunteer teachers.    We teach seven levels of English classes for students twice a day, four days a week, both online and in-person. Our classes are free, and we operate without waiting lists. This means students can come in to register, test, and start classes immediately.   We are dedicated to supporting adult learners seeking to increase their English literacy as they navigate life in the United States. We listen to and learn from each other to cultivate an educational community that prioritizes our learners.

   

Stitched Together 

In a time when our society often feels divided, Give to the Max Day reminds us of the values we share: values of generosity and mutual care. On November 19th this year, we have a chance to see how Minnesota comes together to support one another.  

At OSCS, we are proud to support those who are at a point of vulnerability and extend care that will help them tangibly increase their skills and improve their lives. We are excited our work brings together a community of supporters who see value in every life, who understand housing and education are human rights, and who take action to create a more equitable Minnesota. 

Why Now? 

Since last Give to the Max Day, we have: 

• Provided individualized, harm-reduction focused services for over 400 emergency shelter guests and permanent supportive housing residents.
• Taught free, low-barrier English classes to over 600 adult learners: this is significant in a year marked by ICE violence and intimidation in our neighborhood. Students are still showing up and working toward their learning goals.
• Refined our organization's mission, vision, and values to best reflect the work we do.

We have also navigated the loss of funding through our medical respite partnership. As we continue to pursue new programming and funding models with a goal of maintaining all 38 beds at the shelter and 24/7 operations, your donations are a fundamental part of how we will continue to support our programs. 

Give to the Max Day is a time when Minnesotans remember the ways we are interconnected, the ways our communities are wov19 together. Your dollars, combined with others from our generous community, can make a real, substantial impact in helping neighbors move toward a brighter future. 

Our incredible OSCS Board of Directors and donor community have put together a matching pool! Donations made November 1 - November 19 will be matched dollar for dollar, doubling the impact of your gift!

Learn more about the work we do:   

Our Latest News and Events    Our 2024-2025 Annual Report

Thank you for standing with our students, guests, residents, and staff in this transformational work this Give to the Max Day season.