Align Minneapolis

Please join me in supporting Align Minneapolis, a small nonprofit that is doing big things to impact the plague of homelessness in Minneapolis.  Formerly known as the Downtown Congregations to End Homelessness, Align pulls together advocacy, faith, action, and congregational volunteerism to impact those most vulnerable in our community. 

Align has an Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program that awards funds to folks who have fallen on hard times and can't pay their rent.  Align's program helps them stay in their homes and avoid becoming homeless. The ERA program has helped 486 people pay their rent and stay in their homes since it was piloted in 2016. With the pandemic, the need for assistance has become even larger this year, and Align needs to increase its impact to meet this demand.

Align also has a great program called Street Voices of Change (SVoC), a group made of people with lived experience of homelessness, either now or in the past.  It is a loving community that meets regularly to recognize the trauma of homelessness and restore dignity to every aspect of the experience.  SVoC undertakes advocacy work at the state and local levels, and leads the organization in developing programs and initiatives that are important to people experiencing homelessness.  Pre-Covid, the SVoC community served 150 people through weekly meetings at four different member congregational sites.  Over 350 individuals have benefited from this program since it began in September of 2016.

 I support and admire Align Mpls for these reasons:

• Street Voices of Change is a unique program that respects the voices of people with lived experience of homelessness.  It provides folks with training in public speaking and presentation and helps them with buying a suit or outfit and self-care products so that they can be proud spokespeople for Align's mission with funders or at the State Capitol.  SVoC helps remove the stigmas that accompany homelessness and restores dignity to these, our neighbors and fellow citizens.
• The Emergency Rental Assistance program helps people stay out of homelessness.  There are many organizations that provide housing to the homeless; Align works to keep them in their homes.  It understands that many can slip into homelessness in a flash (due to a lost paycheck, temporarily laid off from a job, unexpected health expenses, or a child's sickness), and may just need a boost to get them over the hurdle.
• Align gets a lot done with not a lot of resources.  With two full-time staff members, it counts on congregational volunteers to work on committees, do goods drives for things like masks, backpacks, or coats, and support the fundraising of the organization.  Volunteers like me.  So much more could be done with more financial resources.

Please join me in helping Align do more and be more for our community.  And to work to end the crisis of homelessness in our communities.

Click on the link above the photo to get even more information about Align and its great work!

Thank you for your support!

Kristin Makholm