The Empowerment Center

We need your help. In September 2016, Gage East Apartments opened.  One Hundred and twelve children, youth and parents now have a place to call home that were living in tents, cars or under bridges in and around Rochester. 50% of those new residents are young children. As each new family or youth moves in with a new chance to start their lives again, the urgency to renovate the adjacent Empowerment Center grows.

 The Empowerment Center will provide on-site programming to Gage East residents and the surrounding Rochester area.    Each child, teen and parent will be provided with the education, job training and mental health services needed to improve their life-long outcomes. Once renovated, 200 children, teens and adults are expected to be served daily at the Empowerment Center through our partners. They are:

           Families First of Minnesota will provide three Head Start and two Early Head Start classrooms serving children from birth through five year               olds.

          Family Service Rochester offers Children’s Therapeutic Support Services programs. The site will also be an entrance to a full menu of                     programs offered by Family Service Rochester. 

         Workforce Development, Inc. will provide job training for youth and adults.  

         Lutheran Social Service’s LINK transitions at-risk and homeless youth ages 16-21 years old into independent adults. 

 Your gift is needed right now!  The urgency to provide the needed programs to the Gage East families and the neighborhood is growing. Homelessness and poverty for children and youth is increasing in Rochester each year.  Rochester Public Schools having reported 535 homeless children in our schools this school year alone.

 Renovations are scheduled to start this spring to transform the former elementary school building into the Empowerment Center.   Starting in September 2017, our partnering community agencies will begin offering programs to make life-altering changes in the lives of countless children, youth and families for generations to come.

 Thank you for being a part of making generational change in the lives of the homeless and those in poverty in Rochester.

Center City Housing