BUILDING OUR CITY By Andy Greder A Central Location for Hope CONCEPTUAL ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF DSGW Lutheran Social Service’s Center for Changing Lives Will Provide Several Programs and Housing for Homeless Youth I t’s tough enough for young adults experienc- ing homelessness to find stable housing on their own, so Lutheran Social Service of Min- nesota is working to create a more intricate web of programs for the roughly 600 home- less youth it assists in Duluth each year. The third-largest nonprofit human service organi- zation in Minnesota is building its Center for Changing Lives, a three-story, 26,000-square-foot hub of help at 1422 E. Superior St. Lutheran Social Service, which is based in St. Paul, traces its roots of service in Duluth to the Bethany Chil- dren’s Home that opened in 1916. Its historic work with children and youth will take a giant leap forward when the organization opens the Center for Changing Lives, a one- stop-shop for LSS’s bevy of programs that youth currently have to hopscotch around Duluth in order to receive. 40 Duluthian MARCH.APRIL 2017 “Today you can come here and get this, but tomorrow you have to go there and get that,” explained Lutheran So- cial Service Chief Executive Officer Jodi Harpstead. “Part of it is erasing the transportation issue and having to go from one place to the other and get what they need.” Being under one roof will help Lutheran Social Service provide more coordinated care and collabora- tion. LSS currently uses a “coordinated entry” database for providers to understand what is going on with each young person it assists. “There are things that happen when employees run into each other in the hallway; you have a conver- sation, you can keep things going,” Harpstead said. “It’s so much better than if you are all separate and sharing good ideas. I see half of the impact being the youth in one place – and the impact of our staff being in one place and communicating with each other and im- proving their work by integrating the services.”