Fiscal Year 2024–2025
Progress is not a straight line. This is the year we had, in numbers and in stories.
Progress is not a straight line
The term “progress” typically brings more questions than clarity for me. It's often seen as a linear process. Particularly when talking about individuals making progress in our programs, it tends to be like nurturing a garden: growth happens in cycles, sometimes seeds take longer to sprout, and setbacks like pests or droughts are part of the process.
Just like for many of our participants, progress for OSCS is not often straightforward. We often face pressures, both internal and external, that require us to prune, pause or re-plant. Despite unpredictability throughout this past year, we ended up in a healthier, more vibrant place at the end of our year than when we began.
A leading reason for our growth is the relationships we intentionally cultivated this past year. Relationships have an innate and powerful ability not only to offer us strength in difficult times, but to enhance our effectiveness and efforts.
Transformation happens when we focus on building relationships with community partners. 2024 marked the beginning of our new mental health services partnership with People Incorporated. We also made the difficult decision to ramp down our food shelf at the end of this fiscal year. As part of that process, we established a relationship with a nearby food shelf, so participants didn't lose access to this critical need. We also fostered deeper relationships with established partners such as Fairview Health Services and Our Saviour's Lutheran Church.
At the heart of our work is cultivating relationships with those we serve. These connections take time to build, and the process isn't always smooth. A clear, simple example of the importance of building trust for me is demonstrated in how we gathered input throughout the planning and design phase for our emergency shelter's expansion. This work depended on the trust our participants placed in us, entrusting us to not only listen to their feedback but also to thoughtfully incorporate it in each phase of the project.
Progress for us doesn't always equate to growth, or even improvement necessarily. Yet, we are in a better place today because we put trust in the methods we use to arrive where we are today, we recognize successes and challenges, and we continue to grow trust with each other.
With gratitude,
Mike Huffman
Executive Director
Mike Huffman, Executive Director
A few high-level updates about our year
Participant Advisory Council
16 current or former participants attended at least one meeting, contributing to conversations about hiring, how we measure outcomes, and the future of our campus.
New administrative capacity
We added an operations assistant, a fractional Chief Financial Officer and a contract grant writing team to support projects across the organization.
DEIB work
Our board committed to a framework to guide diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging work, identified data to track progress, and created ways for staff and board committees to collaborate.
817 students, 50,853 hours of learning
- Ages 18 to 80
- 52.6% identify as male, 47.2% as female, 0.1% another gender identity
- More than 80% call Spanish or Somali their primary language
In FY24-25 we sustained a period of strong attendance. About 6% more students attended classes than in our previous fiscal year, and student learning hours were 20% higher.
* We define “students” as participants spending 12 or more hours in class at the ELC.
Shelter, housing and mental health care
- 36 guests connected with our onsite mental health provider
- 73 therapy sessions and 18 comprehensive evaluations completed
- 17 individual consultations and 40 group trainings with our shelter team
- 5 community members accessed housing via the new HWS-I program
- Residents lived across 5 cities in Hennepin County
265 volunteers shared their time and skills
Our Saviour's Housing
- 104 volunteers
- Shared 1,557 hours
- Served 2,772 meals
English Learning Center
- 161 volunteers
- Taught 4,360 hours online or in person
Life happens, health struggles happen, but Our Saviour's reminded me that none of that means I deserved to feel less than human.