June 27, 2024 -- St. Cloud, MN
St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis has selected 180 Degrees' St. Cloud Youth Shelter as one of five recipients of the 2024 Rock-On award. The annual award recognizes outstanding civic leadership, participation, and achievement in the city of St. Cloud.

Community Engagement Manager Nancy Dyson and Sr. Program Manager Dominic Jones, accepted the award from Mayor Kleis at the opening ceremony of Granite City Day, a four day festival celebrating the history and culture of St. Cloud.

"We are so honored to receive this recognition," said 180 Degrees CEO Dan Pfarr.  "Completing the major renovation of our shelter this past year has been a major accomplishment. The new facility would not be possible without so many generous partners and supporters in St. Cloud and Central Minnesota.  This award recognizes the community effort of improving our facility and programs to better serve youth who are homeless or exploited." 

 St. Cloud is nicknamed "the Granite City" because of the granite quarries that have operated in teh area since the 1880's. 

​St. Cloud Youth Shelter is the only 24-hour emergency youth shelter in Central Minnesota serving youth.  Services include emergency shelter, on-site education, mental health services, parent support, and case management.  The recently renovated shelter can accommodate up to twelve youth in residence at a time.  Services disrupt, prevent, and end youth homelessness. 

Today, with front page coverage, the St. Cloud Times breaks the story of 180 Degrees upcoming renovation of its St. Cloud Youth Shelter and a $4.3 million capital campaign to fund it. 
The shelter, acquired by 180 Degrees in 2011, is long overdue for repairs.  A real estate assesment concluded that the shelter, the only one serving youth under 18 in Central Minnesota, would no longer be viable without significant upgrades. 
In a highly competitve grant process, 180 Degrees secured $1.5 million in funding from the State of Minnesota and additonal funding from Otto Bremer Trust towards he $4.3 million project.  Now, a campaign is underway to secure additional funds in support of the project, which will expand bed capacity in addition to providing needed upgrades. 
The added capacity comes at a time of great need.  Last fiscal year, 102 youth accessed safe shelter.  This year, just three months into the fiscal year, 58 youth have requested shelter, with about 30 being turned away due to lack of space. 

**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**
March 3, 2022
St. Paul, Minnesota

180 Degrees recently received Charities Review Council’s Meets Standards® seal, a visual marker on nonprofit strength. Nonprofit organizations, such as 180 Degrees, earn the Meets Standards® seal by voluntarily participating in Charities Review Council’s Accountability Wizard® review process. The only web-based product of its kind, the Accountability Wizard® is a time-tested tool, elevated by nationally recognized capacity building practitioners and philanthropic thought leaders. 

"The Charities Review Council provided us with a thoughtful process to develop policies that provide transparency to donors as well as the general public," said CEO/President Dan Pfarr.

The Accountability Wizard® is based on Charities Review Council’s 25 Accountability Standards®, a balance of nonprofit sector promising practices, public expectations, and legal requirements, representing the shared expectations between donors and nonprofits. The review process examined four key areas: Public Disclosure, Governance, Financial Activity, and Fundraising. As a result, 180 Degrees has aligned its practices, policies and procedures to widely accepted standards of accountability, leading them to greater strength, efficacy and to the achievement of the Meets Standards® seal.

180 Degrees' full review report is available online at www.smartgivers.org, and will also be listed in Charities Review Council’s bi-annual Smart Giver Newsletter.

FOR MORE INFO:   CONTACT:  Janet Hallaway   [email protected]

 
** For immediate release **
December 2, 2021
St. Paul, Minnesota

As Minnesota’s newly established Task Force on Missing and Murdered African American Women begins its work to reduce violence against African American women and girls, Brittney Ermon with KSTP Channel 5 visited Brittany’s Place Emergency Shelter to learn about the risks and dangers that young women of color face due to sex trafficking and exploitation.

​“Brittany’s Place offers a critical, safe rest stop for women who are trafficked and in risk of physical violence and even death,” said Krystal Hollins, Senior  Program Manager at Brittany's Place and parent organization, 180 Degrees.  Brittany's Place is led by all female staff, 64% of whom are BIPOc.  Along with Ms. Hollins, they provide a culturally-rich environment with programming that welcomes and celebrates girls of color.  

Since 2014, over 600 girls have turned to 180 Degrees' Brittany's Place for safety and healing following sexual exploitation, including 136 last year.  Of those,  83% were black, indegenous, or people or color. While African Amercians make up 5.8% of Minnesota's population, they accounted for 53% of all girls in Brittany's Place last year.

Youth who have been sexually exploited require highly specialized services to address their unique trauma and goals. The goal at Brittany’s Place is for youth to escape from exploitive relationships and to live healthy, age-appropriate lifestyles, develop self-sufficient living, prevent dependence on social services, and obtain housing stability. Program goals are to achieve alternative healthy lifestyles, social and emotional well-being, permanent connections, life skills, education/employment, and exits to safe, stable, permanent housing.

Brittany’s Place, launched in 2014 as Minnesota’s first and largest program for sexually exploited youth, is a regional safety net for youth and families in the Twin Cities metro, statewide, and in adjacent states. Named for after Brittany Clardy, a vibrant young woman who was murdered following a sex trafficking incdient, Brittany's Place is a designated Minnesota Safe Harbor shelter meeting the highest standards for trauma-responsive care, program design, and service philosophy. Today, Brittany’s Place has evolved to provide a full spectrum of services specific to the needs of youth survivors of sex trafficking, including intervention, prevention, and emergency outreach .

​Founded in 1973, 180 Degrees, Inc., operates emergency shelter and supportive housing programs for youth and adults. Trauma-informed services address immediate crisis to experiencing neglect, homelessness, sexual exploitation and trafficking, and incarceration. Programs include Clifton Place, a residential and supportive housing program for men exiting prison, Hope House Emergency Youth Shelter in Chanhassen, Onward House in Eden Prairie, and Emergency Youth Shelters in St. Cloud and Rochester.
 
​Watch the KSTP-TV Interview  featuring Krystal Hollins Here: 
https://kstp.com/news/long-overdue-task-force-for-missing-and-murdered-black-women-established-in-minnesota/6319791/?cat=1
FOR MORE INFO:   CONTACT:  Janet Hallaway   [email protected]

We’re delighted and honored to announce that 180 Degrees’ Community Reentry Services have been selected to receive the Damus Award; a philanthropic project that gives up to $25,000 annually to Minnesota nonprofits. ​

The Damus Board; a select group of University of St. Thomas Business Undergraduates announced 180 Degrees' Community Re-Entry Services is a winner of its prestigious Damus award.
​
Richard Coffey, Executive Director of Community Re-Entry Services accepted the award in an online ceremony. “This award will help benefit programs that are working to achieve change in our communities.” Says Programs Director Richard Coffey, “I would like to thank the Damus Award Board for providing this growth opportunity."

** For immediate release **
April 28, 2021
St. Paul, Minnesota

In a special ribbon-cutting ceremony, 180 Degrees and Mounds View non-profit Quincy House announced a new partnership to expand safe, affordable housing in the Twin Cities East Metro region, for young men at risk of homeless.
 
The ceremony took place in Mounds View at a residential home that will shelter up to five young men, ages 18-22, for up to 18 months.  Sharing kitchen, living, and rec space, including an outdoor sports court, young men will participate in structured daily programming while receiving ongoing case management support, leading to independent living.
 
Non-profit Quincy House, founded by President Tami Moberg, has donated the house, and will contribute toward annual operating costs.  An expert in trauma-informed services, 180 Degrees’ team will provide day-to-day programming, case management, and development of independent living skills.   The program will officially open June 1.  

​Volunteer interior designers turn girls' shelter from drab to welcoming for teens escaping sex trafficking. Volunteer interior designers turn Brittany's Place from drab to dreamy to encourage girls to stay awhile. 

Designer Lisa Ball put up a new painting in a former office space, assisted by Bridget Zak. The volunteers turned institutional decor into colorful and fun spaces to welcome the girls.

PHOTOS BY RICHARD TSONG-TAATARII • [email protected]





Could big comfy pillows, colorful bedding and rugs, freshly painted walls and decorative art help protect girls from abuse and exploitation? Maybe.

In fact, it's the hope of the staff of Brittany's Place, a shelter for child victims of sex trafficking. The shelter got a free makeover this month when a volunteer group of professional interior designers turned stark bedrooms and lounges into bright, cheerful, teen-friendly places where girls can enjoy hanging out — and maybe stick around a while longer.

The girls at Brittany's Place can move in or out as they wish. Temptations to leave, perhaps to reconnect with the very people who exploited them, can be dismayingly strong. Late one night last year, a sex trafficker stood outside the building calling for a girl who had told him her location.

"Every night a girl stays here is a night she's safe," said Dan Pfarr, CEO of 180 Degrees, a St. Paul organization that provides services and shelters for youths and paroled offenders. "We're really trying to create an atmosphere where girls feel safe, feel welcome. … Environment changes everything."

Staff members have always worked to make girls feel welcome and comfortable, but the building's interior, a look best described as "institutional," was not helping. The wall colors were drab when the shelter opened in 2015. By early 2020, they had also endured five years of wear and tear in a building that shelters about 100 girls a year.
​
The staffs at Brittany's Place and 180 Degrees, the nonprofit organization that runs Brittany's Place, thought brighter colors might feel more inviting, so they requested professional advice about paint.
But interior designers Jennie Korsbon and Lisa Ball found it wasn't just the walls that were drab. The bedrooms were small, their furnishings austere, like dorm rooms before the freshmen arrive.

"After coming here to look at the paint colors, we realized there was a lot more we could do," Korsbon said.

"Before we knew it, they had lined up interior designers to decorate each bedroom," said Janet Hallaway, advancement director at 180 Degrees.

Most years, members of the Minnesota chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) collaborate on a Showcase Home. They designate some luxurious residence, where each designer gets a room and a generous budget. In 2020, though, the project was canceled because of — you guessed it — COVID-19.

So Korsbon and Ball, members of ASID's community service committee, proposed that volunteer designers could focus their sprucing skills on Brittany's Place, dividing the rooms among themselves. But compared with Showcase homes, 180 Degrees' decorating budget was considerably less extravagant — about $2,000 to cover the whole project.
That wasn't going to do it. So designers pitched in their own money and collected donations from businesses including Ethan Allen and Benjamin Moore.

"The dollar value for the rooms is low," said Richard Coffey, 180 Degrees' senior program director. "But the value of creating those rooms to the youth they serve — you can't put a dollar figure on it."

Plymouth designer Christine Tanaka "jumped at the chance" to join the project, aided by her 11-year-old daughter, Sienna. "It's a concrete example of how you can use your talent and your energy to do something good in the world," Tanaka said.

Her ideas weren't just visual. She left two books on the desk of the room she decorated: Michelle Obama's memoir, "Becoming," and "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," Maya Angelou's classic 1969 autobiography about overcoming racism and trauma.

The budget was beside the point. "This is way more rewarding than working on those Showcase Homes," Korsbon said. "This just obviously feeds your soul."

Americans unfamiliar with sex trafficking might think of it as a crime that happens somewhere else. In fact, Minneapolis is one of the top locations in the country for child sex trafficking, according to the Minnesota Attorney General's Office.
But victims come from all parts of the state — cities, suburbs and small towns — and from various backgrounds and family situations. They include all races, although the majority are girls of color. Many are vulnerable because they're homeless, have addictions or are being physically or sexually abused already. They are trafficked by predatory supposed "boyfriends," sometimes even by family members.

One girl, the youngest ever to stay at Brittany's Place, had been "passed around" by family members and their friends, said Michelle Hall, program service specialist. She arrived at the shelter with drug addiction and signs of severe physical and sexual abuse. She was 11 years old.

For this reason, laws around and terminology about sex trafficking is changing. For example, what used to be categorized as prostitution, a crime for both the provider of sex and its solicitor, was redefined as exploitation in 2011 when Minnesota's Safe Harbor Law was established, recognizing that minors sold for sex are victims, not criminals.

More attention is also being drawn to places where sex trafficking increases, such as big sporting events and concerts.

​"I look at large sporting events so differently since I've been working here," said Coffey, a former forward for the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The shelter is named in memory of Brittany Clardy, who came from what many would describe as an ordinary background. She lived with her two parents and siblings in St. Paul, got good grades in high school, planned to go college, and worked at a recreation center with children.

But she lived a double life, her family later learned. Her sexual services were being advertised online where one night she was solicited by a man later convicted of murdering her. She was 18 years old.
Now the shelter that bears her name offers trafficking victims education, therapy and whatever other help they need to fix their lives. Sometimes it works, even if it takes multiple attempts.

"We may see them again," when they leave Brittany's Place, Hall said, "Or we may not see them again."

Brittany loved butterflies and the color purple. Some designers incorporated those aspects into their decor, including one long purple wall in the hang-out room that also holds books, games and a big TV.

The designers also sought feedback from the girls on what colors and images they'd like to see. It was important to give them choices because "they lack choices in their lives outside the shelter," Hallaway said.

"It was all over the board," Korsbon said. Some said they wanted calming colors. Some wanted bright colors. Some of the younger girls wanted unicorns.

​To protect their privacy, the girls generally don't interact with visitors. But as the designers applied the finishing touches to their rooms, several sent handwritten notes.
One girl commented: "I actually like it because the rooms here were plain and looked like shelter rooms, but with them getting redesigned [they] will be better and will make girls feel like they're worth something and they [can] accomplish something."

​"I think the renovations are nice," another girl wrote, "and it's cool that they're doing this."
To Krystal Hollins, Brittany's Place's senior program manager, that understated note reflects one of the most important elements of the project. The designers are role models. Not just as successful professionals, but as "a community of humans who will be kind."

Kindness has been scarce in the lives of many of these girls. The designers show that, somewhere out in the world, "there's a lot of possibility," Hollins said.

​"There's hope."

Katy Read • 612-673-4583 • @Katy_Read
Katy Read is a reporter covering Carver County and western Hennepin County. She has also covered aging, workplace issues and other topics for the Star Tribune. She was previously a reporter at the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, La., and the Duluth News-Tribune.

​Right to left: Interior designer Lisa Ball put up a new painting in a room formerly used as an office space, with assistance from Bridget Zak.

​This donated quilt features patches dedicated to Brittany Clardy, for whom the shelter from sex trafficking is named.

​Pressures brought on by COVID may be behind uptick across Twin Cities, suburbs. 
​By Katy Read Star Tribune​

Photo above: Abigail Botten, left, 180 Degrees Program Manager, helped Youth Advocate Chantra-Lee Jackson get the pantry arranged in the kitchen at Chanhassen’s Hope House.
Photo by: RICHARD TSONG-TAATARII • [email protected]
​
FEBRUARY 16, 2021 — 12:48PM
Bob and Sue Downs remember many of them vividly.
The boy found huddled in a culvert under a street in downtown Chaska on a 10-below night, body temperature dangerously low. The boy who sneaked into the Chanhassen Dinner Theatres and hid under a stage. The boy who slept under a Chanhassen bridge among "scary dudes" for six weeks after his mother, who struggled with mental illness, kicked him out for eating the last slice of pizza.
"When I speak to teachers, I tell them, 'These kids are in your classroom, and when they leave your classroom they don't go home,' " said Bob Downs, himself a retired middle-school teacher. The teachers' "eyes get wide."
For about 30 years before retiring as foster parents in 2018, the couple hosted hundreds of kids in their big Chaska farmhouse, bearing witness to an oft-hidden reality: Even in affluent suburban communities, teenagers experience homelessness — a problem that family pressures associated with the COVID-19 pandemic may only exacerbate.
Meanwhile, safety nets intended to protect young people — from child protective services to medical and mental health providers to schools — have been less accessible because of the virus.
Places to hang out, like libraries, coffee shops and stores, have been closed.
Homelessness overall, including among youth, was already on the rise before the pandemic, according to Wilder Research, which leads the Minnesota Homeless Study every three years. In 2018, according to an estimate considered conservative, 5,800 kids under 18 had experienced homelessness — 11% more than in 2015.
Problems affecting family members, such as physical or sexual abuse, mental illness, chemical abuse, conflicts over LGBTQ identity, can push kids at all income levels out of their homes.
In Carver County, one of the wealthiest in Minnesota, the rate of homeless youth is similar to other counties in the metro area and the state as a whole.
In 2019's Minnesota Student Survey, 2% of boys and 1% of girls in Carver County reported that they had been on their own staying "in a shelter, somewhere not intended as a place to live, or someone else's home because [they] had no other place to stay" in the past year.
Suburban kids often prefer to stay near jobs, friends and schools rather than seek shelters in downtown Minneapolis. Chanhassen's Hope House — a comfortable house that shelters homeless youth, primarily from the western suburbs — last year took in 120 young people but had to turn away 135.
That's the most ever, which may be due in part to increased awareness of the five-year-old shelter.
But most likely a significant portion "is a direct result of COVID's impact on families," said Dan Pfarr, CEO of 180 Degrees, a St. Paul nonprofit that operates Hope House.
COVID-19 will "exacerbate everything," Bob Downs said.
Amanda Stewart, an emergency-room pediatrician and Harvard Medical School instructor who has researched the pandemic's effects on children, said the combination of kids being home from school and families being stuck in one place can lead to fights that end with kids leaving home or being kicked out.
A July article in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said "it is likely that stay-at-home orders, combined with increased economic instability and family pressures, will increase [youths'] risks for harm and, in some cases, may make it untenable [and potentially dangerous] for them to shelter in place."
Schools offer kids respite from troubled families and provide opportunities for staffers to spot signs of abuse, said Fredrick Blocton, chairman of 180 Degrees' board. With schools closed, those problems become invisible.
"School can be a really stabilizing force in young people's lives; taking it out of the equation is going to have a big impact," said Michelle Decker Gerrard of Wilder Research, who directs the Minnesota Homeless Study.
More than 80% of homeless youth Wilder surveyed reported having "adverse childhood experiences," including living with someone who abused substances, parents with mental health issues, being physically or sexually abused or witnessing the abuse of another family member and being neglected.
In October, when the survey was conducted, 22% of homeless youth had spent more than a week outside and 38% spent more than a week "doubled up," or living with someone else temporarily.
The pandemic may reduce opportunities to stay with friends, leaving young people vulnerable to exploitation.
Because they don't usually fit the stereotypical images of the homeless — people sleeping on sidewalks or holding cardboard signs at stoplights — homeless teenagers are often invisible to casual observers, advocates say.
Pat Barry, chief deputy at the Carver County Sheriff's Office, said deputies who see people living in their cars — often near places like convenience stores that are well-lit, open long hours and offer cheap food and access to bathrooms — can offer help finding services.
Homeless youth are tougher to recognize, he said, but members of the public can help.
"I would encourage people to be vigilant and if they see something that just doesn't look right they should call," Barry said. "It's never an inconvenience for us. ... At minimum we've saved some kids."
Katy Read • 612-673-4583

Katy Read is a reporter covering Carver County and western Hennepin County. She has also covered aging, workplace issues and other topics for the Star Tribune. She was previously a reporter at the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, La., and the Duluth News-Tribune.

[email protected] 612-673-4583

**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**
March 3, 2022
​St. Paul, Minnesota

​180 Degrees has again received the Charities Review Council’s Meets Standards® seal, a visual marker on nonprofit strength. Nonprofit organizations, such as 180 Degrees, earn the Meets Standards® seal by voluntarily participating in Charities Review Council’s Accountability Wizard® review process. The only web-based product of its kind, the Accountability Wizard® is a time-tested tool, elevated by nationally recognized capacity building practitioners and philanthropic thought leaders. 

The Accountability Wizard® is based on Charities Review Council’s 25 Accountability Standards®, a 
balance of nonprofit sector promising practices, public expectations, and legal requirements, 
representing the shared expectations between donors and nonprofits. The review process 
examined four key areas: Public Disclosure, Governance, Financial Activity, and Fundraising. As a result, 180 Degrees has aligned its practices, policies and procedures to widely accepted 
standards of accountability, leading them to greater strength, efficacy and to the achievement of the 
Meets Standards® seal.

"The Charities Review Council's process has helped us to create thoughtful policies which protect our clients and provide greater transparency to donors as well as the general public," says CEO/President Dan Pfarr.

180 Degree‘s full review report is available online at www.smartgivers.org, and the organization will also be listed in Charities Review Council’s bi-annual Smart Giver Newsletter.

​FOR MORE INFO:   CONTACT:  Janet Hallaway   [email protected]

​** For immediate release **
July 16, 2020
St. Paul, Minnesota
 
SERVICES EXPAND FOR YOUTH AT RISK FOR SEX TRAFFICKING
180 DEGREES NAMED REGIONAL NAVIGATOR FOR MINNESOTA'S EAST METRO REGION 
 
The Minnesota Department of Health has awarded 180 Degrees over $450,000 in grant funding to expand services around the state to prevent sex trafficking of minors.  180 Degrees operates Brittany’s Place in St. Paul, the state’s largest shelter and program for girls under 18 who are victims of sex trafficking, along with youth shelters in Chanhassen, Rochester, and St. Cloud. New intervention and prevention services will be offered at each facility, broadening the network of support for youth who are at risk for sexual exploitation. 
 
“Minnesota Department of Health recognizes the need to connect with more youth at risk for sexual exploitation,” said Caroline Palmer, Safe Harbor Director for the Minnesota Department of Health.  “We are working with organizations across the state, like 180 Degrees in the East Metro, to identify more at risk youth and connect them with appropriate services.”
 
The grant names 180 Degrees the Safe Harbor Regional Navigator for the Twin Cities’ East Metro region.  Serving as the regional expert and service hub, the Safe Harbor Regional Navigator coordinates training and strengthens service networks across Anoka, Chisago, Dakota, Isanti, Ramsey, and Washington counties. Programs goals are to educate communities about sex trafficking, quickly connect youth with services, and strengthen the continuum of care in the region.
 
Effective immediately Mary McRoy, 180 Degrees Senior Program Manager for Brittany’s Place, will step up to lead the Safe Harbor Regional Navigator effort on behalf of 180 Degrees. 
 
“We are fortunate to have Mary leading this effort,” said 180 Degrees’ CEO Dan Pfarr.  “Mary is an effective relationship-builder and leader.  Managing Brittany’s Place for the past several years, she has extensive experience working directly with youth who are victims of sex trafficking.  She’s eager to share her knowledge with others in the community.” said Pfarr.  A search is underway for a new Program Manager at Brittany’s Place to replace McRoy.
 
Minnesota Department of Health funding will also expand services to prevent sex trafficking of minors.  180 Degrees will launch outreach to at-risk youth in the Twin Cities East Metro and Southwest Metro suburbs, and in St. Cloud, and Rochester, and also assess youth in its shelters for risk for sexual exploitation.  
  
“Youth in our shelters are among the highest risk group for sexual exploitation,” said Dan Pfarr, CEO at 180 Degrees.  “Now we will have the resources to assess the risk level youth in our programs.  Along with more street and community outreach, these services help us prevent further or future victimization”.
 
Founded in 1971, 180 Degrees is a multi-cultural social service agency providing emergency shelter and housing for homeless youth, victims of sex trafficking, and men exiting prison. Programs include Clifton Place, a residential and supportive housing program for men exiting prison, Brittany’s Place, Minnesota’s largest shelter and program for girls under 18 who are victims of sex trafficking, Hope House Emergency Youth Shelters in Chanhassen and St. Cloud, the Von Wald Group Home in Rochester, and Onward House transitional living in Eden Prairie.
 
FOR MORE INFO:   CONTACT:  Janet Hallaway   [email protected]
### 
 

For paroled offenders, homeless teenagers and others helped by the nonprofit firm 180 Degrees, the coronavirus crisis has changed risks and needs.
Each year, 180 Degrees assists 200 former Minnesota offenders find training, housing and work within a few months of parole. It also provides emergency shelter and services for 1,000-plus homeless teens in the Twin Cities, St. Cloud and Rochester.
Around the state, nonprofits took an estimated $1 billion hit in April as the COVID-19 virus and instant recession derailed spring fundraising and curtailed other revenue streams.
180 Degrees CEO Dan Pfarr and program director Richard Coffey in 2019 completed a multiyear financial turnaround of the once-ailing, 50-year-old social enterprise. They cut ancillary programs, collaborated with other agencies and accelerated private fundraising.
At Clifton Place, a halfway house operated by 180 Degrees near downtown Minneapolis, staff was buoyed in recent years by increasing numbers of ex-offenders who landed $15-an-hour jobs with a future, finding places to live and lower prison-recidivism rates. Employers were starting to view ex-offenders as a resource in an employee-hungry economy. Skills, a paycheck and new friends at work can be a powerful, positive purpose.
But the coronavirus crisis instantly pushed Minnesota's unemployment to levels not seen since the early 1980s.
"Our job is to help these guys become productive citizens and to protect society," said Coffey, a one-time Army paratrooper and Minnesota Gophers basketball great in the 1980s. "We work with these guys to become accountable. They are trying to get their lives together and earn respect. They have committed a crime and paid dearly.
"Before COVID, jobs weren't the issue. It was housing. No one wants to rent to a felon. And you don't want to rent from a slumlord … who may demand a couple of months rent and then claim you're dealing drugs, which can be a parole violation and get you back in prison. Our guys have very little power."
The pandemic has made things more complicated operationally and financially at 180 Degrees. One of its top priorities was to make sure that residents at Clifton Place stayed free of the virus.
"The danger of bringing COVID to a 36-bed congregate-living site was a huge risk," said Pfarr, who himself had to quarantine at home after a family member was exposed to the virus elsewhere.
"Richard, Tony Hunter, the senior manager at Clifton, Layee Sanoe, our house manager, were central to critical adjustments," Pfarr said. "We could have been forced to close our doors. But we adjusted."
More of the support programs were done on site, which meant that the residents didn't need to travel as much. When they did, 180 Degrees started using vans so the residents could reduce their use of public transportation, where the exposure risk is perceived to be higher.
"We gave each full-time employee a $4 per hour pay increase as they took on additional risk, as well additional costs for cleaning supplies, masks," Pfarr said. The nonprofit was helped by additional funding from the state Department of Corrections.
180 Degrees secured grants from several counties that it serves, about $150,000 in donations and also got a $680,000 loan from the Small Business Administration.
Pfarr said he anticipates there is more hard work ahead for the organization to continue providing services while the pandemic threat remains.
"This is not going away until we have comprehensive vaccination, testing and contract-tracing at the local level," Pfarr said. "We are planning our [fiscal] 2021 budget that starts in July. And we have a waiting list of 40 guys being released from prison. We must connect them with employment and housing before they leave us."
So far, nobody at Clifton Place has contracted the virus.
"I've been here for about a month and I just finished [online] forklift certification and I'm looking for work in manufacturing," said Kurt Mahoney, a Clifton resident. "The biggest change for me is doing so much more online and being restricted in terms of job searching. There are warehouse and grocery-store jobs.
"I want a job that pays enough to cover rent and my other basic needs; $15 an hour or more. You've got to be optimistic and you're doomed for disaster. It's all supposed to happen within two to three months."
Coffey's Clifton Place crew has delivered over long hours, including trying to lift spirits during COVID times. The life skills, substance abuse and self-empowerment work continues.
"We've got five full-time staff and three part-timers," Coffey said. "We need to double that, but it's not in the budget. There are not many Tonys or Layees out there. I can't have them burn out.
"Our clients … have paid the price. It's good for society if we can find them proper housing and good jobs."

Neal St. Anthony has been a Star Tribune business columnist and reporter since 1984. Reach him at [email protected].

Read the full article in the Star Tribune here:  https://www.startribune.com/180-degrees-battled-covid-19-on-top-of-tough-mission-to-assist-ex-offenders/570696012/

TonkaTogether, a fundraising project of the Excelsior Morning Rotary Club, is raising needed funds for 180 Degrees and five other non-profits in the Twin Cities southwest metro suburbs.  All non-profits provide basic needs services in the community, services which are in greater demand during Covid-19.

"We're grateful for the support of the Excelsior Morning Rotary Club and all the people in the community who are lending support, said 180 Degrees' CEO Dan Pfarr.  "No organization can solve youth homelessness alone and so we appreciate the community coming together when we truly need support."

180 Degrees operates Hope House, a emergency shelter for youth, ages 14-19 who are homeless, and Lanewood House, fully furnished affordable apartments for young adults 18-22 who are at risk of homelessness.   Waiting lists persist at both Hope House and Lanewood House during Covid-19, indicating the ongoing need for safe shelter and programming. 

Read more about TonkaTogether in article from the Sunrise Sailor.


  

** For immediate release**
January 30, 2020
St. Paul, Minnesota

St. Paul's East Side Area Business Assocation (ESABA) announced yesterday that 180 Degrees was selected as its Non Profit of the Year.  The award,  presented by ESABA Board Chair Steve Ledin and Executive Director Paris Dunning at the association's annual meeting, was held at Vomella Companies new headquaters in St. Paul. 

"180 Degrees is honored to receive this recognition," said Advancement Director Janet Hallaway.  "The teams staffing our 24-hour crisis shelters and working out in the community bring humility, compassion, and commitment to their work every day.  This award recognizes all that they do to make our communities stronger around the state."

Founded in 1971, 180 Degrees operates residential programs for homeless and at-risk youth, girls who are victims of sex trafficking, and men exiting prison.  Community-based programs provide support to youth with learning disabilities and victims of domestic violence.  Over 1,000 clients receive services each year.  Residential programs include Brittany's Place, Hope House, Lanewood Place, and Clifton Place.  Community-based programs include Youth Vocational Program, SAFE, and All Children Excel.

** For immediate release **
 January 2, 2020
 St. Paul, Minnesota

Services for homeless young adults are taking on a new look.

Beginning in January, 2020 180 Degrees and non-profit Onward Eden Prairie will begin a new partnership providing housing and case management services for adults, ages 18-22 who are homeless or at risk for homelessness.

"This partnership brings together expertise from two organizations to address the growing need for housing for young adults in crisis," said Dan Pfarr, CEO of 180 Degrees.

Volunteer-led Onward Eden Prairie, launched in October 2017, identified the need for services in Eden Prairie for young adults who were transitioning out of homeless, foster care, or at risk for homelessness.  The founders included a collaboration of community, social service, faith-based, and government organizations.  Onward Eden Prairie secured and now maintains a fully-furnished single family home which houses up to four adults in independent units. 

With the partnership, 180 Degrees will provide all programming and staffing, drawing on the agency's 50-year history providing trauma-informed, strength-based, culturally-relevant care.

Residents at the home will have access to strength-base support groups, case management services, and connections to community resources.

"Our goal is to empower these young adults to attain long-term stability in housing, education, and employment, " said Pfarr.  "Employing the resources of two organizations to address homelessness will increase our responsiveness to the needs in the community." 

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With a career spanning twenty-five years, McRoy received the Friends of Youth Leadership Award for her exceptional leadership and tireless commitment to helping youth overcome barriers of poverty and racism. At Brittany’s Place, McRoy sees to it that the girls who the victims of the worst possible trauma have a safe place to stay and trauma-informed services to help heal physical and emotional wounds.

The FBI has identified the Twin Cities as one of the nation’s largest centers for sex trafficking of youth. Now in its fifth year of operation, Brittany’s Place provides shelter, services, and programming to over 100 girls each year, with half coming from the metro area and the remaining half from around the state.

Under McRoy’s leadership, Brittany’s Place has evolved from a program ready to be shuttered because of high costs to one of financial stability. Implementing cultural change including staffing and programming, McRoy proudly reports the program is now serving more youth and delivering better outcomes.

“I’m deeply honored to receive this award. It’s a capstone of my career,” said Mary McRoy. “I’m also grateful to those who encouraged me to continue to take on new challenges,” she added.

“Being inducted into the Hall of Fame is a big deal,” said Paul Meunier, Executive Director of the Youth Intervention Programs Associations (YIPA). “We know that everyone who devotes their career to helping vulnerable youth is a superstar, but Hall of Fame members stand out as exceptional people we should try to emulate.”

Brittany’s Place is a program of 180 Degrees, a multi-cultural social service agency founded in 1971. McRoy is 180 Degrees’ second team member to be inducted into the Youth Intervention Hall of Fame, joining 180 Degrees’ Chief Executive Officer Dan Pfarr.
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FOR MORE INFO: CONTACT: Janet Hallaway [email protected]