A Center for Changing Lives Breakfast Event was held on May 1 in downtown St. Paul at The Travelers Companies, which sponsored the event. St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman spoke at the event regarding his support for LSS and the Center for Changing Lives. St. Paul City Council members, Travelers Companies staff members, St. Paul corporate foundation leaders, Ramsey County Commissioners, church leadership and interested individuals were in attendance as well.

Lutheran Social Service President/CEO Mark Peterson was recently interviewed by host Gail Nosek on her public affairs radio program Minnesota Matters. In the following excerpt, Mark talks about the services that will be offered at the Center for Changing Lives.

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Click here to hear excerpt of Minnesota Matters radio interview with Mark Peterson.

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar held a special meeting at the offices of Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota in Minneapolis on Saturday, May 3, to speak with people who are trying to adopt children from foreign countries, especially Guatemala and Vietnam. The Senator wanted to gather first-hand information from people who are being affected by foreign governments that are changing or ending the process of allowing adoptions from adoptive parents in other countries.

Former ADC Telecommunications CEO Chuck Denny co-hosted a Center for Changing Lives Hard Hat Tour alongside Allina President Dick Pettingill and Phillips Eye Institute President David Orbuch on Wednesday, May 14. Mr. Denny has been involved in a multitude of philanthropic causes in Minneapolis for decades, and LSS is happy to have his endorsement of this breakthrough new project in the Phillips West neighborhood.

Former Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson spoke at the Center for Changing Lives Community Breakfast in Burnsville about his support of the capital campaign and the new building on Thursday, May 15. He spoke to the audience of local church and community members about the need to give of ourselves in order to be fulfilled.

From MinnPost.com, Cynthia Boyd, March 20, 2008: At a time when the need for affordable housing is increasing, there's some good news in the steel beams and foundation walls at East 24th Street and Park Avenue South in Minneapolis.

From the Star Tribune, Jeff Strickler, March 19, 2008: Lutheran Social Service on Wednesday announced its most ambitious project ever: A south Minneapolis center that will combine affordable housing with job training, financial services, mental health support, after-school services for children and even an in-house church.

March 19, 2008: LSS President Mark Peterson talks about a unique project called the new Center for Changing Lives in Minneapolis, scheduled to open in November 2008, and how it will help people in need.

March 21, 2008: R.T. Rybak, Mayor of Minneapolis, has a personal connection to the Center for Changing Lives. Rybak knows the Phillips Neighborhood well because his father owned a drug store there, and he recalls delivering prescriptions to the homes of struggling families as a young teen. R.T. tells of the impressions left by those visits, and the importance of LSS in the neighborhood.

March 19, 2008: Four years ago, Becky Hentges was pregnant and had nowhere to go. Drug addiction and depression made it difficult to gain stability. With affordable housing, counseling, parenting classes and employment help from Lutheran Social Service, she now works full time, has reunited with her older daughter and is making a new life with her family in Maple Grove.