2026 Mid-Year Impact: Six Months of Service, Growth, and Community
At Sabathani Community Center, our work begins with the needs, strengths, and aspirations of the community around us. During the first half of 2026, that has meant responding to urgent needs for food and housing, creating spaces for health and connection, supporting young people and families, opening pathways to employment, and continuing a historic investment in the future of our building and neighborhood.
From January through June, thousands of people connected with Sabathani through programs, services, classes, events, and community partnerships. Here are some of the ways our community has grown stronger together during the first six months of the year.
Meeting Essential Needs
Demand for Sabathani’s Food Distribution program remained high throughout the first half of 2026. By midyear, the program had recorded 8,035 visits, serving 3,993 households and distributing 354,694 pounds of food. The program continues to average approximately 90 to 100 visits per day.
The Clothing Closet also remained an important community resource, recording 1,489 visits from 829 households and distributing more than 14,000 pounds of clothing through June.
These services became especially important during Operation Metro Surge. Funding from the Minneapolis Foundation’s OneMPLS Fund and the Immigrant Rapid Response Fund helped Sabathani respond to increased demand and maintain access to food and other critical services for community members experiencing heightened uncertainty or barriers to accessing resources. Support included home delivery for people who felt unsafe leaving their homes during this period.
Housing Services continued working alongside these efforts to help individuals and families achieve and maintain stable housing. Through the Family Homeless Prevention and Assistance Program (FHPAP), Sabathani supported more than 98 households, providing more than $200,000 in rental and mortgage assistance to help prevent homelessness. Pathways Home supported 22 households, 20 of which were housed, while Youth Housing and Homelessness Services continued helping young people and families navigate their paths toward housing stability.
One family illustrates what that support can make possible. A single father and his two sons came to Sabathani while experiencing homelessness. After securing housing, the family continued receiving support as the father worked on his resume, connected with training opportunities and increased his income, while his teenage sons found employment as well. Despite experiencing profound personal losses along the way, the family continued moving toward its goals and is now stably housed and able to meet its household needs.
Supporting Health, Wellness, and Connection
Through Maternal Health Matters, Sabathani continued surrounding new and expecting mothers with practical resources, relationships, and support. During the first six months of the year, the program welcomed seven new clients—and seven healthy new babies. Mothers were connected with doulas and provided essential items including diapers, formula, and healthy baby kits.
Participants have also found community through Sister Circle Support Group, healing circles and other opportunities to connect. In a recent focus group, multiple clients described Maternal Health Matters as their only source of support. One participant has formed such a close relationship with a program “grandma” that she now considers her family—a powerful example of the relationships that can grow when people have a place to connect consistently and authentically.
Connection is equally central to Sabathani’s work with older adults. From January through June, approximately 1,400 participants took part in 15 regular Senior Program classes, movies and activities, with another 200 guests attending four special events. The program also welcomed approximately 150 new participants.
Participants report improvements in balance, mobility, healthy eating habits and confidence through regular health and wellness programming. A new blood pressure machine, provided by the American Heart Association, is now available for community use, and members of the Walking Club regularly stop to check their blood pressure after walking.
But the impact extends beyond physical health. Classes and activities like Painting Made Simple, special events, and the Vintage Voices Choir create meaningful opportunities for friendship and belonging. One Vintage Voices member travels from Apple Valley each week by Metro Mobility for rehearsal. After losing her husband and experiencing depression, she decided to try the choir even though she didn’t think she could sing. Today, she says the choir has changed her life.
And this year brought a new milestone: Sabathani’s 90’s Club, created especially for adults ages 90 and older, already has 12 active members enjoying meetings, outings and a little special treatment at Sabathani events.
Through Communities That Care, Sabathani also hosted two Youth Wellness events during the first half of the year, engaging approximately 60 young people ages 14–24 through workshops, vendors and opportunities centered on wellness and community.
Investing in Young People
Sabathani’s youth programs continued creating opportunities for young people to build skills, develop leadership, and connect with supportive adults and peers.
During the first half of 2026, Open Doors Violence Prevention engaged more than 500 youth and young adults through after-school, evening, and community-based programming focused on safety, leadership and positive youth development. The Youth Advisory Board continued to grow, with members completing leadership training, helping plan events, mentoring peers, and supporting program activities.
Youth Group Violence Intervention provided intensive, trauma-informed case management for justice-involved and high-risk youth, connecting participants with educational, employment, and family supports while helping them strengthen decision-making, leadership, and conflict-resolution skills.
Educational Support Services worked with students experiencing chronic absenteeism and other barriers to school participation through Sabathani’s partnership with the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office Be@School initiative. Compared with the previous year, the program saw a 60% increase in youth connecting to services, while participating students experienced an approximately 3% average improvement in school attendance.
Creating Pathways to Careers
Workforce development continued to grow in 2026, connecting residents with training, paid experience and pathways into family-supporting careers.
Sabathani hosted two Environmental Sustainability Academy cohorts focused on Home Energy Auditing. Participants learned the fundamentals of building science, energy assessments, insulation, HVAC efficiency, and energy conservation while receiving career coaching, resume assistance, and job-placement support.
The results are encouraging: 100% of participants earned the Building Science Principles credential, and 60% transitioned directly into internships. Together, participants completed more than 1,100 internship hours and earned $43,126 in internship wages during the first half of the year.
Career Launch and Onward programs provided additional employment and construction-skills training, while expanding partnerships with employers and workforce organizations opened more doors to internships, industry-recognized training and employment opportunities in construction, energy, technology and the skilled trades.
Sabathani also launched the Greener Futures Youth Employment Program in partnership with the City of Minneapolis Step Up Program. Young people began paid internships in June, combining hands-on work experience with professional development, financial literacy, leadership training and environmental education.
Building a More Resilient Sabathani
While programs continued throughout the building, Sabathani itself was undergoing a major transformation.
The Community Energy Project is converting our historic community center into an innovative community resilience hub through geothermal heating and cooling, rooftop solar, battery storage and energy-efficient building systems. The goal is not only to reduce fossil fuel use, but also to lower long-term operating costs, strengthen Sabathani’s ability to provide essential services during power outages and extreme weather, and demonstrate what equitable clean-energy investment can look like in South Minneapolis.
By midyear, construction was more than halfway complete. Three geothermal wells had been completed, existing boilers had been safely removed and recycled, interior improvements were progressing through the building, and preparations were underway for rooftop solar and battery storage. Throughout it all, Sabathani has remained open and serving the community.
The project is also creating opportunities for learning and workforce development. An internship program funded by Xcel Energy has provided Sabathani workforce graduates with paid experience and exposure to electrical, mechanical, and pipefitting trades while helping the complex project stay on schedule and within budget. Sabathani has also welcomed community leaders, engineers, students, and climate advocates interested in learning from the project, including a visit from Community Climate Shift during its national conference in June.
The work received significant recognition this spring. Sabathani’s Director of Energy & Resilience Janet Brown received the 2026 Climate Adaptation Award from the University of Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership in the Transformative Adaptation category, and Sabathani received a Local Public Health Hero Award for its work to reduce climate pollution, improve air quality and develop a Community Resilience Hub.
Looking ahead, Sabathani will build on that resilience work through a new series of Ready Camps, supported by funding from the Xcel Energy Foundation’s Energizing the Future initiative. Residents will learn practical emergency-preparedness skills, develop household emergency plans and receive preparedness kits to help their families respond to severe weather and other emergencies.
Looking Ahead
These numbers tell an important part of the story: thousands of visits, hundreds of thousands of pounds of food, families housed, young people engaged, credentials earned, wages paid and new babies welcomed into the world.
But the impact of this work is also found in things that are harder to count: a senior discovering a new community through choir rehearsal. A young person building confidence in a first job. A mother finding a support system she can depend on. A family moving from homelessness toward stability.
As we move into the second half of 2026, Sabathani will continue building on this work—strengthening programs, developing new partnerships, and investing in the people and community that have made Sabathani a home in South Minneapolis for generations.
Be Part of the Impact
Sabathani’s work is made possible by the people who believe in the strength and potential of our community. Your support helps us continue providing essential services, creating opportunities, and building a stronger South Minneapolis.
Make a donation to support Sabathani’s programs and services, or volunteer your time and become part of the work happening every day at Sabathani Community Center.