PLUS Time Program Helps Liberty Plaza Achieve Model Status

For the past seven years, PLUS Time Program (Playful Learning with University Students), run by Concordia students and faculty advisor, Dr. Michele Pickel, associate professor of Education, has been one of the service partners at Liberty Plaza, a 173 unit, 100 percent Section 8 property in St. Paul’s Summit-University area.  Recently, the Liberty Plaza Resource Center, a program of the Twin Cities Housing Development Corporation (TCHDC), became the first center in Minnesota to achieve “Model Status” through the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development National Neighborhood Networks.  Centers can achieve ‘Designated’, ‘Certified’, and ‘Model’ status, meeting escalating requirements with each status.  The Liberty Plaza Resource Center was launched in 2000 as a focal point in providing programs and services to residents.  Programming is focused on children and youth, including after-school and summer enrichment, homework help, tutoring, computer learning, personal development, leadership development and community service involvement. Adult programming includes job seeking and job keeping assistance, language programming, monthly produce distribution, adult computer lab services and similar services.  Liberty Plaza is one of the more than 1,400 Neighborhood Network centers in all 50 states, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and one of just 19 system-wide to attain “Model’ status.