We are now halfway through our 2025–2027 Strategic Plan, approved by the GMCC Board of Directors in 2024. Built around five strategic pillars and their corresponding objectives, this plan provides a roadmap for strengthening our impact and deepening our commitment to the communities we serve. We want to share the progress we are making together. I hope you will be encouraged by the growth, innovation, and impact we have achieved over the past year and a half.

 

1.1 Identify current and emerging unmet community needs.

  • We collect and review survey data to drive programming
  • Co-design sessions surface client experiences
  • Staff are embedded in community meetings

1.2 Provide relevant services in response to community needs.

  • Pivoted teen curriculum, food delivery, and rental assistance in response to environmental factors 
  • Launched healing circles in response co-design results
  • Opened doors for respite during encampment evictions and fires

1.3 Expand recovery care and services.

  • CPRS team grew from 3 part-time to 3 full-time and 1 part-time
  • Launched a recovery program for East African and Muslim mothers
  • Partnering to open a culturally specific family treatment
  • People served has doubled, number of recovery meetings increased x 2.5

 

 

2.1 Collaboratively partner and lead on issues in the community.

  • Partner with Sanctuary Supply Depot to provide supplies and services for people experiencing homelessness
  • Partnership with detox/treatment centers for referrals and outreach
  • STEAM curriculum is delivered with partner youth orgs

2.2 Develop thought leadership and advocacy efforts that address the most pressing issues of the community.

2.3 Center people most impacted by GMCC’s programs in program development and decision making.

  • CPRSs share cultural, racial, religious, and lived experience with those served
  • Working to accredit our recovery program as a Recovery Community Organization, including advisory board comprised of people with lived experience with decision-making authority
  • Many contract partners have background and experience that overlaps with GMCC clients

3.1 Expand programs that reduce food insecurity and provide sources of nutrition for the local community.

  • Launched a partnership with Twin Cities Food Justice to prevent food waste and increase the pounds of food distributed
  • Continuing efforts to increase funding and reduce expenses in food budget

3.2 Study best practices for building food security.

  • Visited food shelves for best practices
  • Explored feasibility of direct partnership with farms and producers model
  • Participate in food security gatherings

3.3 Support local food shelves through MN FoodShare.  

  • 270 participating food shelves
  • $11.3M raised 
  • 6.4M lbs of food raised

3.4 Incorporate food access throughout our programs.

  • Recovery clients access our food shelf
  • Prepared meals served at active programming
  • Families of our youth program receive groceries weekly
  • Snack bags for visitors who knock

4.1 Deliver excellent afterschool and summer programming.

  • Qualitative feedback we have received about our afterschool and summer programming has been overwhelmingly positive
  • Summer Camp Survey Results
    • 98% of campers learned new things and had new experiences
    • 96% of campers made new friends
    • 93% said that camp filled a childcare gap for your family
    • 83% said campers felt more prepared for school after attending camp
  • GMCC’s youth program has officially achieved I-SAC Accreditation, a premier certification that recognizes high-quality school-aged care in Minnesota.

4.2 Support youth in building skills in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, math)

  • Collaborate with STEAM partners to deliver quality curriculum 
  • Curriculum spans afterschool programs and summer camps

4.3 Support youth holistically

  • Grocery bags for all STEAM Summer Camp families
  • Called 60 families to check in on needs
  • All graduates of Leadership Development & Career Exploration cohort secured a subsequent job or internship

4.4 Assess desire and opportunities for youth program expansion

  • Launched Leadership  Development & Career Exploration program for teens in 2024
  • Added School Break Camps and additional afterschool programs
  • Youth team doubled the number of full time staff

5.1 Align staffing structure with the organizational priorities.

  • Filled roles across every program in 2024-25 (3 FT CPRS, 3 FT youth staff, 3 FT Resource Navigators)
  • Pivoted roles as needed to better suit skills and GMCC’s needs
  • Created and hired leadership role for Wellbeing programming

5.2 Excel at employee recruitment, retention, and satisfaction. 

  • 87% staff retention rate in 2025
  • 94% staff retention rate in 2026 so far

5.3 Access and secure the space needed to deliver programming.

  • Partnering with The Family Partnership to explore using their space for a new recovery meeting series
  • Exploring potential expansion opportunities, including building new construction and/or acquiring new property
  • Secured funding for $500K+ worth of upgrades to our current facility to better accommodate programming

5.4 Explore and implement ways to diversity funding sources.

  • Continue to secure new government contracts
  • Continue to pursue strategies for individual donor acquisition and retention
  • Pursuing Recovery Community Organization accreditation, which would qualify us to bill health insurance and Medicaid if the government contracts that currently support the program dry up.