News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Thursday December 18th 2025
Peace House Community”“A Place to Belong
We”™ll Get Through It Together
By MARTI MALTBY
I recently attended an all-day seminar put on by a couple of colleagues from North Dakota. Their organization, Ministry on the Margins, has a similar mission to Peace House Community, although their activities are more diverse than ours. Among other things, they provide toys to children. Sister Kathleen Atkinson, who runs the agency, shared many stories, but one struck me because of a personal experience I have had.
Sister Kathleen, like many ministry directors, wants to provide her clients with good quality items. She said that one day she was horrified to see that a seven year old boy had received a stuffed dinosaur that was missing an eye. To her, the toy was defective and shouldn”™t have been offered to the child. She didn”™t want him to feel like he was unworthy of a good toy just because his family was poor. However, when she approached him, he showed that he had already developed an attachment to the toy.
“You see his eye,” the boy asked Sister Kathleen. “Yes,” she replied, but before she could say more he continued. “I chose him because he”™s been through a lot. So have I.… Read the rest “Peace House Community”“A Place to Belong”
Lawns For Legumes
Earlier this year, Minnesota approved the Lawns to Legumes program which provides funding to help residents convert their lawns to natural habitat for pollinators. Learn how you can bee involved!
Ӣ Demonstration Neighborhood Project for Phillips and Corcoran neighborhoodsӪ grant provides funding for residents to install pollinator-friendly, native plantings in yards for little to no cost.
Contact Lilah to be involved in this project: lilah@metroblooms.org or (612) 293-4027.
Ӣ Lawns to Legumes: Resilient Yards Workshop (3 hours) Learn about the four planting types Lawns to Legumes supports: pocket plantings, pollinator-beneficial trees and shrubs, pollinator lawns, and pollinator meadows, and the funding offered to Phillips and Corcoran neighbors.
Date & Time:
Thursday, May 14th, @ 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM
Location:
Phillips Community Center
(2nd floor dining room)
2323 11th Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55404
After the presentation all attendees will receive one-on-one consultations with professional landscape designers to incorporate natural habitat at their residence.
Workshop is free to residents of Corcoran + Phillips neighborhoods – just check the box! Visit bluethumb.org/events to register.
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Sing After Every Storm
By MIKE HAZARD
Ellie and Jamaih posed in the sun outside the back door at Peace House. Ellie wrote a poetical reflection on life the day she got sober. It hangs on the poetry wall inside. A few lines go:
“Be like the winds: Sing after every storm.
Change is scary, especially to those who watch us change while their lives stay the same.
Don”™t hang out with negative people, especially yourself.
You don”™t need a loud voice to be heard. All you need is something worthwhile to say. Sometimes you must end an old relationship to begin a new one with yourself.”
Sing after every storm, Ellie.
This picture story is by Mike Hazard. It is part of a project called Peace House People. A version of the work will be on display at Franklin Library from April 13 through May 9, 2020. The project is funded by an Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board.
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