'An incredible effort': Jeremiah Program celebrates opening of new Rochester facility

After four years of planning and work, one of the largest facilities meant for single mothers in the country officially opened Wednesday in Rochester. 

The Jeremiah Program officially opened its seventh location in Rochester with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at noon. The 65,000 square-foot facility, located on the corner of Valleyhigh Drive and 19th Street NW, will give area single mothers and their children a home while the mother pursues a college degree.

JoMarie Morris, executive director of the Jeremiah Program’s Rochester wing, said the building process started in 2016 and has stayed largely on track since then — meeting their goal of finishing construction in 2020, even through some delays related to the pandemic. (The building has been open in some capacities since late summer.)

“We had some families that were living in very precarious situations… some were even homeless,” said Morris. “So the drive to open the building and make it happen despite the pandemic took a broad effort from everybody we worked with, from our building contractors all the way to our furniture suppliers.”

The new facility holds space for 40 families, surpassing the campuses in Minneapolis and St. Paul for the title of largest facility in the Jeremiah Program system. To accommodate those families, Morris says the project received over $16 million in funding over the past 30 months, combined from public and private sources. 

“This has really been an incredible effort,” said Morris. “It may seem like a long time, but this was the quickest campus that we’ve got up and running out of the seven. I truly believe it’s because of the amount of community support that we received.”

While the new facility celebrates its grand opening this week, the Jeremiah Program has been active in the Rochester area for roughly two years. The end goal, Morris says, was always to develop a “home space” for the women and children it serves — and in two years’ time, the first “graduates” of the program will enter the workforce with associate’s degrees.

“We try to do a lot to remove barriers for these women,” said Morris. “We want to provide affordable housing, quality education for their children, support while they’re going to college… but they have to do a lot of work. It’s not an easy program. This program is for women who say ‘I want a better life for me and my children,’ and we’re here to help make that happen.”

Morris said that 25 of the facility’s 40 units were already filled; she expects the entire space to be filled by the end of the year. The program’s next public event will be in November, when the team plans to give a virtual tour of the space.

Isaac Jahns is a Rochester native and a 2019 graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism. He reports on politics, business and music for Med City Beat.

Cover photo: submitted