The Power of Independent Living with Emma Norton Services

The Emma Norton Lounge

Written by Victoria Virasy-Ertelt, Advancement Associate, Emma Norton

On the sixth floor of Restoring Waters sits a quaint rooftop patio with an unobstructed view of the Minneapolis skyline and a perimeter of raised garden beds primed for bright flowers, juicy tomatoes, and the hands of a community ready to heal and grow. Just one floor lower is the garden center where residents can begin cultivating that healing and growth alongside programming that will build independent living skills and empower them to make progress on their goals, one step at a time. 

There are many new spaces in Restoring Waters that, like the garden and rooftop patio, are dedicated programming spaces with the capacity for expanded programming and community growth. The fourth floor features a lounge where residents can hold movie nights or find a new book. The third floor has a community kitchen where residents can learn how to make nutritious meals on a budget, lead their own classes to share culturally significant foods with their neighbors, and enjoy the fruits of their labor from the patio garden. On the second floor is the art room, where residents can engage in art therapy, or learn new techniques and mediums from Twin Cities artists through our partnership with Art to Change the World. Throughout the first floor are various spaces where residents can move their bodies, re-center their minds, and access health resources including 1:1 peer support to limit visits to the ER.

The Emma Norton Lounge

The fourth floor lounge in the Emma Norton Restoring Waters building.

These spaces not only support Emma Norton’s values – embracing humanity, cultivating community, sparking creativity, and inspiring joy – they also support the mental and physical health of our residents. Now that our first wave of residents has finished moving in, we are turning our attention to preparing our programming spaces. Many of our programming spaces are still in need of basic equipment and supplies to support the activities and classes planned for them. Below are some examples of how your gift can help us furnish our programming spaces.

The art room in the Emma Norton Restoring Waters building.

$100 – Provides one educational book package on mindfulness and meditation practices, 5 yoga mats, or seed starting kit and seeds.

$250 – Provides paint and canvases for one art class, soil for raised beds, or a tech package for the meditation room.

$500 – Provides a water irrigation system for raised planters on the rooftop patio, a yoga therapy group, or “Paint Nite” supplies and video for 20 residents.

$1,000 – Provides a counter-top organic waste composter and one-year supply of filters for the kitchen, two drying racks for finished art pieces, or one grow light stand.

$2,500 – Provides a one-year subscription to an on-demand fitness program for the fitness room, a trauma-informed healing art class for all residents led by a certified art therapist, or a set of free weights with storage system.

How wonderful would it be to step out onto the rooftop patio and be surrounded by lush greenery and fruiting vines while observing the Minneapolis skyline as the sun shifts throughout the day? We’re not quite there yet, but we hope to be soon.