ResourceWest

We provide information and referral services to 10,000 people annually. Our staff and volunteers answer questions about everything from the need for food, clothing, shelter and healthcare, to where children will be going to school.

We pride ourselves on not duplicating services. We are always watching for new services meeting the needs of our community.

Project Starfish: offering intensive, personalized support to individuals/families to identify issues and set priorities. Our Starfish Coordinator helps families with budgeting, referrals on low-cost car repair, housing and job search assistance, and locating household items. Project Starfish is an opportunity to sit down with a caring, knowledgeable professional who listens, ask questions, offer suggestions, provides information, and helps set priorities. Support is provided for making changes or reaching a goal, often a difficult process. Project Starfish empowers individuals to bring about desired changes, and provides information that helps individuals along that path of change. The Coordinator works closely with school staff, Hennepin County, and other nonprofit agencies; clients are referred to appropriate agencies/organizations as needed. Our clients may be: homeless, new to the area, need household good; assistance with employment issues; or information on available services.

Community Technology Center: Is staffed by volunteers with six computers and free internet access. The CTC is a space for people to look for jobs, write resumes, learn computer skills, research educational opportunities, look for housing, and much more. The CTC open to the public with no income or residency limitations.

Back to School: Providing school supplies is one of our most important programs because being successful in school starts with having the basic supplies. Did you know the average basic school supply list costs over $75? Without this program, over 1,200 children in the Hopkins and Minnetonka school districts would have limited, or no, school supplies on the first day of school. Imagine going to school without paper or pencils! It is difficult to believe that some families in our community can’t afford these basic necessities, but it is the reality for a growing number of families. Through our Back-to-School program, each registered K-12 student receives a new backpack filled with grade specific basic school supplies.

Winter Warm Wear: Keeping kids warm throughout the cold winter is essential in Minnesota. Too often, we see children and adults braving our tough weather with the bare minimum of winter outer wear -- or none at all. The Winter Warm Wear Program is open from November through March each year. We stock up with new or gently used winter jackets, snow pants, boots, and new hats and mittens. This program provides winter essentials for more than 600 local low-income children. The program is for children from newborn to age 18.

Toy Chest provides new gifts to low-income children living in Deephaven, Excelsior, Greenwood, Hopkins, Minnetonka, Shorewood, and Woodland. More than 1,200 area low-income children benefit from this program.

We are also a host site for many other programs such as Accountiblity MN: providing help with tax filings three time a week at our office; Hennepin County: Economic Assistance Outreach - every Thursday by appointment at our office; Children's Dental Services: twice a year they set up their dental clinic for low-income children in our office; Relate Counseling: offering counseling services in our office for people who cannot make it to their Minnetonka location; and many other assistance programs.

Our staff and volunteers practice community building through a process of respectful listening for the needs of other people in the western metro community, reporting on those needs, and then working collaboratively to address those needs.

We are open to anyone from the western suburbs with key service area is in the Hopkins and Minnetonka School district cities (such as Hopkins, Minnetonka, Excelsior, Shorewood, Deephaven, Greenwood and Woodland) and we do not charge for our services.