Path Home and SVP: Bringing Early Learning to Family Village

4 days ago

4 min read

For nearly two years, SVP and Path Home have been building something together. The work began with a shared question: what does it take to bring an early learning program into the heart of a campus serving families experiencing homelessness? This year, that groundwork is turning into real momentum, and an exciting next chapter is coming into view.

The Starting Point

Path Home has spent over three decades helping families find their way back into housing and stay there. Last year, they served 689 families — over 2,000 kids and adults. As an organization that applies the housing first model to fidelity, getting families housed is always the first step, but is never meant to be the last.

“Path Home’s partnership with Social Venture Partners is helping us bring a long-held vision to life: creating a campus where families not only have a safe, stable place to call home, but where their children can learn, grow and thrive right alongside them. Access to high-quality early childhood education and preschool can be transformational for families.” — Brandi Tuck, Path Home Executive Director

That vision will come to life on Path Home’s Family Village, where Brandi envisions expanding the site’s existing shelter and campus to include a one-stop shop with affordable housing, mental health support, job readiness programs, and domestic violence advocacy. A crucial piece of their planning is an on-site preschool and early learning program, so children have a consistent place to learn while parents focus on housing, work, and healing. This is where SVP comes in. Our role is to strengthen Path Home's capacity to deliver that learning right where families are already rebuilding stability.

A Year of Discovery

The first year of partnership focused on exploration. Path Home and SVP Lead Partner Ginny Gray worked together to finalize scope and select a vendor for a feasibility study, then co-designed focus groups and surveys to hear directly from the parents and staff who would be most affected. They also began mapping the public and private funding streams that could sustain a future program, laying essential financial groundwork alongside the programmatic vision.

SVP helped fund a portion of the feasibility study and facilitated new relationships across our network. That meant connecting Path Home with other Community Partners like Future Generations Collaborative and Alliance for Equity in Montessori Education, broadening Path Home's thinking on facilities design, staffing, and program models. It was a year of hands-on collaboration pairing Path Home's deep understanding of the families it serves with the research and relationships needed to turn that vision into a clear, evidence-based plan.

“Path Home came in thoughtful at every stage of this work. Our role was to be a strategic thinking partner, connecting them to the right people and the right questions so they could move from a big idea to a real plan. That's exactly what a first year should do.” — Carolina Castañeda del Río, SVP Director of Community Impact

From Feasibility to Action

The feasibility study’s conclusion was clear. Path Home is well-positioned to move forward, provided the work is backed by the right resources and partnerships. This spring, that picture sharpened further. Path Home welcomed a new SVP Lead Partner, Kirt Nilsson. Kirt hit the ground running, developing the tools and criteria Path Home needs to evaluate and choose a long-term preschool partner for a family shelter setting. Path Home is now gearing up to visit five prospective preschool operators — a tangible step toward realizing their vision.

The Road Ahead

The next phase is where this partnership can make a critical difference. Path Home will soon hold the decisions that matter most: which operator to bring on, how the preschool fits alongside case management and housing support, what the space at Family Village becomes, and how families stay involved in shaping it. They also bring three decades of relationships with families in the region and the operating experience to make a program work on a campus like theirs.

SVP's job is to strengthen the capacity behind those decisions and to facilitate the next steps forward. Program design requires technical expertise: staffing, hours, licensure, enrollment, and a business plan with funding sources and financial projections. A physical space for the preschool has to be designed and built to match. It's a lot of ground to cover. It is exactly the kind of work SVP's network is built for.

“We are so grateful to SVP Portland for bringing their expertise, relationships and commitment to this work. Together, we’re building something that will support children and parents for generations to come.” — Brandi Tuck

Path Home's staff and leadership push this work forward day to day, and Investor Partners like Ginny and Kirt have stayed alongside them through each phase. Two years in, that combination has turned early exploration into a clear path toward preschool and childcare services at Family Village. Thank you to Brandi and her team for bringing us into this work. We're excited for what lies ahead for Path Home and the families they serve.