The Empowered Village

Empowering residents to develop and implement their own individualized self-
improvement plans and supporting their journey through programming, activities,
and referrals.
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The MOLO Village is contributing to the transformation of the Russell Community by
developing a mixed-use building that will serve as a tool to fill retail and service gaps.
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The Village @ West Jefferson will be a new two-story 30,000 square foot energy-star
mixed office/retail building developed by MOLO and designed to support current
mayoral initiatives to kick-start community development in the West End. The “Village”
is located at the gateway to the Central Business District at the corner of West Jefferson

12th Streets. Project goals include:
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• Providing the Russell residents and employees basic retail and office services.

• ​Attracting public/private service providers that provide Russell residents access to employment, job training, housing and other supportive services.

• Providing small businesses rental opportunities within the Russell community.

• ​Promoting local community wealth by capturing a portion of:

           o The estimated $85M in Russell expenditures that are currently spent outside of the community.
           o The expenditures of the over 500 local businesses that employees 12,000 people.
           o The expenditures of the 9,300 vehicle and bus users that utilize West Jefferson Street daily.

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Financial Literacy

MOLO recognizes that renewed public/private investment in the Russell community will
lead to tremendous improvements in infrastructure, access to jobs, quality of housing,
and other quality of life assets (food, shopping, banking, etc.). This investment is only
truly transformative if the existing residents can benefit from it, therefore MOLO is
committed to playing an active role in ensuring that residents are financially prepared to
leverage these new opportunities as they arise. MOLO is uniquely prepared to serve in
this role due to their deep community roots and a developing track record of trust.
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• Increase the number of Russell Residents receiving credit counseling services.

• Host special seminars for residents, such as preparing for home ownership, home ownership financing basics.

• Liaise with strategic tenant partners to ensure residents are aware of upcoming rental and home ownership opportunities.

• Provide credit repair loans to Russell residents.

• Proactively meet the credit and wealth building needs of returning citizens.

• Expand partnerships with for-profit and nonprofit entities that can enhance the types of services available to Russell residents including services related to entrepreneurial ventures.