FIVE KEYS Selected as Lowe’s Hometown’s Project and Will Renovate Oakland City Center Training and Meeting Hub

Lowe’s Hometowns projects demonstrate the power of improving community spaces to help address critical needs.

6.27.2025 – Originally founded in 2003 by the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department as the first accredited charter high school in the nation to provide diploma programs for adults in county jails, Five Keys has proudly been selected as a Lowe’s Hometowns project, one of 100 community-nominated, large-scale renovations that will revitalize nonprofit and community spaces serving as hubs and heartbeats for hometowns. Now in its fourth year, Lowe’s Hometowns is the company’s five-year, $100 million commitment to repairing and restoring millions of square feet of community space.

The Lowe’s Hometowns grant will allow Designing Justice + Designing SpacesTM  (DJDS), a multi-disciplinary architecture and design firm, the chance to reimagine Five Keys Oakland City Center Training and Meeting Hub.  DJDS plans to harness the power of the built environment to support the success and expansion of restorative justice, education and workforce development programs instead of imprisonment, a design that will be seen through by the shared efforts of Five Keys staff and Lowe’s Hometown volunteers.  Blocks from the 12th Street/Oakland City Center, the hub sees over 1,100 participants annually for agency training in CPR/First Aid, overdose-reversing Narcan administration, career coaching, employment onboarding service, and more.  Five Keys hope that having a space intentionally designed for peacemaking and reparation by DJDS will afford many of our staff a healthier space to engage in the training and professional development that prepares them to provide the frontline housing service, program reentry case management, education to systems-impacted adult learners central to the agency’s core values of EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT, RECOVERY, FAMILY, and COMMUNITY.  

With help from Lowe’s red vest associates, across the country, Lowe’s Hometowns projects will help not only Five Keys, but they will also expand kitchen and serving capacity for food pantries, restore dignity to well-used transitional housing facilities, revitalize parks and gardens for neighbors to safely gather and build restorative spaces for first responders to rest between calls. 

Earlier this year, Lowe’s announced a promise to deliver 10 million square feet of impact to capture the immeasurable difference made when Lowe’s shows up to help, including initiatives like Lowe’s Hometowns. Visit Lowes.com/hometowns and follow #HowLowesHelps on social media for more details on 2025 projects.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Amy Cullen, amyc@fivekeys.org and: PublicRelations@lowes.com