Tracking the Trust Building Process in the Minnesota Two Generation Policy Network

How can human service agencies and nonprofits work together for better results? A promising model is the collaborative governance model, which enables state/local/nonprofit organizations to engage in shared decision making. This project is situated in the Minnesota Two Generational Policy Network, a system level service integration and innovation project led by the MN Department of Human Services and its partner organizations to support children and families. Taking a mixed methods longitudinal study approach, this research aims to study how the shift from the contracting model to the collaborative…

YO MAMA’S Water(ing) (W)hole WATER BARS hold spaces for serving water to inform Mothers about the connections between water, care, community, and wellness in Minnesota. Through the activities of Gyrating & Hydrating: dancing and making fruit and plant based waters and Resilience Preparedness Workshops, Black (and IPOC) Mothers, living in North Minneapolis, gain awareness that climate change, extreme weather conditions and manmade disasters have profound impact on their physical, mental and emotional health and wellbeing. We are learning that water is life.

With Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha, East Side Freedom Library, UMN Labor Education Services, PoliGraphix, Inquilinxs Unidxs Por Justicia, New Brookwood Labor College

In collaboration with community and labor organizations, I will paint a series of portraits of low‐wage worker leaders ‐‐ mostly people of color and immigrants ‐‐ with the aim of (1) encouraging workers to see themselves as leaders, individually and also in solidarity with each other, (2) bridging the “formal” and “informal” labor movements (unions vs. other working class organizing efforts), (3) expanding the base of these organizations as…

Hmong American Film Director Bao understands too well from personal experience that depression feels isolating, but it doesn’t have to feel hopeless. Part of the isolation feeling comes from the lack of stories that represent Asian communities, like her own, that the media shares about depression. Therefore, she wants to use the power of video storytelling to create a short narrative film about how three members of the Asian community in the Northwest suburbs of Minneapolis experience depression and share the ways they’ve learned to cope with it. Exploring the stories of this population and location is important not only because it represents their lived experience, but also that…

In June 2016, the long-time owner of the Lowry Grove manufactured home park in St. Anthony, MN, sold the park to a private developer. Lowry Grove was home to 95 lower-income households, elders living on fixed incomes, and younger immigrant families. Residents fought to keep the park open, but they were displaced in June 2017. CURA worked with resident organizers to design a study that would assess the impacts of the park closure and relocation on the residents, and examine the events that led to the closure of the park. CURA researchers conducted in-depth interviews with more than 50 households, activists, and professionals.

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This project will rigorously evaluate the effects of Minnesota's School-Linked Mental Health program on academic outcomes, mental health services outcomes, and juvenile justice outcomes, for children and adolescents. This program has expanded progressively across Minneapolis, Hennepin County, and more recently the state, as a way to reduce barriers to identifying and treating mental health problems in school-age youth. We will take advantage of the staggered implementation of school-linked mental health services across schools between 2004-2016 to estimate difference-in-differences models that will isolate the causal effect of the program on the outcomes we have identified. We will use…

Over the past three decades, the number of women incarcerated in the United States has increased more than 600%. Today, nearly 219,000 women are incarcerated, approximately 6% of whom are pregnant upon their admission to prison. Children born to incarcerated women are known to be at increased risk for health problems. These children may be the most vulnerable in the nation, and yet they are among the least understood. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study seeks to characterize the health status and health care access of children born to incarcerated women, and to identify barriers to accessing care. Building on our partnerships with the Minnesota Prison Doula Project and the…

In recent years, policing has become an increasingly controversial and salient government service in the US. After several heavily publicized deaths of Black boys and men (and, later, Black women) during police encounters, some have rallied around the #BlackLivesMatter movement, while others have grown stauncher in their support for law enforcement. Yet scholars currently know little about this shift in the politics of policing. This study takes a mixed-methods approach, combining survey data, ethnographic observations, textual analysis, and qualitative interviews to understand police reform in Minneapolis, a city on the forefront of national progressive reforms, yet with a deeply…

The Rondo Family Reunion will bring together the “Rondo Diaspora”, people of African descent who have lived and/or currently live in the Historic Rondo Neighborhood, to capture photographs and stories that will be shared with the community via a lawn sign photo and poetry project, a book, and a final performance at Penumbra Theater.

About the artists:

Chris Scott’s work as a photographer is conceptually driven currently by themes that relate to human condition, social issues, and the architecture of “community.” She was born, raised and currently live in the Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul.…

Renters Rights are Human Rights is a collaboration between the Minneapolis Renters Coalition, Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association, and Artist Cori Lin. This series of murals and portraits will deepen community understanding around what it means to live as a cost-burdened renter by highlighting the narratives and experiences of those spending more than 30% of their income on rent. The project will include four portraits of cost-burdened renters across Greater Powderhorn and four infographics that reflect this reality, which will be temporarily be installed in businesses and community sites across Greater Powderhorn, before becoming part of a…

New Futures focuses on rebuilding community and culture in South Minneapolis. Traditional Ojibwe Style lacrosse has been played in the Great Lakes regions long before Europeans set foot on this continent. The game itself is more than just a sport: it is a ceremony that has artistic value as well, and the game is thought to contain a connection to one’s spiritual nature. New Futures will teach 12 Native youth a variety of woodworking skills to help create traditional Ojibwe lacrosse sticks. Youth will be paid a stipend for working towards mastering the skills required to produce steam bent, tournament-ready Lacrosse sticks. Youth will be able to teach others how to…

Working in collaboration with CANDO, the Central Area Neighborhood Development Organization, Makers of History utilizes grassroots community engagement and documentary storytelling to produce a community driven film about health, housing and history of South Minneapolis. Both the process of making the film and screenings of the film will act as a tool for community driven development in the Central Neighborhood, sparking dialogue with community members, policymakers, developers and non-profit organizations to improve community health and housing initiatives.

About the artists: 

Ryan Stopera is a photographer, filmmaker…

Throughout the year, a collaboration of artists, youth, organizers, educators, elders, Oromo traditionalists, and musicians will be reclaiming the power of art forms that are intertwined with traditional Oromo forms of governance. Our sacred stories tell the linkages between poetry, coffee ceremony, basket weaving and the work of creating worlds where many worlds fit. Based in Little Oromia in Minneapolis’s Cedar Riverside community, the artists will host gatherings that center intergenerational dialogue with elders, to inform the works of young poets, local musicians as well as a policy…

This project focuses on creating high quality sculptures and paintings that reflect the input and diversity of residents, artists, community members, and business owners in and around Little Africa in St. Paul’s Hamline-Midway neighborhood. By using multi-disciplinary techniques, fabrics, patterns and colors, artists will lead an interactive community-based process leading up to and during the fifth annual Little Africa Festival in August 2018. The artists’ goal is to find different ways to look at the world and reflect on African cultures’ rural and urban life through artistic expression. The project will be held in Hamline Park, which is…