Please register to attend an information session to learn more about the Corridors of Opportunity Outreach and Engagement Grant. These sessions will provide you with detailed information about who is eligible for grants and how to apply.

Tuesday, May 8 — REGISTER
6 – 7:30 p.m.
University of Minnesota Urban Research and Outreach/Engagement Center
2001 Plymouth Avenue North
Minneapolis, MN  55411
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Tuesday, May 15 – REGISTER
10:30 a.m. – noon
Central Corridor Resource Center
1080 University Avenue West
St. Paul, MN  55104
See Map

The Corridors of Opportunity Outreach and Engagement grants support innovative and effective community-based initiatives that engage and involve underrepresented populations (low-income, people of color, new immigrant and persons with disabilities) in participation, decision-making, and leadership roles around transit corridor planning and implementation.

These grants will fund projects in seven corridors within the system of existing and planned transitways in the region: Southwest LRT, Bottineau Transitway, Gateway Corridor, Cedar Avenue BRT, Central Corridor, Hiawatha LRT and Northstar Commuter Rail.

Wynfred, a Liberian immigrant, is the executive director of African Career, Education and Resource, Inc. (ACER), a nonprofit organization working to end the disparities in resources, health and information facing people of African descent in Minnesota. He began talking with his board of directors, and together they decided to launch the Making Transit Meaningful project to raise awareness of decisions being made about the Bottineau Transitway and to mobilize African immigrants, African Americans, and other communities of color to become active voices on transit issues that impact their everyday lives. ACER soon began partnering with the city of Brooklyn Park  to host a series of community forums that engage leaders in the community, enabling them to begin to look at transit in a more comprehensive way. For Wynfred, this is important because transit serves as a vital connection to quality health, employment opportunities, business development, education and affordable housing.

ACER’s efforts are already yielding results. Mshale, an African immigrant newspaper, covered ACER’s most recent forum, a mobile guided tour of the Bottineau Transitway, the Cedar Avenue transitway and the Hiawatha LRT. Although only around 30 people attended the event, Mshale’s article about the tour has been read more than 10,000 times. Wynfred says this shows that people are going back to their networks and sharing what they learned, and he hopes that subsequent events will stimulate the same amount of reaction.

Although early in the project, ACER already sees that people are starting to understand the implications of this transit project. Prior to the tour, the Bottineau Transitway was just an abstract idea for much of the community.  But the tour provided an opportunity for people to see the potential for what the Bottineau transitway could look like. As a result, residents began to understand the need to be involved in both the planning and implementation processes so that development does not happen to them, but with their input and involvement.

ACER was one of 10 community groups to be granted funding from the Corridors of Opportunity Outreach and Engagement grants. These grants are made to organizations working along emerging transitways to involve underrepresented and marginalized communities in participation, decision-making and leadership around transit corridor planning. For ACER, the Corridors of Opportunity initiative has made a difference in allowing the community to see itself as being a part of the transit planning process like never before. In addition, this initiative has given people a chance to see how policy decisions ultimately affect their lives. By being at the table, they will be able to play a role in the creation and implementation of those decisions, and to capitalize on employment and development opportunities that will emerge as a result of this project.

ACER’s model of community engagement in transitway development can serve as a model for the rest of the Twin Cities region. Historically, communities of color, immigrant communities and low- income communities in the region have been left out of policy and land-use decisions. As a result, they often miss out on economic opportunities that the rest of region enjoys  in terms of employment opportunities, affordable housing, health care and employment. However, when these communities  are brought to the decision-making table, they are given an opportunity to voice the needs and wishes of their community, which is a critical first step in reducing these disparities.

Here’s to ACER for the good work you are doing in engaging underrepresented communities in the development of our region’s transitways!

The Corridors of Opportunity Outreach and Engagement grants are intended to support innovative and effective placed-based initiatives that engage and involve underrepresented and marginalized communities (low-income, communities of color, immigrant communities, persons with disabilities) in participation, decision-making, and leadership roles around transit corridor planning and implementation. Grants were awarded to 10 community organizations working along four transit corridors. Organizations and projects receiving funding were:

1. Advocating Change Together

ACT is a grassroots constituency-driven organization, established in 1979 as a reaction to organizations that were not identifying persons with disabilities as being capable of making decisions about their lives.  This grant will allow ACT to bring its information, concerns issues and suggestions to the many existing organizations and agencies along the Central Corridor.

2. African Career, Education and Resource, Inc. (ACER) ACER is a volunteer-driven, community-based organization located in Brooklyn Park and founded in 2008 to close the resource and information disparities within Minnesota’s communities of African decent and help those communities achieve societal and economic independence. Through a series of community forums, ACER will partner with the city of Brooklyn Park and its innovative Community Engagement Initiative (CEI) team to  move underrepresented communities from a lack of basic awareness to a state of informed and engaged community action as it relates to community input and impact along the Bottineau Corridor.

3. Asian Economic Development Association (AEDA)

Created by University Ave. Asian business owners in St. Paul, AEDA is a  nonprofit grassroots economic development organization that provides access to resources, training, advocacy and community-driven planning. AEDA will create a team of culturally competent Community Outreach Ambassadors to organize and engage the Southeast Asian communities along Central Corridor and Bottineau Corridor.

4. Asian Media Access

Led by Asian Media Access, the Asian Pacific American Community Network (APA ComMNet) coalition has worked together since 2005 to actively challenge the existing cultural and linguistic barriers regarding engagement on state and local initiatives, and access to information and services for health and well-being issues in the Asian American Pacific Islander community. The project will utilize media and technology for engaging communities, institutions, and businesses, especially under-represented Asians along the Bottineau Corridor, in voicing their opinions and needs related to the line and livability in the area, which will improve analyses, plans and designs processes, fostering economic and civic vitality for marginalized communities.

5. Aurora St. Anthony Neighborhood Development Corporation  & JUST Equity

Aurora St. Anthony Neighborhood Development Corporation (ASANDC) was founded in 1980  to foster positive relationships within and between the neighborhoods we serve and to support their members in effecting the quality of life in their communities. JUST Equity is a regional network of African-American racial equity proponents who analyze the underpinnings of race/ethnicity and class within development dynamics to organize and advocate an improved quality of life for an African-American constituency historically excluded from development benefits. This campaign will train low-income and African American resident leaders residing throughout St. Paul’s Ward 1 to leverage transit-oriented development projects to further advance a Rondo Renaissance vision that allows for the preservation, enhancement, restoration and healing of our community’s cultural economy and longstanding neighborhood fabric into the future of University Avenue and the surrounding area.

6. Harrison Neighborhood Association

Harrison Neighborhood Association (HNA) is a resident-led, multi-cultural organization committed to community organizing and racial equity  to create a prosperous and peaceful community that equitably benefits all of Harrison neighborhood’s diverse racial, cultural and economic groups. The Transit Equity Partnership consists of three organizations controlled by underrepresented communities committed to creating a transit system that equitably benefits the diverse racial, cultural and economic groups that have been harmed by a century of discriminatory planning decisions that have marginalized and isolated communities in North Minneapolis.

7. Intercongregational Communities Association

The ICA will be funded for the Blake Road Corridor Collaborative (BRCC), a partnership of community and governmental organizations that engages with neighborhood residents and local business owners/managers to undertake projects related to improving safety, supporting positive activities for youth, and improving neighborhood infrastructure, all aimed at improving the quality of life in the Blake Road neighborhood in Hopkins. This project will address the disconnect in communications between immigrant communities, other residents, and government representatives through the use of discussion circles, community-building projects, shared governance and ties with the Joint Community Police Partnership.

8. New American Academy

The New American Academy (NAA) is a nonprofit organization founded in 2008 dedicated to serving the East African population in Eden Prairie through a combination of programs including: work in education, citizenship, housing, mentoring and tutoring, employment, civic engagement and citizen participation. NAA plans to conduct workshops and community forums to educate the Somali community in the southwest area about the pending Southwest LRT line.

9. West Bank CDC & Somali Action Alliance

West Bank CDC (WBCDC) was created in 1973 by Cedar Riverside neighborhood residents to democratically control the affordable housing and commercial buildings created by those neighborhood residents through collective action, cooperation and political activism. Somali Action Alliance (SAA) was formed to expand racial and social justice and to build power in the Somali community through collective action. One of the most pressing concerns among members of these communities relate to gentrification and displacement pressures that might follow completion of the Central Corridor line, particularly for immigrant-owned businesses. This project will focus on exploring how a portion of the tax increment financing (TIF) plan can be directed to mitigating these impacts.

10. East Side Prosperity Campaign

The East Side Prosperity campaign is a coalition of organizations and institutions on the East Side of St. Paul working to enhance current engagement practices and building a comprehensive, community-wide mechanism for resident participation. As the Gateway Corridor project is planned, the Prosperity Campaign believes that it is urgent to prepare and engage underrepresented communities on the East Side.The campaign has gathered a diverse coalition of culturally specific organizations and placed based community organizations to focus on planning and engineering decisions for this corridor. Partner organizations will carry out cultural and neighborhood specific engagement activities that will reach into the major underrepresented communities of the East Side.

In the spirit of transparency, all grant requests are available for public viewing. To view full grant requests from any of the organizations who requested funding, please contact Susan Hoyt at Susan.Hoyt@metc.state.mn.us.

Thank you to the Grants Review Committee for working with the Community Engagement Team to develop these funding recommendations!

• Russ Adams, Alliance for Metropolitan Stability, CET member (multiple corridors)
• Isabel Broyld, U 7 project manager, Neighborhood Development Center (Central Corridor LRT)
• Monica Bryand, Headwaters Foundation for Justice (multiple corridors)
• Saeed Fahia, Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota (Central Corridor LRT and Southwest LRT)
• Ariah Fine, Northside Residents Redevelopment Council (Bottineau LRT)
• Dawn Goldschmitz, East Side Neighborhood Development Company (Gateway Corridor)
• Pakou Hang, independent consultant, Headwaters Foundation Social Change committee member, Wellstone Action trainer (multiple corridors)
• Katie Hatt, former aide to Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin (Hiawatha LRT)
• Malik Holt-Shabazz, Harrison Neighborhood Association,  Headwaters Foundation Social Change committee member (Southwest LRT and Bottineau LRT)
• Linda Hymes, Minnesota Tenants Alliance (Southwest LRT)
• David Kang, Asian Media Access (multiple corridors)
• Margaret Kaplan, Minnesota Center for Neighborhood Organizing, CET member (multiple corridors)
• Irna Landrum, Summit-University Planning Council (Central Corridor LRT)
• Mona Langston, Housing Preservation Project (multiple corridors)
• Neeraj Mehta, Nexus Community Partners, CET member (multiple corridors)
• Repa Mekha, Nexus Community Partners, CET member (multiple corridors)
• Va-Megn Thoj, Asian Economic Development Association (multiple corridors)
• Ali Warsame, West Bank Community Coalition (Central Corridor LRT and Hiawatha LRT)

Opportunities:

Barriers:

This fall, PolicyLink will be hosting their 4th Equity Summit in Detroit. Late last spring, members of the Community Engagement Team (Nexus, the Alliance for Metropolitan Stability and Minnesota Center for Neighborhood Organizing) of the Corridors of Opportunity initiative began planning the coordination of a Twin Cities delegation to attend the Summit.

With initial support from the McKnight Foundation, we began….

In late June, we hosted an event with Angela Glover Blackwell, founder and CEO of PolicyLink. About 75 people attended from throughout the region to hear from Angela, generally about regional equity and specifically about the Equity Summit. It was there that we laid out the idea for the delegation and let folks know about scholarships that would be available as well.

As a delegation our theme is Anchoring Equity: Moving From Learning to Practice. Organizing the delegation is more than just about attending conference together, but also about thinking of how we might all collaborate more intentionally to create and move a regional equity agenda in our region.

We began our planning thinking that about 75 folks would want to go. But when the deadline came and went, the demand was more than double that! So we decided as a team, rather than turn folks away, lets get out there and see if we can get more philanthropic support to support a larger delegation.

And we did.

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As the Twin Cities region considers the potential impact of upcoming transitway development in the Twin Cities, our partners organized the forum to pose a series of questions: Do we need to trade economic growth for equity? Can we advance both at the same time? What if pursuing equity – in addition to being the right thing to do ‐‐ is actually the superior economic growth model?

If you missed the event, or just want to watch the amazing speakers again, check out the videos!

Introduction: Repa Mekha, Nexus Community Partners and Robert Jones, University of Minnesota

Inequity and Disparities in the Twin Cities: Prof. Nekima Levy-Pounds, University of St. Thomas

Targeted Universalism: john a. powell, Kirwan Institute

Equity as a Superior Growth Model: Angela Glover Blackwell, PolicyLink

Panel Discussion: Featuring speakers listed above, Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin and Gary Cunningham of the Northwest Area Foundation

The Community Engagement Team is organizing a delegation of Twin Cities leaders who will attend PolicyLink’s Equity Summit 2011. The summit is the fourth national PolicyLink summit, bringing together the nation’s equity movement to advance a truly inclusive policy agenda. Urban, suburban, and rural leaders from around the country will join together to create communities and regions that benefit everyone — particularly low-income people and communities of color. Advocates from nonprofit, public policy, philanthropic, business and academic sectors will share promising practices and policies that create healthier communities and stronger, more sustainable regions. Participants will explore how issues like healthy
food access, transportation choice, housing access, jobs and education are crucial to America’s future competitiveness and prosperity.

More than 150 Twin Cities leaders have signed up to attend the conference as part of the Twin Cities delegation. As a delegation we will benefit from having a learning community to share summit experiences, navigate summit programming options and support networking. We’ll join together before, during and after the summit to put our learning into practice. Join us for:

• A September pre-conference gathering, which will help delegates begin to develop connections and relationships, understand each other’s work, develop a shared analysis of strengths and weakness in the Twin Cities, and discuss what barriers are preventing us from our achieving our goal for an equitable region.
• An October pre-conference gathering, which will connect groups of people around shared interests/issues at Equity Summit, begin to develop intentional assignments and strategies as it relates to attending the summit together, and get people actively thinking about post-summit work.
• A November gathering during the conference, where delegates can socialize and begin to discuss lessons learned and ideas generated.
• A December post-conference gathering, where specific action strategies will be generated and paths will be identified for subgroups to implement concrete strategies.

Specific information about each convening will be emailed to delegates.

The deadline to apply for a scholarship for Equity Summit 2011 has passed. Scholarship awards will be announced the week of August 22.

If you have not registered or did not apply for a scholarship, it’s not too late to join the Twin Cities delegation. To join us, please register for the conference first. Then contact Neeraj Mehta of Nexus Community Partners at nmehta@nexuscp.org or 651-379-0508 for further information.

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