Elizabeth Brisbin

Public Allies volunteer to help raise youth voices

Public Alies participants in ideation session

On March 30, 2019 the Minnesota Youth Council hosted the first of its kind, Youth in Educational Leadership Summit at Patrick Henry High School. The Minnesota Youth Council is a group of youth and adults working together to empower and mobilize young people across the state to use the power of their voices to address issues affecting youth. The event featured many young speakers. Janaan Ahmed spoke about advocacy and leadership and Maddy Fernands spoke about climate justice. Edie Weinstein, a young author, spoke about her book and connecting with people with dementia. More than 200 students, parents, mentors, and teachers participated in the event.

A team of Public Allies volunteered at the event.  They did everything from provide childcare to take photos while not participating in workshops. “As a Public Ally, the experience at YELS was refreshing.” said second year Public Allies fellow You Lee. “Many times, youth voices are pushed aside to make space for adults or professionals in the room. So, it was cool to see youth-led presentations and overall coordination of the conference. I can see that the conference was a good experience for youth as they continue their work in the future.” 

Public Allies is a national movement committed to advancing social justice and equity by engaging and activating the leadership capacities of our young people. Since 1992, Public Allies has helped thousands of underrepresented young leaders serve our country, get on successful pathways to higher education and careers, and bring communities together to work for the common good. Public Allies seeks to find and cultivate young community leaders and connect them to the issues and causes that ignite their passion to create last change. Allies are placed with a nonprofit organization where they help address critical community needs such as youth development, education, workforce development, environmental issues, arts programming and community health.

Elizabeth Brisbin

Students graduate from FANS, 30th program year

Graduation of FANS scholars

This is our 30th year running our free college, career, and life preparatory program for high school students known as FANS. Through the program, students participate in workshops and seminars, are introduced to various career options, go on college tours, develop their leadership skills, get civically engaged, and prepare for the and ACT/SATs.

This Spring, we were honored to gather our FANS grads and their families together for our annual awards ceremony to celebrate their accomplishments and wish them well as they take big steps towards their futures. This Fall, graduates will be off to: Augsburg University, Metro State University, Minneapolis Community & Technical College, Saint Paul College, and more!

Students that successfully complete the FANS Scholars program are eligible to receive a small scholarship to assist with college expenses and have their FANS Advocate support them through college graduation. Since its inception, FANS Scholars have received over $1,000,000 in scholarships to assist with college expenses.

Elizabeth Brisbin

Soon-to-be first-gen college students get a glimpse of campus life

FANS students visiting Macalester College

It’s important to prepare young people for the future. Each year, we take our FANS (‘Furthering Achievement through a Network of Support’) high school students on college tours so they can become exposed to different kinds of campuses and classrooms, living situations, academic tracts, supportive resources, and more. Choosing a college and major are big decisions, made even more difficult if you’re not quite sure of all the options available to you. This year, youth from our FANS programs toured three college campuses in St. Paul led by former youth program participants. It was an energizing day, to say the least!

Highlights included:

✔ Seeing the medical, manufacturing & tech training spaces at St. Paul College

✔ Viewing a dorm and “Idea Lab” at Macalester College as well as learning about mental health resources

✔ Learning about “campus culture” and how to start on-campus clubs at Hamline University

FANS is a free college, career, and life preparatory program for high school students. Students benefit from a support system and activities to strengthen high school performance and to achieve success after graduation in college and beyond. Students that complete the program are eligible to receive a small scholarship to assist with college expenses and an advocate who will support them through college graduation. Since its inception in 1988, FANS Scholars have received over $1,000,000 in scholarships.

Elizabeth Brisbin

The authentic voice of the Northside

North News reporter

Minneapolis’s Northside is a community with a rich history and a bright future. But a full and nuanced account of this neighborhood is seldom told. Instead, perceptions of North Minneapolis and its people are often reduced to a single, negative narrative: one of crime, poverty, blight, and disparity. That storyline feeds a self-fulfilling prophecy. As long as policy makers, law enforcement, and community members subscribe to that narrative, little can be done to change it.

This is where community media can make a tremendous difference. By empowering people to tell their own story, community newspapers and other hyper-local media reveal the truth of a place to the wider public — and, crucially, to the community itself.

That’s the role of North News. Relaunched in 2016 by Pillsbury United Communities,  North News is a grassroots print and digital news source that works to deepen empathy and appreciation for North Minneapolis. Each monthly issue delivers original reporting and insightful stories about people and events shaping our neighborhoods, all told from a Northside perspective.

North News editors and journalists work to capture voices that get left out of the dominant media narratives. In 2018, the paper published stories about mistreatment within the housing system, life after prison, and environmental injustice on the Northside. In the paper’s groundbreaking Trauma Trooper series, journalists captured the trauma-related realities facing youth in North Minneapolis — a vital step in persuading the community and city professionals to respond.

At the same time North News opens minds, it also opens doors. The content is made possible by young writers and reporters in North High School’s daily journalism classes. 58 students have participated since the paper’s relaunch in 2016 — brainstorming ideas, choosing angles for their stories, and identifying their own experts. In the process, they grow their job skills and ambitions and become visible leaders in their community.

In the two years since its relaunch, North News has become the neighborhood’s indispensable voice, with a print circulation of 10,000 papers and online stories and Facebook posts that typically reach thousands of readers each month.

We recognize a key social issue facing Minneapolis is the lack of empathy and understanding of one another’s experiences. By painting a full and vivid picture of a dynamic community — its triumphs as well as its struggles — North News nurtures a foundation for real, inclusive change. We’re helping people tell the story they see and live, not the same old one they’ve always been told.

“I’ve learned first hand how journalists can connect to their communities and the value of the work they do. North News gives us the power and the responsibility to represent our neighborhood.” — Daija, North High alumna and former North News Intern

BY THE NUMBERS

10,000 monthly print circulation

400 public bulk drop sites and home subscriptions

58 student journalists engaged since the paper’s relaunch in 2016

Elizabeth Brisbin

Growing food and security on our own turf

Workers at Freight Farm

Minnesota’s economy was founded on food. Yet today 1 in 8 children in our state struggle with hunger. 1 in 6 Minnesotans don’t know where their next meal will come from. What’s behind this disconnection? While food is plentiful in our state, gaps in income and access mean it’s not getting where it’s needed most — especially in low-income areas and communities of color.

Ensuring families are well fed has been at the heart of Pillsbury United’s work for over a century. Through food recovery and redistribution efforts at our community cafes and food shelves, we’re making a big impact: turning every dollar donated to our food shelves into $7 of purchasing power for families we serve.

But pressure on the system continues to grow. “We’re seeing a 30% increase in clients every year between our two food shelves,” says Ethan Neal, Food Systems Manager for Pillsbury United Communities. “As other centers close, people are migrating to our food shelves. As a result, we have more clients and less money.”

Meeting surging demand means growing our food donations — and finding creative ways to expand supply. Urban agriculture is an ingenious answer. Pillsbury United has spearheaded farm and community garden projects at 10 locations across our sites in the Twin Cities. These farms produce fresh fruits and vegetables for our food shelves and meal programs city-wide, including a hydroponic growing operation that yields healthy greens 365 days a year.

It’s an investment in nutritious food as well as self-sufficiency. “By 2020, we want 40% of the food served at our community cafes to be grown by us right here in the neighborhood,” says Neal. These farms grow human capability as well, providing hands-on education and internship opportunities for young people who want to build a smarter food system. We’re even partnering with the University of Minnesota researchers to build a model for other organizations to follow.

Our vision: to build a closed-loop system that ensures everyone in our communities is well fed with healthy, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food that is locally and sustainably grown. Next, we’re drawing up plans for a Community Supported Agriculture program that delivers homegrown produce to our neighbors at the peak of freshness. That’s how you grow a healthier community from the inside out.

“Getting fresh food, eating good food – it’s going to give them happiness, bring them joy.” — Ghartey, community member and former Waite House volunteer

BY THE NUMBERS

1.2 acres of vertical indoor growing space

4 varieties of healthy greens plus herbs and edible flowers growing at all times

40% of food served in our community cafes will be Pillsbury United Communities grown by 2020

Elizabeth Brisbin

Sisterhood Boutique heads north for adventure

Sisterhood Boutique participants preparing for Boundary Waters canoe trip

In July 2018, Sisterhood Boutique took a group of young women to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. This was the third year the Sisterhood has facilitated an expedition in lead by Big City Mountaineers.

On this trip, youth camped for 8 days, paddled 39 miles, and portaged 350 rods where they carried 80 pound canoes on their shoulders and 50 pound bags on their backs. 

These expeditions are meant to introduce youth to the outdoors (especially young East African women) through backcountry camping and canoeing where they are taught how to be independent in the wilderness. Youth learn technical skills including how to set up a tent, purify water, cook and clean outside, and paddle a canoe—all while making sure to take care of the land and ‘leave no trace’ in the process. While developing these hands-on skills, youth are simultaneously enhancing their communication and leadership skills, pushing themselves to new limits, and experiencing what it means to work as a teamwork at a whole new level.

It was a life changing experience for many of the young women:

“It was a nice trip. I never used to enjoy nature like that. I always used to ignore it and stay in my house. But now I learned the real meaning of being outdoors and it’s actually pretty fun.” Sara, 13

“I learned that after some hardship, there comes an ease. After going through some really tough situations, we came across a nice place to stay, played a little, had a swim in a cool lake, walked on a beach, experienced something new.” Fardowza, 17

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