Neighborhoods
Friday, Mar 21, 2008
In St. Paul, Some Policy Makers Are Still in High School
Ninth-grader Dohneshia Moran told a reporter that she has been dropping by the Doorway nearly four times a week since it opened. “This is a great way to get help,” she said (New center’s goals hinge on helping kids aim for college, Mar. 16, Star Tribune).
The Doorway is a community-based career services office that operates from the Dayton’s Bluff Recreation Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. It is the first of at least two planned centers, and was developed by the City of Saint Paul, a roundtable of college officials, and Second Shift Youth Commissioners.
The Second Shift Youth Commission was created in 2006 by Mayor Chris Coleman as a way to involve young people in policy making and planning. It includes a high-school aged representative from each of the city’s neighborhoods.
Thursday, Feb 28, 2008
Listen...and be heard
Come one and all to hear, listen and share in a community discussion about what's really going on in the Twin Cities!
Youth organizers who call themselves SPEAC - Sustainable Progress through Engaging Active Citizens - spoke with over 200 young people from all over the metro area about what is important to them. They took notes, sifted through the information, and pulled out the themes.
On March 19, SPEAC invites you to find out what youth are saying about their communities, and to share your ideas about the next steps we need to take to bring the Twin Cities to a bigger and brighter future!
Youth Listening Session Hear-back, Wednesday, Mar. 19, 5 to 7:30 p.m., Hope Community, 611 E. Franklin Ave., Minneapolis
For more information or to RSVP, contact Kristy Clemons at Kristy@hope-community.org or 612-435-1683.
Friday, Feb 15, 2008
The Voices of Second Shift Youth Commission
We invite you to learn about the St. Paul Second Shift Youth Commission, a group of young people from across the City of St. Paul who know they can make a difference in their communities. Listen here to the fifteen minute story on what motivates the different teens to do what they are doing.
This audio report was funded by the Surdna Foundation and was produced through a collaboration of the St. Paul Second Shift Youth Commission and the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs.
Thursday, Feb 14, 2008
These youth apprenticeships have civic impact
Youth (yooth) - a set of thoughtful, passionate leaders who come to the table with curiosity and power, with curiosity and power to be unleashed
Apprenticeship (ə-prěn'tĭs-shĭp) - relationship between youth and mentor, from which the youth derives skills, guidance, and challenge, and the mentor derives renewed outlook, meaning, and challenge
Project (prŏj'ěkt') – a grand connection that yields great change
Youth are powerful agents of change. This summer, 30 young people ages 14 to 19 will be connecting to the West Side neighborhood in St. Paul, Minnesota, and impacting the way it works and grows.
They’ll engage in this process through the Youth Apprenticeship Project (YAP), a program initiated by the Neighborhood Learning Community.
Wednesday, Jan 30, 2008
Lights, camera, youth action!
On a blistering hot afternoon last summer, five young people from the West Side neighorhood of St. Paul, Minnesota, sat down with film makers from the St. Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN) to begin a week-long session of documentary film making. The goal was to learn, plan, and produce two short documentary films about the West Side community.
The youth were a part of an All Around the Neighborhood (AATN) youth leadership initiative called West Side Youth Guides. West Side Youth Guides is a leadership and mentorship program for kids in grades 6 to 8 who go to school or live on the West Side neighborhood. With coaching by a community member, an Urban 4H youth worker, and myself, youth guides practice their leadership and mentorship skills through facilitating, mentoring, and working with younger children and adults at AATN day camps.
Tuesday, Jan 15, 2008
Humphrey policy students meet their neighbors
The following entry was written by Humphrey Policy Student and CHANCE member, Sarah Martyn Crowell.
About a year ago, a small group of Humphrey grad students, staff, and faculty started a movement to create better relationships and connections between the West Bank campus of the University of Minnesota and the Cedar Riverside neighborhood. The group is called CHANCE (Cedar Humphrey Action for Neighborhood Collaborative Engagement).
Several months ago, the CHANCE group decided to throw a neighborhood party, calling it the West Bank Celebration. The purpose was to bring a variety of people from the University and broader Cedar Riverside neighborhood together. We hoped to create new connections and instill a more encompassing sense of community, as well as to celebrate the many community partnerships and accomplishments over the past year.
Bedlam Theater, a local community theater on the West Bank, housed the event. 
We transformed the stage into an elegant dining room using tables and linens from a local church, mirror and candle centerpieces, and stringing lights around the room. Eighty people attended - neighborhood residents, leaders, and organizations; U of M and Augsburg faculty, staff, administration, and students; and many more.
We worked hard to create a welcoming environment that celebrated the neighborhood’s accomplishments while also encouraging new people to get to know each other. We intentionally mixed up the people at each table, so new connections could be made. We encouraged constructive community dialogue by asking each person to talk about why they were there, their experiences with the Cedar Riverside neighborhood, and why the community was important to them.
Strangers became friends and new connections for potential partnerships were made. Most importantly, the event helped to extend the notion of community to include both the University and the Cedar Riverside neighborhood. The event filled us with hope that as students, we could make a difference. Moreover, we began to see that the vision of inclusive community is possible and that we weren't alone in wanting to see it happen.
You can find out more about CHANCE and how to get involve on their website: http://www.hhh.umn.edu/projects/chance/index.html
Wednesday, Dec 19, 2007
Circles Celebration
This post was written by Emily Peterson, an AmeriCorps member at the Jane Addams School:
On Wednesday, December 5th, the participants of the Jane Addams School of Democracy held a celebration of all the circles that make up the school. The celebration was a time to see all the circles come together to eat, recognize accomplishments, share talents, and to learn from and teach one another. The celebration took place in the cafeteria at Humboldt High School, which was transformed to a friendly seating area and stage. Some people dressed in traditional clothing from their culture, and I myself was lucky enough to be dressed in traditional Hmong clothing.
The night started out with a "contestoria" from the children's circle telling a story about a hungry mouse in a big city. Then the program moved onto the food, as people had brought homemade food that formed a delicious potluck. Some people shared poetry while others sat and ate their food. With over 200 people at the celebration, eating took some time, but it was very enjoyable to try all the different kinds of foods from other countries.
After everyone had stuffed themselves, the talent show began. The emcees for the night were very creative in using actions and movements to get across their messages without using words, and they kept the program moving. 
Many people from different circles read their poetry, sang songs in their native language, and danced- styles varying from break dancing to bachata to swing. The outstanding talent of the performers was mind blowing for many audience participants.
One of the amazing things about the night was the mixture of people that came to the celebration; participants ranged in age from 4 to over 80 years old, from countries such as Thailand to Mexico and Somali, and five native languages were spoken. With all these distinguished people, it is no wonder a basic value of Jane Addams is that everyone is a learner and everyone is a teacher. This practice could not have been more evident than on Wednesday night.
Friday, Nov 30, 2007
Recommended reading: Why Community Matters
Nicholas Longo, an alumnus of the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs and former staff member of the CDC, recently published a book, Why Community Matters: Connecting Education with Civic Life. In the book Longo argues that civic education does not just happen in schools, but rather in the wider community. As children grow, education should be connected to civic life happening in the community around them.
We're all reading it and highly recommend it.
Monday, Oct 15, 2007
Hope Community trains youth to organize for change
Danielle Peterson, the Minnesota organizer for Public Achievement with the Center for Democracy and Citizenship, combined forces with Hope Community’s youth and young adult program coordinators Chaka Mkali and Dhop to create programs for youth organizers in Minneapolis.
Dhop, who works with youth ages 14 and under, has a daughter who was attending Inter District Downtown School in Minneapolis where Public Achievement was a part of the schoolday. Through Public Achievement (PA), students chose an issue that most interested them and worked with coaches to develop strategies for change.
“She had PA on Tuesdays,” Peterson said, “and she would always tell her dad on Monday nights, ‘We can’t be late. We’ve got PA tomorrow morning.’ So Dhop started getting interested.” As a result, youth programming at Hope changed to incorporate this PA model.
Read more in this news story from the Spokesman-Recorder.
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