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2011 August Grant Actions

On August 17th Nexus Community Partners approved 8 grants including some new partnerships and several continued relationships. We are excited to share the great work that's being accomplished in our three geographies.

Below you will find a brief summary of the grants:

 

American Indian Family Center
Purpose: Nexus funds will support the American Indian Family Center (AIFC) to implement culturally specific financial literacy and homeownership programming for the American Indian community on St. Paul's East Side. The ultimate goal of the AIFC's project is to strengthen capacity and build assets through homeownership via three strategies; outreach, education, and counseling.

Strategic Fit: Nexus Community Partners supports approaches that result in asset building and wealth creation within communities of color in our three geographic areas. Currently, there is no other St. Paul American Indian organization providing this service to the American Indian community in St. Paul. This project will serve as a platform for developing comprehensive and culturally specific homeownership programming for the American Indian community on the East Side of St. Paul, and inform our work in South and North Minneapolis.

City of Lakes Community Land Trust
Purpose: Use of Nexus funds will provide continuing support to the CLCLT Homeowner Engagement activities while also enhancing their qualitative and quantitative evaluation efforts as it relates to income, net assets, and community assets of their homeowners.

Strategic Fit: The strategies being supported by Nexus fit our goals of integrating community building and community development, building social and human capital and developing asset builders, and align with existing and developing Nexus partnerships in North Minneapolis.

Juxtaposition Arts
Purpose: Nexus funds will be used by Juxtaposition Arts (Juxta) to advance the field of arts based community development in North Minneapolis by expanding their capacity to build an action agenda around arts based, equitable, sustainable community development.

Strategic Fit: Although this is the first grant to Juxtaposition Arts, Nexus has been partnering with Juxta for the past year on various initiatives including the 2011 Bruner Loeb Forum. Juxtaposition is a leader in arts based community building and development in the Twin Cities and this project will allow them to be strategic in developing an arts-based community building and development agenda that is understood and embraced by many.

Northside Achievement Zone
Purpose: Through this grant from Nexus, Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ) will complete the design of a NAZ Foundation's class curriculum that will provide baseline empowerment training to 30 NAZ families to specifically educate, empower and support their roles as community members. As the number of families living within the 13X18 block Zone who complete the training increases, neighborhood wide impact is expected.

Strategic Fit: NAZ provides a coordinated, collaborative and strategic vehicle to address the educational disparities in North Minneapolis. Nexus has been partnering with NAZ since its inception and this proposal presents a natural evolution in our partnership.

African Economic Development Solutions (AEDS)
Purpose: Nexus funds will be used to support and build the capacity of AEDS' asset building activities in the Oromo, Eritrean and Ethiopian (OE&E) communities. A few of the key activities include small-business coaching and micro-entrepreneurship training, basic financial literacy training, and culturally appropriate financial education.

Strategic Fit: This grant supports Nexus' goal to create asset and wealth building models and tools that help strengthen communities. The Oromo, Ethiopian and Eritrean communities, while not new to Minnesota, are newer to the field of community building and community economic development. Helping build the capacity of AEDS in this second year of full programming their core services is critical to ensuring more broader and equitable access to wealth creation opportunities. AEDS as an organization will also benefit itself from the lessons Nexus has learned through our investments of our two other ethnic CDC start-ups.

Greater Minnesota Housing Corporation (GMHC) - Sustainable Home Ownership Program (SHOP)
Purpose: Nexus funds will be used to support the capacity of the Sustainable Home Ownership Program (SHOP Home Mortgage) to create more homeownership opportunities to St. Paul's East Side by bringing the Bridge to Success Contract-for-Deed program to scale and creating a mortgage pool to provide long term finance solutions. The Contract-for-Deed program has more liberal underwriting and flexibility for people with the financial capacity to purchase homes, but who have been unable to qualify for bank financing due to credit history, bankruptcy, etc. The goal for these buyers will be to clear up their credit issues and improve their financial situation so the Contract-for-Deed can be refinanced into a FHA or conventional fixed-rate loan product within 3 to 4 years. A financial plan is established for the buyer and bi-monthly meetings are held with the homeowners to follow-up and assist them to be successful homeowners.

Strategic Fit: A key goal for Nexus is to create better trained, confident and successful asset-builders who generate greater individual and community wealth. Building the capacity of SHOP to move East Side community members into homeownership or help maintain homeownership is critical to neighborhood success especially given the recent foreclosure impact. Helping the contract for deed program grow and providing early support for capacity to build a loan pool is critical as we continue our work on the East Side and ensuring more sustainable and equitable communities.

Latino Economic Development Center (LEDC)
Purpose: Nexus funds will be used to support organizational capacity building activities. The key focus of our support will go toward building LEDC's fundraising capacity to increase grant resources along with building their technology capacity to better deliver programs and organizational effectiveness.

Strategic Fit: LEDC continues to be a critical organization in the Latino and broader community development industry. A key strategy of Nexus' investments is the building capacity of organizations. After several years of start-up, project and organization infrastructure investments, supporting LEDC's fundraising and technology infrastructure is key to helping them become a more sustainable organization.

Lyndale Neighborhood Association
Purpose: Nexus funds will be used to support the second year of the Lyndale Women's Leadership Program (LWLP), whose purpose is to develop Latina and Somali women in the Lyndale neighborhood as community leaders. The LWLP is a self-directed, action-learning model that will help participants increase their individual skills and learn how to work together as a group as they apply these skills in addressing a community issue of their choice in the neighborhood.

Strategic Fit: Building on what LNA has learned in the first year of implementing this program, an effective leadership development program provides LNA the opportunity to develop twenty to thirty community leaders annually, who have a direct connection to the community, are invested in the community's welfare, and have the skills, knowledge, and relationships to work on the issues impacting the neighborhood. This all contributes towards Nexus' overall mission of building more engaged and powerful communities.

 

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