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Nexus March Investments

On March 22nd, 2010 Nexus Community Partners approved our second round of grants for 2010. The grants represented work being done across our three geographic areas; North and South Minneapolis and East St. Paul.

Below you will find a brief summary of the grants:

Community Neighborhood Housing Services (CNHS) – East St. Paul

Purpose: CNHS will build on their work with the Cultural Wellness Center, using their experience and lessons learned, to develop programming aimed at increasing the financial and homeownership skills and knowledge of the African American community on the East Side of St. Paul.  

Outcomes: This project builds upon the work of a 2008-09 pilot with the Cultural Wellness Center and CNHS.  One key learning from the partnership was that within the African American community there exists a need for both foundational financial education and literacy and more mainstream homeownership classes and opportunities.  By continuing to fund both the Cultural Wellness Center and CNHS, Nexus is helping create a “homeownership continuum” for the African American community on the Eastside. 

Hmong American Partnership (HAP) – East St. Paul

Purpose: Assist HAP to further develop their housing program while providing culturally- and linguistically-appropriate housing education, outreach, and counseling services that are needed to address the urgent housing needs of Hmong community members on the East Side of Saint Paul.

Outcomes: As HAP continues to address the growing housing needs of its community, this grant provides space for the Director of Housing and Economic Development to strategically guide the expansion of their housing program, while building its internal capacity to respond to the housing needs in their community.

Lyndale Neighborhood Association (LNA) – South Minneapolis

Purpose: Support the pilot 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. 

Outcomes: This program presents an opportunity to fund place-based community engagement efforts with two cultural communities, occurring through a traditional neighborhood organization.  LNA’s efforts will build a skilled leadership base of Latina and Somali community members working towards equitable neighborhood revitalization goals in their neighborhoods.

Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ) – North Minneapolis

Purpose: Support the outreach, resident engagement and leadership development strategies of the Northside Achievement Zone. 

Outcomes: NAZ creates a coordinated, strategic and long-term approach to address the challenges and opportunities of North Minneapolis. This strategy represents an opportunity to enhance the quality of life of residents in this area by bridging community engagement strategies with asset building strategies centered on education.

Neighborhood Development Alliance (NeDA) – East St. Paul

Purpose: Support the marketing and outreach efforts of NeDA’s expanded services in the areas of credit, debt management and bankruptcy counseling.

Outcomes: A core component of our work is the support of approaches that result in asset building and wealth creation within communities of color in our three geographic areas. There is a demonstrated need for financial counseling services, particularly credit repair and debt management for the Latino community, and a clear gap. This grant will enable NeDA to expand its outreach and visibility on the East Side, thereby providing greater access to needed credit counseling and debt management services to a rapidly growing Latino population in the neighborhood.

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