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Northside Achievement Zone
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"Now we all should seek to live a well-adjusted life in order to avoid neurotic and schizophrenic personalities. But there are some things within our social order to which I am proud to be maladjusted and to which I call upon you to be maladjusted. I never intend to adjust myself to segregation and discrimination. I never intend to adjust myself to mob rule. I never intend to adjust myself to the tragic effects of the methods of physical violence and to tragic militarism. I call upon you to be maladjusted to such things." - Martin Luther King Jr.
This quote summarizes what I felt while sitting with 50+ people at the latest gathering of the Northside Achievement Zone. In the room were politicians, community residents, organizational leaders, social workers, journalists, academics and more. Everyone in the room was in agreement that we can no longer accept in North Minneapolis academic failure for our kids. Instead, we are coming together, working together, struggling together, to create a new future for youth and families living in North Minneapolis.
The Northside Achievement Zone will, over time, create a new normal in North Minneapolis, one that celebrates the success of our youth in achieving their academic and life goals.
Failure is not an option. Not for our kids, not for our future, not for these efforts. The NAZ and its' partners are committed to doing whatever it takes to ensure that all kids living in the Zone graduate from high school college ready. That is the mission of the Northside Achievement Zone.
Our meeting began by reading aloud the names of all the victims of homicide in the city of Minneapolis thus far in 2010. I took a deep breath as the name of the young man, only 16 years old, who was shot on my block the day before Martin Luther King Jr. day. As we reached the end of the list, we all took a moment of silence to remember those who have passed.
And in that collective silence, I heard something. I heard outrage. I heard frustration. Together, as we paused in silence, I heard a group of people acknowledge that no longer will this to be the storyline for our kids in North Minneapolis, and instead we will create a new storyline that begins in the cradle and extends into and beyond college.
The Northside Achievement Zone is an innovative effort that continues to grow as a powerful collaborative poised to create significant change for youth and families in North Minneapolis. Nexus Community Partners has been connected to the NAZ from its' earliest stages. To learn more about NAZ visit their website at http://www.northsideachievement.org. To learn more about Nexus partnership with the Northside Achievement Zone, look at the Impact Study here.