“Generations ago, one of my grandfathers was a tribal historian for my people, the Oglala Lakota of Pine Ridge, South Dakota. Amos Bad Heart Bull was a ledger artist who depicted many events that happened in the lives of my people and it is through those paintings that I have the ability to connect to
Nexus Community Partners is proud to announce the graduation of the 2014-2015 Fellows of the Boards and Commissions Leadership Institute (BCLI)! On Thursday, April 9th at the International Institute of Minnesota, we honored our fourteen graduates for not only their completion of the BCLI, but also for their continued commitment and leadership in driving equity
The National Research Council defines a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) as “a systematic process that uses an array of data sources and analytic methods, and considers input from stakeholders to determine the potential effects of a proposed policy, plan, program, or project on the health of a population and the distribution of those effects within
Nexus offers our biggest and proudest congratulations to our very own Elena Gaarder who is a 2015 Bush Fellow! Her incredible hard work that is rooted firmly with people in the communities that she works will only blossom and grow. “In her community-based work, Elena Gaarder finds herself returning over and over to the same
Join Us for Our Upcoming Webinar: Building A National Network of Regional Leaders: Replicating the Boards and Commissions Leadership Institute Tuesday March 3, 2015| 11-12pm PST | 1-2 CST (Corrected Time) Presenters: Uma Viswanathan, Urban Habitat and Terri Thao, Nexus Community The Boards and Commissions Leadership Institute (BCLI) is a six-month fellowship that trains and places advocates
“Investing in relationships for authentic community engagement. Go ahead, Google it. “Community engagement” is there, and it’s attached to everything from sports teams to businesses to libraries to universities. With all those associations out there, it can be difficult to identify “authentic community engagement” and to understand its power and potential for meaningful and sustainable
With sub-zero temperatures and an intense wind chill, a small group of community members heated up together on Thursday, February 12th at the Northeast Bank Community Room by digging into the spicy subject of… Budgets. And why, you may ask, is this topic so steamy? Because, as all four panelists agreed, budgets reflect values and
On Thursday, December 4th, nearly 40 community members gathered at Goodwill Easter Seals for our second BCLI Issue Series of the season. Together we explored how to promote equitable community development without displacing residents and gentrifying neighborhoods in the Twin Cities. Building on the first Issue Series around organizing and engagement, we discussed the following
“Organizing is harder than brain surgery… And the reason it’s harder than brain surgery is: everyone thinks they can organize. Believe it or not…they think ‘Oh, I can do that job.’ But nobody walks into the operating room and takes the scalpel out of a brain surgeon’s hand and says ‘Hey, move over. I got this.’
Nexus Community Partners recently released “Assess Your Work: Essentials of Community Engagement” as part of its Building the Field of Community Engagement Initiative. The document answers the questions, “What is authentic community engagement and how does an organization know if it’s doing community engagement?” The document also provides a tool to help organizations, institutions and individuals
On Thursday, October 9th, over 90 people gathered at the Dakota Lodge at the Division of Indian Work to celebrate power in community and to welcome the new Boards and Commissions Leadership Institute (BCLI) fellows into the BCLI family. These 15 fellows will be the next group of advocate commissioners advancing racial equity and social
Developing Leaders to Advance an Equity Agenda: Boards and Commissions Leadership Institute Announces its Second Cohort! Nexus Community Partners is pleased to announce the second cohort of the 2014-2015 Boards and Commissions Leadership Institute (BCLI). The 15 cohort members come from various communities in Minneapolis, St. Paul and the surrounding suburbs and bring a wealth of experience