Micro Grants
Support Community Efforts to Promote Healing, Connection

The Minneapolis Foundation today announced $185,303 in Micro Grants from its Fund for Safe Communities to 39 local organizations that are working to address community trauma and promote wellness as Minneapolis residents continue to bear the weight of the pandemic, the lasting effects of social unrest, and the ongoing movement for racial justice.

“It has been a tough two years,” said Chanda Smith Baker, Chief Impact Officer and Senior Vice President at the Minneapolis Foundation. “Minneapolis has been at the center of a racial, economic, and social reckoning that’s decades in the making. Meanwhile, our community continues to struggle with financial, physical, and emotional challenges during the pandemic. These Micro Grants are one way we can support the continued resilience of our community.”

This funding opportunity was designed to help ensure that Minneapolis youth and adults have places to gather safely and resources available to promote connection and healing as they continue to navigate challenging issues in the community in the coming months. Grants were awarded to nonprofits, schools, and religious organizations that support youth, adults, and families in Minneapolis neighborhoods.

“The poet and rapper Tupac Shakur said, ‘Long live the rose that grew from concrete,’” said Brandon Williams, Safe Communities and Criminal Justice Fellow at the Minneapolis Foundation. “Despite all the obstacles we face in Minneapolis, we know ‘roses’ have continued to grow as individuals and organizations have stepped up and found ways to make sure their neighbors do not fall through the cracks, and we want to support their work.”

Photos from grantees Protect Minnesota and Sisters’ Camelot.

One Micro Grant will support Protect Minnesota in using arts advocacy and youth participation to engage Minneapolis communities around gun violence prevention. “This funding allows us to amplify the voices of our youngest citizens who have been deeply impacted by gun violence in our communities,” said Ayolanda Evans, the organization’s Director of Community Education and Response.

Another will enable a collective called Sisters’ Camelot to engage with community members by serving food at 38th and Chicago. “Sisters’ Camelot is so grateful for funding to help us nourish and heal our community by providing free organic meals,” said Aria Dominguez, a member of the collective. “We look forward to sharing food and connecting with our neighbors this summer.”

• 826 MSP: $5,000 to host an event that uplifts the voices of young writers in South Minneapolis and celebrates their creativity as a community.
• Aeon: $4,053 to host workshops focused on self-care skills and methods for building stronger relationships between residents of the Lamoreaux, Continental, and Coyle apartments.
• Al Nolen Foundation: $5,000 to offer youth programs for students in North Minneapolis to promote social/emotional learning, financial literacy skills, social justice, and wellness.
• Centro Tyrone Guzman: $5,000 to support a youth-led community event focused on racial justice, LGBTQIA+ inclusion, and intergenerational collaboration.
• East Phillips Improvement Coalition, Inc.: $5,000 to collaborate with an artist and support East Phillips residents to grieve, celebrate and heal together.
• Emerge Community Development: $5,000 to engage at-risk young men in North Minneapolis in activities that promote social connectedness and positive decision-making.
• Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund – Minnesota Chapter: $3,700 to work with community partners on a green space project in Ward 5, host an event to raise awareness of the impact of gun violence, and provide space for healing.
• Exploration High School: $4,000 to help young people from under-resourced communities discover their creative voices, realize their value and potential, and unleash their creativity to fill their communities with innovation, transformation, and hope.
• Foundations Church: $5,000 to engage North Minneapolis youth in activities to uplift each other, build community, and learn skills that foster resilience.
• Friends of Global Market: $5,000 to host live performances and engaging activities at the Midtown Global Market in South Minneapolis.
• Girls on the Run Twin Cities, Inc.: $5,000 to provide girls with structured activities, emotional support, and tools for building confidence while building their physical stamina through running.
• Haven Housing: $3,550 to help unify neighborhoods in North Minneapolis by sharing information and collectively developing strategies to solve community issues and find solutions beyond the intervention of law enforcement.
• Holy Trinity Lutheran Church: $5,000 to host gatherings for South Minneapolis residents to connect over a meal, music, and conversation.
• Hope Community: $5,000 to host an event featuring live performances, speakers, exercise, dancing, and other activities that cultivate joy and sisterhood among Black women and girls.
• Joyce Preschool: $5,000 to host an event for South Minneapolis preschoolers that celebrates their diverse community, highlighting unique cultural differences and sharing wishes for the future of their neighborhood.
• Kulture Klub Collaborative: $3,500 to foster a sense of belonging among homeless youth through art projects, and to provide them with healthy food.
• Lundstrum Center for the Performing Arts: $5,000 for performing arts that promote awareness, discussion, and healing in North Minneapolis.
• McKinley Community: $5,000 to provide resources for families and create an interactive approach to healing in North Minneapolis.
• Memorialize the Movement: $5,000 to host a collaborative space for musicians and performers to express themselves and provide resources to residents of East Phillips, Seward, and North Minneapolis during the second anniversary of George Floyd’s murder.
• Midtown Greenway Coalition: $5,000 to decrease violent and non-violent crime by increasing positive street activity in the Midtown Greenway area.
• Million Artist Movement: $5,000 to host quilt-making sessions at George Floyd Square and engage residents in sharing uplifting narratives, honoring loved ones, processing grief, and imagining liberation.
• Mind.Body.Spirit Wholistic Fitness: $4,500 to support Black youth through wellness, social connectedness, and professional development opportunities.
• Minneapolis North Youth Football Association: $5,000 to host a football camp for youth in North Minneapolis and provide leadership training and tools for young people to be successful on and off the field.
• Ms. Houston’s Caring Hands Inc.: $5,000 to provide food, transportation, and emergency childcare for young mothers attending support groups.
• Native American Community Development Institute: $5,000 to establish a healing site in South Minneapolis for urban American Indians to process historic and current trauma and connect with their ancestry through agriculture and art.
• New City Church: $3,000 to support Black artists in South Minneapolis in planning an events series and creating opportunities to promote their work and deepen connections with each other.
• One Family One Community: $5,000 to host virtual sessions for North Minneapolis residents, and for current and former gang members to address trauma and promote healing through art.
• Organic Oneness: $4,000 to provide collaborative and healing spaces that reduce physical and psychological harm to youth in the Powderhorn Park area of Minneapolis.
• OutFront Minnesota Community Services: $5,000 to host a virtual summit for LGBTQ+ youth from Minneapolis to safely process trauma, learn coping skills, and build community with one another.
• Protect Minnesota: $5,000 to create space for young people who live with the impacts of gun violence to share their stories with community leaders through artwork.
• Sisters’ Camelot: $5,000 to provide visitors the 38th and Chicago with organic meals as they grieve and heal from the tragedies of the past few years.
• Speaking Out Collective: $5,000 to support staff and young children at a South Minneapolis preschool impacted by Islamophobia to engage in culturally affirming storytelling and puppet making.
• Stages Theatre Company: $5,000 to engage community members in North Minneapolis in a production that follows the lives of two high-school boys, one Black and one white, after a violent act of racially motivated police brutality.
• Stevens Square Community Organization: $5,000 to host an outdoor event featuring an art workshop, interactive dance performance, and other activities in the Stevens Square Park neighborhood.
• Sweet Potato Comfort Pie: $5,000 to host virtual gatherings featuring various forms of art to promote healing, wellness, and calm for community members dealing with trauma.
• TaikoArts Midwest: $5,000 to provide accessible on-site workshop opportunities for diverse youth to engage in taiko drumming.
• The Link: $5,000 to support a curriculum led by youth and adults that helps Black youth process trauma and create opportunities for racial justice advocacy.
• Threads Dance Project: $5,000 to support Minneapolis youth in healing, expressing themselves, and making a positive impact on their community through the transformative power of movement.
• TruArtSpeaks: $5,000 to host a convening to discuss the Black experience in Minneapolis and create a shared vision for the near future.

The Minneapolis Foundation established the Fund for Safe Communities to support tangible, specific and meaningful actions to address and prevent violence. Since it launched in 2018, the Fund has made more than $2.64 million in investments for violence prevention, criminal justice reform, and individual and community healing, including $204,000 in Micro Grants that were distributed last year around the trial of Derek Chauvin and the anniversary of George Floyd’s murder.

Businesses and members of the public are encouraged to contribute any amount to the Fund for Safe Communities. Make a tax-deductible online donation to the Fund for Safe Communities today.