Cleveland Neighborhood Association
We have a great group of neighbors that have begun gathering to talk about how the Cleveland Neighborhood can better support the youth in our community. If you are interested in getting involved, our next gathering is May 2nd, 6:30pm at the Cleveland Neighborhood office. To learn more give us a call or check out the Youth Committee page.
Put May 3rd on your calendar, it’s the first evening The Lowry Cafe will be open this spring (besides our Cleveland gathering April 30th), and we’re helping them kick it off with a collaboration with Voices Merging to host an Open Mic event at the Cafe from 6-10pm. From 6-8pm is a family friendly, all ages open mic and the Cafe will be serving it’s full evening menu. From 8-10pm will be an adults only 21+ venue with a similar full menu.
More details to follow, but mark your calendar, it’ll be a great chance to get out in the neighborhood, enjoy the warmer weather and hang out with some neighbors. We’ll see you there!
Questions about the event can be directed to the office 588-1155 or contacting us.
Live on the Drive 2013 is right around the corner and we have an AMAZING line-up for you this year. You are not going to want to miss it. Check out LiveontheDrive.org for our concert line-up.
If you or a business you know or work with is interested in sponsoring Live on the Drive 2013, today is the deadline for notifying us if you’d like to be included in our print advertising. What a great opportunity to support a community event, get your business in front of a large crowd of potential customers, and be a part of something we’ve all come to love. This year we’re partnering with Movies in the Park to host movie nights after each concert, allowing for even more opportunities for our sponsors to be recognized.
We’re also encouraging individual residents to contribute this year. There’s no deadline for individual donor contributions.
Finally, a big thank you to our current sponsors. Our founding partner, North Memorial, who continue to support the community now in our sixth year of Live on the Drive. Thank you to the Minneapolis Parks for partnering with us this year to bring you both a concert and a movie three times this summer. Also, Thank You, to our recent sponsors: Victory Neighborhood Association, Camden Music School, Washburn-McReavy, Max Checking, and resident John Helgeland. We’re looking for your name here too! Sponsor Today!
[button link=”http://liveonthedrive.org/sponsor/” type=”big” newwindow=”yes”] Sponsor Live on the Drive Today[/button]
Don’t forget about this exciting opportunity to join with your Cleveland Neighbors for a conversation around what you’re vision for your community is. This community dinner is for Cleveland residents, you’re whole family is welcome, pizza dinner will be provided by The Lowry Cafe, and you’ll have a great time meeting neighbors, discussing what your passionate about and what you’d like to see your neighborhood become. We’ll be continuing with the theme that was used for our community gatherings last year: “I Want ________ In My Neighborhood”
To help us ensure we have enough pizza and space for everyone, please RSVP today:
And if you can’t make it in April (and even if you can), join us in June for our second Neighborhood Conversation:
Some questions regarding this event were raised on our Facebook page, so we’ve taken the time to answer questions and concerns below. If you have any more questions, please contact the office, 588-1155 or on the contact page. Thanks!
Why a Conversation?
As a Neighborhood organization, our job is to engage with and listen to our residents. We do this by hosting three general community meetings per year (according to our bylaws). These two neighborhood conversation events are two of the three events we will host this year (the third is our annual meeting). These Conversations also serve to fulfill to specific goals we are charged with by the Community Participation Program, were we get the majority of our funding for the organization:
-As a CPP funded organization we are charged with identifying Neighborhood Priorities, this event will help us gather feedback from residents about what those should be.
-As a CPP funded organization we are charged with Increasing Involvement in the organization, this event is an attempt to do that as well. (CPP Guidelines)
Where is the funding for the event coming from?
The funding we receive from the city of Minneapolis can not be used for food, but that is something we often like to provide to residents when we ask you to take time out of your busy schedule to spend an evening giving your input on neighborhood issues. This winter, we applied for and were awarded a grant specifically for hosting gatherings like the ones we’ll have in April and June.
The Bush Foundation (which ran a program called inCommons) has been providing small “facilitation grants”. Through their organization they’ve trained hundreds of facilitators in a program called The Art of Hosting. These grants provide funds for smaller organizations like CNA to not only host a high quality event (by providing funding for food and venue), but also use their facilitators to ensure the outcomes of our time are the best they can be. (link to pdf about grant). The facilitators were recommended by the staff of inCommons who notified us of our grant award.
Are paid Facilitators necessary?
Hiring outside facilitators for an organization such as CNA with a small budget and a community focus, might come across as a mismanagement of funds. Hopefully the facts clarify that is not the case. The hiring of facilitators for this event is specifically coming from the grant we received which is specifically for hiring facilitators from the Art of Hosting program, and through which we also received funds to support a local business (The Lowry Cafe) but hosting the event in their space. As a small organization with limited staff and volunteer capacity, we welcome the opportunity for facilitators not only to help us run a smooth event, but ensure we come away with a tangible set of data from community residents that we can act on.
We hope this adequately answers any questions you might have. If you need more details regarding the events, please contact the office, 588-1155 or via the contact page.
As we mentioned last week, Our upcoming Neighborhood Conversations event will be hosted by renowned facilitators who will lead us in a wonderful community discussion that will result in a vision for the Cleveland Neighborhood in the years to come. You met David last week, learn about our other facilitator today, Barbara Simpson Epps. Register Today!
Barbara (Bob-e) Simpson Epps has spent a lifetime working to enhance the operations and effectiveness of organizations in both the public and private sectors. Deeply committed to strong, healthy and resilient communities, she has used her expertise to build and sustain diverse environments. Believing in the richness each voice brings to any conversation, situation or need Bob-e seeks to engage all in conversations leading to the extraction of knowledge, wisdom and reflection of self and others.
Bob-e is a recent Bush Fellow and plans to engage others in creating a system-wide, community-based and culturally-specific approach to address trauma- and stress-induced health issues in the lives of African American and American Indian children and families using the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACES) and brain research.
Bob-e has worked in public health for more than 25 years, taught at Minneapolis and St. Paul Community Colleges, presented on issues of health, early care and education, diversity/equity and inclusion, health policy, and numerous other topics on a local national and global level. She is trained in Frameworks (public policy marketing), as a Master ACES Trainer, Community Resilience Coach and in Art of Hosting (processes and practices which she uses to create environments for meaningful conversations with individuals and groups). She has received numerous awards locally and nationally for her work.
This event is open to all Cleveland Neighborhood residents. Dinner will be provided and the whole family is invited. Please RSVP online or by calling 588-1155. We look forward to seeing you and hearing your input. Thank you.
Our upcoming Neighborhood Conversations event will be hosted by renowned facilitators who will lead us in a wonderful community discussion that will result in a vision for the Cleveland Neighborhood in the years to come. Find out a little more about one of our facilitators today, David Ellis. Register Today!
Dave is a freelance host practitioner whose work has taken him through the worlds of corporate, governmental and nonprofit organizations. He is a resident of North Minneapolis’ Hawthorne Community and community leader skilled at working with groups large and small on conversations that matter. His current focus is in communities that want to make true and substantial change on large scale issues like disparities in healthcare, education and criminal justice; youth concerns; and culturally specific issues. Dave has done considerable work in leadership development, diversity and inclusion, network building and community engagement. He is a newly named Steward of the Art of Hosting and Harvesting Conversations That Matter.
What do you think are the important questions that need to be asked that are essential in order to have the infrastructure of the city reflect the need and wants of the people in the city? What are your answers to those questions?
Join us for a Traveling Chalkboard Workshop on April 23rd, 6-7:30pm at the Cleveland Neighborhood office to get involved in this project were we ask the above questions of our neighbors and community.
Photographer Wing Young Huie and theatre engagement artist Ashley Hansen are using a chalkboard to find out, with a process adapted from Wing’s successful public art project (2010), “The University Avenue Project” in St. Paul where he photographed hundreds of people in various circumstances holding chalkboards on which revealing statements are hand-written.
With the Creative CityMaking Project, Wing and Ashley will give chalkboards to community organizations and individual citizens to find out what are the important questions and answers. Participants will then photograph themselves with their questions and answers and upload them to our website: http://www.createplace.org/
Participants will then pass on the chalkboard to a neighbor to do the same thing, thus winding its way throughout the community.
RSVP by email cna@clevelandneighborhood.org or RSVP on Facebook
In collaboration with Voices Merging, the Cleveland Neighborhood Association will be hosting Listening Sessions and Writing Workshops with local Spoken Word artist every Friday in April at the Cleveland office. Join us from 5-7 pm to share your thoughts on the community and issues that are important to you, enjoy some refreshments and then practice your writing skills and learn from local Spoken Word artists.
First session is this Friday, April 5, 2013 at the CNA offices. For more information contact Brianna@clevelandneighborhood.org or call (612) 276-2624
The Cleveland Neighborhood Association is proud to office out of our community public school, Lucy Craft Laney. Not only are the students full of energy and happy greetings when they pass by the office on their way to recess, but Laney staff have also been going to great lengths to promote healthy living in their students and this year they are being recognized as Local Heroes in promoting Public Health! Here’s the official announcement from the City of Minneapolis:
The City’s celebration of National Public Health Week this year will include honoring the contributions of community partners in strengthening the health of our city. …These Local Heroes exemplify one of the themes of National Public Health Week: A Safe, Healthy Home for You and Your Family; A Safe, Healthy Environment for Children at School; A Safe Environment While on the Move; and A Healthy Community.
Lucy Laney Community School (staff, students, and families) for promoting active living through their Safe Routes to School, International Walk to School Day, walking club, staff-led Walking School Buses, a shared bike fleet (with Nellie Stone Johnson & Loring Community School), and after school bike club. These efforts, guided by the school Wellness Committee and championed by Middle School Administrator Lisa Pawelak and School Nurse Jessica Findell, create A Safe, Healthy Environment for Children at School.
The City will be recognizing Lucy Laney staff and other Local Heroes on April 3rd at 11:30am. Join them and show your support if you are able.
The Northside Transportation Network (NTN) is collecting public comments to share with the Met Council regarding community input on transit development in north Minneapolis. Comments are due by the end of the day today. Please consider taking NTN’s survey here. As well as read below for more info from NTN about the comment period:
The Met Council is taking public comments to consider a local preferred alternative (mode or alignment) for the Bottineau Transitway. This alignment was recommended by the Hennepin County Regional Rail Authority to include:
1. Light rail transit on the West Broadway in Brooklyn Park – Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corridor – Olson Memorial Highway alignment (Alternative B-C-D1)
2. The proposed amendments also reflect proposed changes that include listing Lake Street and Hennepin Avenue along with Penn Avenue and Emerson-Fremont Avenues in north Minneapolis as potential Arterial Bus Rapid Transit corridors
3. Studied for other modes such as streetcar.
This is an important step for us to take part in making a positive impact for our community. We need to express our concern and offering comments before the Council votes.
Hurry, take action and provide your comments, oral or written comments as follows:
- Written comments to: Metropolitan Council Public Information. 390 North Robert St., St. Paul, MN 55101-1805/ ATTN: 2030 Transportation Policy Plan Amendments
- Fax comments to Public Information at 651-602-1464
- Record comments on the Metropolitan Council’s Public Comment Line at 651-602-1500
- Send TTY comments to: 651-291-0904
- Email comments to: public.info@metc.state.mn.
us You can also click on the link below to take a quick survey about expanding transportation in north Minneapolis. Your voice matters A LOT! Also, please pass on this message on to other residents of north Minneapolis. Thanks you so much for you time!
Through an authentic community process, NTN strives to insure that our region’s investment in the Bottineau Transit way contributes to a vibrant, economically successful North Minneapolis.
We will continue to provide ongoing authentic community engagement.
http://northsidetransit.org/
2013/03/20/northside- transportation-survey/