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Poverty Reduction and Increased Prosperity
NorthWay Community Trust, a community support organization (CSO), seeks to invest in collaborations and advocate for systems changes to reduce poverty and increase prosperity in the North Minneapolis community. Our community convening model is the foundation of our work in North Minneapolis; bringing low-income residents, community based organizations, businesses and local government together to bring about change that will benefit community and most importantly low-income residents in the community.
NorthWay seeks to support North Minneapolis being a welcoming community where people of diverse backgrounds and experience sustain and continue to develop their economic, physical and relational well-being. The essence of the NorthWay Plan is in the inter-connectedness of the community. The fundamental principle of our work is that poverty is not just a lack of financial resources but an overall reflection of community well-being. Any efforts to reduce poverty must be holistic; addressing the economic, physical, emotional, and spiritual health of individuals and families as well as connections among community members and conditions in the community. Fundamentally, solutions to reduce poverty in North Minneapolis must come from within the community.
Our partnership investments within North Minneapolis are for the purposes of seeding initiatives and collaborative partnerships with outcomes that promote our mission of poverty reduction and increased prosperity.
In our work, we seek to be responsive to community based perspectives, building healthy collaborative partnerships, and impacting systems and policies across community sectors.
How we want to Reduce Poverty and Increase Wealth
NorthWay invests in collaborations to change systems that contribute to poverty in North Minneapolis. NorthWay is interested in collaborations between existing programs that promote connectivity to provide adults and youth with a network of services and opportunities that no single program can provide. NorthWay’s
investment goal is to improve the way programs and services connect together and work across various “silos” so that the holistic needs of Northside residents and families are met.
NorthWay has five long-term strategies as guiding tools to reduce poverty and create opportunities for low income residents to be heard and to be active partners in the power base within the region of North Minneapolis.
Our goal for building connections and capacity is building new interpersonal connections among residents with a focus on dismantling racism and developing a unified community voice and sense of power. A community with stronger relationships and organized capacity will be more effective addressing NorthWay’s other strategies. We want to work simultaneously on building greater trust among individuals and fostering effective collaborative work in community initiatives. We will strengthen the ground-level network of interconnected residents as our community institutions learn to cooperate more effectively, allowing a greater focus on systemic change at all levels. As a result, the fabric of community will be strengthened through people and organizations working together. In the next two years NorthWay envisions a community-wide priority effort to promote genuine involvement of youth in community leadership involving both youth-serving and other
community organizations.
Our goal for building community wealth is to create systemic connections between education, labor, employment, and micro-enterprise to link career path education, living wage employment and financial literacy that will increase income and assets for North Minneapolis residents living on under $20,000 per year.
Our goal for building knowledge is to ensure that quality learning opportunities are available to North Minneapolis residents of all ages from birth through adulthood. North Minneapolis children need quality early childhood experiences, effective and culturally competent K-12 schools and access to post-secondary opportunities. Adults need job related training and other chances to gain skills necessary for success in our global economy. At present, many Northside children and adults lack access to high quality education, fail to graduate from high school and are less likely to attend college. NorthWay will work with parents, families, educators and others to build systems that support learning and provide quality choices for North Minneapolis,
particularly for people earning under $20,000 per year.
Our goal for addressing health disparities is to convene practitioners to support the development of culturally-driven Public Health Education to improve health and decrease morbidity and mortality rates to overcome the lack of knowledge and trust of health and health care systems among North Minneapolis residents living on under $20,000 per year.
Our goal for creating affordable housing is to convene community residents, service providers, developers and funders to pursue research and advocacy to address policies and multiple needs that interfere with stable housing in order to reduce homelessness and achieve more stable residence for those North Minneapolis
residents living on under $20,000 per year.
What we do not invest in
As a community support organization, we must be effective in the use and allocation of investment resources within the community; maximizing our capacity and the capacity of community based non-profits. There are some types of activities and organizations in which we do not invest such as:
• Individual organizations
• General operations
• Capital campaigns
• Construction development and predevelopment
• Endowments
• Activities that have a specific religious purpose
• Direct lobbying activities
Eligibility and types of support available
To be eligible for partnership investment with NorthWay Community Trust, the lead organizations in the collaboration must be classified by the Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt, non-profit organization that are not private foundations.
Units of government may apply for partnership investment for special projects/initiatives that partner with community-based non-profits.
How to apply for Partnership Investment
Our website, www.northwaycom.org contains the most detailed and up-to-date information on all five long-term partnership investment strategy areas.
Letter of Intent
Start by submitting a 2-3 page letter of intent that describes which request for proposal you are responding to, the partners involved, the lead organization, the proposed collaborative partnership/initiatives, intended use of the investment and the amount of the request for partnership investment. Your letter will help us determine whether to request a complete proposal from your collaborative. You are also welcome to call NorthWay to learn more about the long-term investment strategies and strategic direction.
Please note that NorthWay Community Trust ONLY invests in collaborations and initiatives that have an impact or focus on the North Minneapolis community comprised of the thirteen neighborhoods of:
Cleveland, Folwell, Harrison, Hawthorne, Jordan, Lind-Bohanon, McKinley, Near North, Shingle Creek, Sumner Glenwood, Webber-Camden, Willard-Hay and Victory.
Letters of Intent received by:
April 14, 2008 may be considered in October 2008
October 13, 2008 may be considered in April 2009
NorthWay Community Trust
c/o: Partnership Investment Committee
1501 West Broadway
Minneapolis, MN 55411
612-521-4500
www.northwaycom.org
NorthWay Community Trust was established as a community support organization (CSO) in 2000 by a collection of committed residents and community partners to act as a convener to focus community efforts on
reducing poverty and increasing prosperity for within the North Minneapolis region.
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