
Sondra Samuels on NAZ progress and lasting change
âI feel called to partner with parents â not fix or change them,â said Sondra Samuels, co-founding president-CEO of the Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ). Samuels explained this and more as she updated the MSR on how NAZ is faring since its early origins back in 2003 as the Peace Foundation.
The organization is in place, she shared, to rectify disparity and end generational poverty for North Minneapolis low-income families as they steer their children on a path to higher education.
âItâs about a fundamental understanding of the potential of African American children and families.â
Samuels stated that where too many organizations offer a cosmetic bill of goods, NAZâs work is âleading a revolutionary culture shift in North Minneapolis focused on ending multigenerational poverty through education and family stabilityâŠâ
Interviewed in the NAZ conference room, she said, âWeâre not just focused on getting funding and helping some families and some kids and youâre done without having made lasting change. The revolutionary part is that is weâre turning the social sector modelon its head.â
Not the least of this ârevolutionâ is an approach designed to actually place serving clients as a priority. Rather than run pillar to post navigating a system that can eat up time and bus fare or gas, pile up a headache of paperwork from different organizations, and, in general, frustratingly fray the nerves, consider it one-stop shopping for social change in which one demonstrably can believe.
âThe current models for low-income is [counterproductive]. You need housing? Go over there. A job? Go another place. After school program? You canât go to work, because you have no place to put your child. Go to a center, maybe they have a spot open.
âFamilies [are] running all over the place. But, families donât come in pieces. We have created one system of support for the same families and the same children.â
Each household is assigned a team to provide hands-on help, including coaching in life skills, career guidance, and, if necessary, such basics as housing.
âI want to surround families with the support they need to stabilize their homes and prosper. So that kids arenât worried about âAm I going to eat? Am I couch-hopping tomorrow? Am I going to get shot? Does my mom have a job? Is my dad going to come around?â
âWe canât expect them to be worried about all that and still show up to school and reach their unlimited potential.â
Samuels added, âWeâre working with the schools and saying, âHow are you teaching our kids? How are you addressing racial trauma? Many times the teachers are all White on the North Side where the students are all Black and Brown.â
âRight now we have 1,000 families, which is what we hit annually. The endgame is life success.â
Nothing spells success like results. Accordingly, with education being a key component, last year, African American NAZ scholars outpaced other Northside students with more than double proficiency in math (26 percent and 12 percent) and 25 percent proficiency in reading versus 18 percent for other Northside students. Even within their own systems, scholars with additional layers of support are more than twice as likely to be proficient in both reading and math: growing from 13 percent to 29 percent in reading and from 19 percent to 30 in math.

She further underscored the importance of walking the walk, not just talking the talk, with what she calls basic collaboration. âIn the past you might say, âItâs a bunch of nonprofits collaborating,â which often turns into âconblaboration,ââ she said. âYou just have meetings and no action. You donât get anything done. I shouldnât be paid if the outcomes arenât changing.â
NAZ is currently working in a collaborative with over 40 partner nonprofits and schools. âYou canât do it alone,â Samuels said.
âA lot of leaders partner with [us] in this work. We share data across all the partnering organizations and schools. Weâre looking at data constantly on how are the kids and families doing, how many got housing, how many got career support.â
Samuels repeatedly emphasized a concentration on parents, the concept being to empower whole families. Parenting education is âa 12-week series. Learning about brain development, positive discipline, and how to have
child ready for kindergarten,â she said.
âWe strive to have college graduates and have a shared expectation with parents of what the children will become. We want to close the belief gap. One of the mothers said to me at a graduation ceremony, âIâm finally believing my child is worthy of college.ââ
Employment, of course, is a critical piece. âOne parent came to me and said, just last year, âThis is changing my life. I want my kids to have this training, too.â [Consequently] weâve started empowerment training for teenagers. Part of that is job training, so when they get a job they understand how to keep it.â
Good work habits, after all, can be a new concept to someone not used to punching the clock. Samuels said she is convinced thereâs nothing wrong with Black communities that strengthening families canât fix â including the problem of gangs.
âIf a youngster has a strong family, they wonât need to turn to a gang to be their family or protection [or] to make money so they can eat. They have hope and support. You take away the reason to join a gang, you change the outcome.â
Just as the destruction of families has held low-income Black communities back, Samuels pointed out, NAZ focuses on empowering families to move communities forward. âFamily and children are at the center of everything we do.â
Dwight Hobbes is a contributing writer at the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder. He can be reached at dhobbes@spokesman-recorder.com.