Housing, inclusion, ending mass incarceration also on his agenda Relocating from Milwaukee to Minneapolis was a move that At-Large Minneapolis Park Board Commissioner Londel French said saved his life. In Milwaukee, French grew up in the 53206 zip code, the one with the highest incarceration rate in the country. “A lot of my homies have felonies,” he said. By moving to … [Read more...]
Community Profiles:
A space for feature stories about community members and businesses/organizations in the Twin Cities and beyond.
Teacher of the Year finalist says, ‘The North Side made me’
As an adolescent, you often have dreams about how to plan your life for the best road to success. For many individuals from disenfranchised communities, the first and main goal is to simply “get out the hood.” One woman in particular, however, decided that it was not just good enough to graduate from North, attend the University of Minnesota and graduate. “I felt … [Read more...]
It’s put up or shut up time for Mpls progressive wave, says new parks commish
Every Saturday as Latrisha Vetaw was growing up, her mom would fill up a cooler with food and drinks that she got for hosting a Tupperware party and take Vetaw and her siblings to the park for the day. She did this not because she was passionate about parks, but because as a single mother the park served as a free activity to fill the day. “My mom didn’t even know that parks … [Read more...]
Cancer survivor draws from own experience to help others
When Alana Carrington lay on the floor in her house and told God she wanted a change, she was not expecting the response to come in the form of being diagnosed with cancer and later losing her job. Nevertheless, that is exactly what happened. In January of 2008, Carrington walked out of the hospital, threw her hands up in the air and started crying. She had just been … [Read more...]
Multi-state mentorship program asks students, ‘Why You?’
The only requirement to participate is to want help Several years ago, Dr. Renaldo Blocker was reflecting on the importance of mentors in his life. “We realized that we were fortunate to have a support system throughout our academic and professional career.” Blocker is a Mayo Clinic healthcare systems engineering assistant professor. “We were fortunate to have these … [Read more...]