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Meet a few of the INSPIRING nonprofit organizations that received grant funding in our latest grant round.

Casa de Esperanza

Casa de Esperanza is a culturally focused and community-driven organization dedicated to changing attitudes, behaviors and systems that lead to unhealthy and abusive relationships.

To address domestic violence in the Latin@ community, Casa offers a continuum of services. Each year, they work with approximately 370 Latin@s and their families through services like El Refugio emergency shelter, a 24-hour bilingual crisis line, transitional housing support and family advocates.

The organization is also home to the National Latin@ Network for Healthy Families and Communities. The Network provides training and technical assistance to organizations across the country, conducts academic and community-based participatory research and leads on public policy initiatives that impact Latin@ families.

To learn more about Casa de Esperanza and their work in the community, please visit Casa de Esperanza’s website.

(Note: Casa de Esperanza uses “@” in place of the masculine “o” when referring to people or things that are either gender neutral or both masculine and feminine in make-up.)

Casa de Esperanza Latino Family Fishing Day group

Grassroots Indigenous Multimedia

Grassroots Indigenous Multimedia is revitalizing indigenous languages by creating, producing and distributing high-quality indigenous language materials. Through innovative technology, Grassroots brings together language learners and language speakers.

Grassroots is currently developing the Ojibwe Media Player app in partnership with the Language Conservancy. The app will feature elder speakers reading six of the organization's children’s books. Voice recordings can be used as readings or individual vocabulary words paired with images. The Ojibwe Media Player app will be released April of 2020.

To learn more about Grassroots Indigenous Multimedia and their work in the community, please visit Grassroots Indigenous Multimedia’s website.

LeadMN

LeadMN is one of the oldest and largest dues-paying student associations and represents the 180,000 two-year college students attending Minnesota’s state colleges and universities.

LeadMN has a mission to empower two-year college students to become strong leaders, engaged community members and successful professionals. Currently, LeadMN is working on the Everyone Counts MN project - designed to increase awareness of and participation in the 2020 Census.

LeadMN will convene civic engagement committees at 10 colleges. The committees will be composed of students, facility and staff to ensure the effort reaches all parts of the campus community. The project will culminate with a Census summit featuring trainings from local and national Census experts on the best ways to develop and implement campus-based Census action plans specific to each college.

To learn more about LeadMN and their work in the community, please visit LeadMN’s website.

Sahan Journal

Sahan Journal is an independent, nonprofit, digital news organization. dedicated to providing fair, groundbreaking coverage on issues that affect Minnesota immigrants.Sahan Journal provides groundbreaking coverage that illuminates the issues affecting Minnesota immigrants, and chronicles how immigrant communities are changing and redefining what it means to be a Minnesotan.

Sahan is a startup newsroom in its earliest stages. To expand its reach, Sahan Journal partners with Minnesota Public Radio News (MPR) and with various ethnic news media outlets in Minnesota.

To learn more about Sahan Journal and their work in the community, please visit Sahan Journal’s website.

Second Harvest North Central Food Bank

Second Harvest North Central Food Bank serves communities in North Central Minnesota. Each year this nonprofit distributes more than four million pounds of food and grocery products to individuals and more than 100 relief agencies.

To help them better serve the community, Second Harvest North Central Food Bank will upgrade their transportation. The organization plans to purchase a 26-foot refrigerated truck to replace a smaller,16-foot truck, adding a second delivery vehicle to their fleet. Upgraded transportation will also allow for additional in-town deliveries, pick ups, mobile food drops and pop-up distribution sites.

To learn more about Second Harvest North Central Food Bank and their work in the community, please visit Second Harvest’s website.

Second Harvest North Central Foodbank pop-up

TaikoArts Midwest

TaikoArts Midwest uses the art of Taiko performance to promote artistic excellence and strengthen community in the Midwest. TaikoArts provides concerts, artist trainings, studio and master classes and school residencies.They host a variety of performances and workshops for public audiences.

One of their programs, HERbeat, promotes gender equity within art and the community. While the art of taiko drumming has traditionally been male-dominated, HERbeat makes space for female artists through artist residencies, concerts, a documentary film and an education engagement program. To learn more about TaikoArts Midwest and their work in the community, please visit TaikoArts’ website.