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2023 Community Innovation Grant Awardees
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In 2023, the Community Innovation Grants for Racial and Health Equity invested $196,990 towards capacity building, planning or implementation for community-led organizations. This included organizations led by racially and ethnically diverse community partners who are working to address public health priorities in the following areas:
- Racial and health equity.
- Healthy eating, active living and tobacco-free living.
- Access to health care services.
- Mental health and well-being.
- Violence prevention.
- Climate change.
- Homelessness.
- Opioid crisis response.
Eleven organizations were awarded funding to support their vital and innovative work. Grant awardees include the following organizations:
Community Healing Services
Priority areas
- Racial and Health Equity.
- Healthy Eating, Active Living, and Tobacco-Free Living.
- Mental Health and Well-being.
- Climate Change.
- Homelessness.
Organization overview
The mission is to create communities of new, adequate, affordable, stable and environmentally sustainable homes for homeless African American and minority (BIPOC) individuals, couples and families. The aim is to create communities in which the residents have opportunities to come together to feel a sense of belonging and build connections. Each of the communities will have a central building for the organization’s offices, laundry facilities, and spaces to hold classes offered by our partnering organizations. One to three of the homes will house “Volunteer Residents” who have certifications in skills that help carry out the organization’s mission.
Community Innovation Grant funding
Funds will be used to cover start-up costs, resources and supplies, operation, program design, relationship strategies and short-term development.
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Dayton's Bluff Community Council
Priority area
- Healthy Eating, Active Living, and Tobacco-Free Living.
Organization overview
Dayton's Bluff Community Council conducts Neighborhood Conversations, hosting events to include conversations about neighborhood and justice issues and a variety of events designed to engage their diverse community.
Community Innovation Grant funds
Funds will be used to compliment engagement efforts in three programs: Eating, Moving, and Growing on the Bluff which will promote healthy eating, active and tobacco-free living while encouraging residents to connect with each other in the Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood.
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Elpis Enterprises
Priority area
- Mental Health and Well-being.
Organization overview
As an employment readiness and career pathway building program, Elpis sees how the emotional struggles of their trainee’s limit participants success in the program and in moving forward on their career paths. Elpis Enterprises works with young people between 16-23 years with unstable housing and lived experiences that often result from or lead to trauma. Feedback from trainees indicate their access to mental health services is limited.
Community Innovation Grant funds
Funds will be used to retain a licensed clinical social worker on a consultant basis to assist in designing and launching an in-house mental/emotional health & wellness component for trainees.
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Emma Norton Services
Priority area
- Homelessness.
Organization overview
The mission of Emma Norton Services (EN) is to provide transformational housing and growth for women and families on their journey of recovery. EN provides supportive housing in Ramsey County for low-income women who were formerly homeless and challenged by mental illness, substance use and/or disability. A new residence and organizational headquarters, called Restoring Waters, will soon open in the Highland Bridge area of St. Paul. The goal of Restoring Waters is to expand housing capacity for women who were formerly homeless and improve mental health services for the adult women being served. The new residence will house 60 women and small families in fully furnished apartments with 24/7 staff support. Restoring Waters will offer innovative, on-site, trauma-informed mental health drop-in services as Minnesota’s first Living Room model of behavioral health care. The Living Room model is a behavioral health innovation, where trauma-informed respite spaces serve as an alternative to emergency rooms for those with mental health concerns.
Community Innovation Grant funds
Funds will be used to refine the Living Room model through research, staff training, community outreach and other program refinements in advance of launching the service in 2024.
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Face to Face
Priority area
- Violence Prevention.
Organization overview
Face to Face operates SafeZone, a drop-in center for youth experiencing homelessness. The agency supports youth ages 11-24 through six core service areas: 1) medical clinic including health education, 2) mental health, 3) housing, 4) education and employment, 5) youth justice, and 6) community programs. All program areas include comprehensive wraparound services with a relational and principle-based approach. A recent partnership resulted in the founding of the youth justice program, known internally as Power in Peace (PIP). Rather than receiving a criminal record that negatively impacts their future prospects, justice-involved youth are supported through case management, restorative circles and restorative justice processes. This allows them to make appropriate reparations for their actions while all parties learn and heal through the process. It also allows PIP Case Managers to work with the youth and family to understand the underlying issues leading to the young person’s engagement with violence and the justice system. Funding for this program ended in 2023.
Community Innovation Grant funds
Funds will be used to implement and evaluate services. The goal is to continue implementation of the program, while also doing more intentional evaluation of the “whys” behind youth violence.
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Karen Organization of Minnesota
Priority area
- Opioid Crisis and Response.
Organization overview
Karen Organization of Minnesota (KOM) has a youth case management program to provide culturally responsive support for Karen youth with substance use disorders. Recently, opioid use has grown dramatically, now representing most cases. There are currently no Karen-speaking licensed chemical health providers in Minnesota, and existing treatment and court/probation systems are poorly equipped to support Karen youth. KOM believes that their youth case management program is vital to improve families’ access to treatment and support services.
Community Innovation Grant funds
Funds will be used to improve internal evaluation processes and conduct a program evaluation with participants. The resulting information will help to map the network of interventions available to youth with opioid misuse, assess factors that make interventions more or less effective with Karen youth, and obtain input from youth participants and their parents about the impact of case management on their recovery.
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Northeast Youth & Family Services
Priority area
- Racial and Health Equity.
- Mental Health and Well-being.
Organization overview
To better address the mental health needs of the community, Northeast Youth & Family Services (NYFS) will create and implement a paid mental health professional internship program, specifically for BIPOC students enrolled in a master’s degree program in a clinical mental health field. The program will create three 9-month, 20-hour per week internships with embedded supports. NYFS will provide a BIPOC mentor to provide clinical supervision, as well as specialized training in clinical modalities effective with BIPOC clients. In turn, the interns will help to meet the acute mental health needs more effectively in the community, especially among BIPOC individuals.
Community Innovation Grant funds
Funds will be used support the program and staffing costs.
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Rice Street Gardens
Priority area
- Healthy Eating.
Organization overview
Rice Street Gardens is a community garden used by neighborhood residents, the majority of whom are recent refugee immigrants. For many, the garden sustains emotional and physical health, cultural practices, as well as providing a source of food.
Community Innovation Grant funds
Funds will be used to enhance the physical environment, particularly a shelter for gardeners’ respite and gathering space for community and an outdoor sink as a space to wash produce before returning home.
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Somali Community Resettlement Services
Priority area
- Racial and Health Equity.
Organization overview
Somali Community Resettlement Services seeks to engage in a community assessment specifically focusing on Afghan refugees residing in Ramsey County to increase awareness of the barriers to accessing healthcare services and determine what health-related services and programs are needed to support their continued resettlement in Minnesota.
Community Innovation Grant funds
Funds will be used to host community engagement events.
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Steve Rummler HOPE Network
Priority area
- Opioid Crisis and Response.
Organization overview
Steve Rummler HOPE Network is a non-profit that has worked to combat the opioid crisis in MN for over a decade, advancing its mission through three primary programs: Overdose Prevention, Education and Policy Advocacy.
Community Innovation Grant funds
Funds will be used to support their Overdose Prevention (ODP) Program to expand awareness of the overdose reversal medication naloxone; provide a wider range of options for Ramsey County residents seeking free naloxone education; and make sure that harm reduction tools, like naloxone and fentanyl test strips, are accessible to Ramsey County residents as the risk of overdose continues to grow.
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Urban Roots
Priority areas
- Racial and Health Equity.
- Healthy Eating.
- Climate Change.
Organization overview
Urban Roots operates as a youth development program and one of the largest youth employers on the East Side of St. Paul. They create economic and educational opportunities for underserved, majority BIPOC youth while addressing immediate community needs around fresh food access, the environment and well-being. Their mission is to cultivate and empower youth through nature, healthy food and community. Their vision is a world where all communities have unlimited access to nature and healthy food.
Community Innovation Grant funds
Funds will be used to support projects across three tracks: Market Garden, Conservation and Cook Fresh. These youth-led projects and activities address immediate community needs correlated with the impacts of systemic racism, including nutritional security, fresh food access, creating paying jobs, green space access and urban agricultural education. Funding will support the East Side Urban Tree Canopy Project, mobile demonstration kitchen, community food distribution, community gardens and Mobile Market pop-ups.