Successful Minneapolis CARES mentor recruitment kickoff

Pictured above: Darrell Thompson, Executive Director Bolder Options, Gloria Lewis, Executive Director Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Twin Cities and Dan Johnson, Executive Director Kinship of Greater Minneapolis

The kick off for Minneapolis CARES was held December 10th at the International Market Square. Kinship of Greater Minneapolis was pleased to partner with two other leading area mentoring programs, Bolder Options and Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Twin Cities to work on a shared recruitment campaign for African American mentors. Support for this campaign is also provided by the MADD Dads, Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota, General Mills, the United Way and the City of Minneapolis. This shared effort is coming under the local umbrella of Minneapolis CARES and the National CARES movement headed by Susan Taylor.

Ms. Taylor gave a moving keynote address, sharing of the importance of mentoring in the lives of youth. She strongly encouraged the African American community to become engaged in mentoring the next generation by joining one of the local mentoring programs featured at this event. Nancy Torrison, Kinship of Greater Minneapolis' Recruitment and Communications Director was a primary planner for this event and serves on the Minneapolis CARES steering committee.

Pictured at right: Dan and Susan Taylor

Minneapolis CARES mentor recruitment campaign

The kick off for Minneapolis CARES will be Thursday, December 10th from 5-8 pm at International Market Square (275 Market Street). This is a major collective mentor recruitment effort with Kinship of Greater Minneapolis, Bolder Options, Big Brothers and Sisters, MADD Dads and the City of Minneapolis. This event will include hors d'oevres, live jazz and a cash bar. Susan Taylor, founder of the National CARES Mentoring Movement and Essence magazine will help to launch this event along with special hostess Angela Davis from WCCO television. The primary goal the national CARES movement is to mobilize massive numbers of able African Americans to take the lead in fulfilling our society's spiritual and social responsibility to our children. This will be one by connecting caring adults to existing community-based organizations, where they can serve as role models, dedicated to helping vulnerable young people transform and secure their lives.

Like to know more about Minneapolis CARES please contact Nancy Torrison, NancyT@kinship.org.

Youth violence down in Minneapolis

Kinship of Greater Minneapolis has been an active participant with the city of Minneapolis to prevent youth crime through our work in mentoring. Following is a press release from the city indicating the success of this collaborative effort.

Oct. 14, 2009 (MINNEAPOLIS) The City of Minneapolis this week received national recognition for its “Blueprint for Action” plan that works to address the root causes of violence and significantly reduce youth violence in Minneapolis. In its report, The State of City Leadership, the National League of Cities applauded Minneapolis for its efforts and calls this program one of the nation’s three most innovative city models for preventing youth violence.

The report also states that “Minneapolis has successfully reframed youth violence as a public health issue through an extensive process of planning and community engagement which has united and galvanized community leaders and residents around a broader vision of youth violence prevention.”

“Reducing youth violence requires a strategic, holistic and multi-faceted response,” said Mayor R.T. Rybak. “This recognition is a testament to our efforts and the efforts of our partners in reducing youth violence in Minneapolis. But we can’t stop here. We need to keep working on finding new and creative ways to educate children and their families on the importance of violence prevention.”

“Government can’t eliminate violence from our community on its own,” said City Council Member Cam Gordon, Youth Violence Prevention Steering Committee member,. “We need the great work of so many people in the community who help us surround our youth and their families with support, opportunity and hope. Thanks to the leadership and cooperation of more than 80 stakeholders, we are headed in the right direction.”

In 2008, the Blueprint for Action was launched with the following goals: connect every youth with a trusted adult; intervene at the first sign that youth are at risk for violence; restore youth who have gone down the wrong path; and, unlearn the culture of violence in our community.

Since 2007, juvenile crime has declined by 29 percent throughout the City, and 37 percent since 2006, according to a “Blueprint for Action” report. What’s more, in four of the five target neighborhoods, youth violence was down by an average of 39 percent since 2007 and 43 percent since 2006.

In addition to “Blueprint for Action,” Mayor Rybak’s Minneapolis Promise college-preparation initiative , the City-County Commission to End Homelessness, and Minneapolis’ Bridge Center for homeless youth, were also highlighted in the State of City Leadership report. The report was released in Boston at the 2009 National Summit on Your City’s Families and is available at http://www.nlc.org/iyef/

Lone wolf in need of collaborative partners

On our summer vacation to Ontario, Canada, we spotted a lone Gray Wolf along the roadside. The wolf seemed gaunt and appeared to longingly look toward us in the car. I'm not sure if he was looking for a hand out, or perhaps a hand to snack on?

Our encounter with this lonely wolf reminded me of the challenges of going it alone. When wolves are in packs they're effective hunters. It is considerably more challenging for them to capture their prey when they don't have their pack members/collegues to help them reach their shared mission.

As our economic environment becomes increasingly challenging it appears that it will become even more necessary for us all to figure out how best to collaborate with other partners to achieve a common mission. Kinship is thankful for a wealth of partners in the corporate, foundation, nonprofit, school and faith communities that work with us in order to provide mentors for kids in need.