Update on the Backyard Initiative: BYI Citizen Health Action Teams Update
By Janice Barbee, Cultural Wellness Center
Every month at the Cultural Wellness Center, members from the Backyard Initiative Citizen Health Action Teams, or CHATs, come together to update each other on their activities and talk about common principles and problems in their community building work. Last month, on February 17, CHAT members discussed what it takes to work together and accomplish what they set out to do.
The Backyard Initiative was started two years ago as a community partnership between Allina Hospitals and Clinics and the residents of Phillips, Powderhorn Park, Central, and Corcoran with the goal of improving the health of the community. Most of the work of the Backyard Initiative is carried out within Citizen Health Action Teams, where community members on each team have developed a strategy for improving health and are now in the process of implementing that strategy.
CHAT Leadership in the Community
Elder Atum Azzahir from the Cultural Wellness Center, the facilitator of the meeting, explained to the CHAT members that the Commission on Health, a body of primarily community members from each CHAT, will be looking at the work of each CHAT this year in terms of how the work contributes to the health of the whole community and involves people from the community.… Read the rest “Update on the Backyard Initiative: BYI Citizen Health Action Teams Update”
Youth Gather and Grow Solutions in Phillips
By Ruby Levine
In July 2010, the unemployment rate for people ages 16-24 reached 19.1% nationally – it”'s worse in low-income and minority communities. In response, young people here in the Twin Cities are working with the broader community to create solutions.
The Summer of Solutions (SoS) is a two-month summer program building capacity for projects that address social and environmental injustice in Phillips and the Twin Cities as a whole. Last summer, 25 full- and part-time SoS participants gathered in Phillips to work on energy efficiency, bike access, green manufacturing, and urban farming. The initial influx of capacity provided by SoS has led to sustained work throughout the year in the Phillips community and all around the Twin Cities and the program is gearing up for another jolt of energy this summer.
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Public comments NEEDED on the Certificate of Need Xcel Energy Public Hearings Wed. March 16
Plaza Verde, 1516 E. Lake St., 3rd floor ballroom
Afternoon session 2 p.m. ”“ Evening session 6 p.m.
This is the time to bring up ideas on alternative energy sources
MN Office of Energy Security (OES) will conduct a public information meeting Wed., March 16, on the Certificate of Need application submitted by Northern States Power Company (Xcel Energy)… for the proposed 115kV high voltage transmission lines in the Midtown area of south Minneapolis.
The purpose of the meeting is to provide information to the public about the project and to identify issues and alternatives to study in an ER that will be prepared by OES Energy Facility Permitting (EEP) staff.
During the meetings, OES EEP staff will give a presentation about the state’s high voltage transmission line permitting process, certificate of need process, the proposed project, and how the public can participate. … Members of the public will have an opportunity to ask questions, present comments, and propose issues, impacts and alternatives to be studied in the ER.
Bring all your friends even if not everyone plans to speak. It is important that the room be packed with an overflow crowd. If you testify, introduce yourself, give a short one or two sentence testimony on how mitigation, conservation and.or… Read the rest “Public comments NEEDED on the Certificate of Need Xcel Energy Public Hearings Wed. March 16”
