News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Sunday January 11th 2026
Backyard Initiative Update
By Janice Barbee, Cultural Wellness Center
Citizen Health Action Teams
14 Citizen Health Action Teams (CHATs) have been working just a few months, some for a year, and some over a year. 140 BYI residents have participated in a CHAT.
The BY is one square mile area around the Midtown Exchange. Residents of those seven neighborhoods have been supported by the Cultural Wellness Center to develop and implement their ideas since December, 2008. Allina Health (recently changed from Allina Hospitals and Clinics) has contributed funds for these projects, with additional support from Twin Cities LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation).
CHAT projects demonstrate the creativity, resourcefulness, energy, and commitment of community residents. Here is a quick, alphabetical summary of the work of seven CHATs; 7 more next month.
1. Anchor Families CHAT:Â established two “Anchor Families,” one in Central Neighborhood and one in Powderhorn Park Neighborhood,
- who take responsibility for supporting and organizing people on their block.
- visited one-on-one with neighbors,
- organized children”'s activities,
- supported people who have experienced a major tragedy,
- referred people to community resources,
- created a fellowship program for the teens of CHAT members,
- and helped neighbors to get to know each other.
Related Images:
EDITOR”'S NOTE Regarding “SEARCHING” by Patrick Cabello Hansel
Patrick Cabello Hansel, is a Phillips Community resident, poet, pastor, and the author of the serial novel “Searching” that has appeared with a new chapter each month the last three years. What does Patrick have in common with Charles Dickens, Henry James, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Herman Melville, and Rudyard Kipling. Gustave Falubert, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Wilkie Collins, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Boleslaw Prus, Tom Wolfe, Michael Chabon, Stephen King, Michel Faber, Orson Scott Card, Laura Hickman, and Lawrence Watt-Evans? See more about serial stories below.
Alley Communications has been honored and pleased to have been able to publish this novel by Patrick Cabello Hansel in The Alley Newspaper, chapter by chapter, each month for nearly three years. It has been a first for The Alley and for any local community paper as far as we know.
We have been reminded by Jane Thomson, one of our most avid readers, writers, and active Alley Allies, that many noteworthy writers published novels in a serial format in newspapers or other periodicals. For example Jane points out that Charles Dickens published some of his works through serials in newspapers. He would publish chapters at regular intervals and if they were popular he would publish it as a book.… Read the rest “EDITOR”'S NOTE Regarding “SEARCHING” by Patrick Cabello Hansel”
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