Nellie Stone Johnson/ Hennepin County Library Special Collections
By Lindsey Fenner
The Women’s Environmental Institute Is Offering Free Classes for Phillips Folks:
WEI offers a variety of courses and workshops on gardening, farming, herbalism, food preservation and more. People who work, live, play or pray in Phillips can take these events for free. Most classes are at the Amador Hill Farm Campus in North Branch. Check out the class schedule and learn more about the Women’s Environmental Institute: w-e-i.org. Contact Jerry at jerry@w-e-i.org for more information on how to get free registration.
Urban Farm Veto Upheld by City Council: On March 24, the Minneapolis City Council upheld Mayor Frey’s veto of CM Chavez’ motion supporting the East Phillips Urban Farm by a vote of 7-6. Although CM Chavez said he hoped to bring a new motion forward at the next full council meeting on April 14, no motion was made. According to the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute, the community group organizing the Urban Farm, they are in negotiations with the City of Minneapolis with a meeting scheduled for April 26. So far EPNI has rejected various proposals from the City. One would require the organization to come up with $14 million by this summer to purchase the full site.… Read the rest “May Random alley News 22”
There’s no denying that our society today is highly polarized, but even during these grim times, you can find examples of cooperation, as groups pull together to serve and strengthen our community.
Case in point: the Urban Indigenous Legacy Initiative. We are a collective of 16 American Indian nonprofit organizations in the Twin Cities that have provided the community with powerful and effective support for more than four decades. Each year, our organizations – focused on issues ranging from healthcare to housing, workforce development to childcare – reach more than 10,000 of our neighbors with critical support.
But there’s a problem.
The COVID-19 pandemic and civil unrest of the past two years have made life even tougher for many. Indigenous people have the highest level of death per 100,000 residents than any other group in the state, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. And from an economic perspective, American Indian employment is down 13 percent from 2019 in Minnesota, with many hesitant to return to industries such as hospitality and foodservice that were hit hard during initial slowdowns.
These current challenges only exacerbate the generational disparities faced by our community, creating high levels of need. For years, as we correctly devoted our resources to serving clients directly, we have relied on band-aid repairs for our aging facilities and struggled to keep pace with technology in the modern world.… Read the rest “Historic Move for Tough Times”
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