BACKYARD INITIATIVE: A Cultural Wellness Center community engaged model for improving health of communities, cultures, and corporate partners

In 2008, residents of South Mpls, the CEO of Allina, and African American, Native American, and European American elders from Mpls. and St. Paul, approached the Cultural Wellness Center”'s (CWC) Executive Director/elder activist and requested that CWC design the model of engagement for what is now known as the Backyard Initiative (BYI). Eight years later, the BYI model is in place. Each component of the initiative mirrors the CWC engagement design. The patterns and practices of the BYI are grounded in cultural knowledge and ways of knowing. Time dimensions and community development by Ahmed Azzahir is the primary research from which the CWC draws its core knowledge. Faculty of the CWC articulate, research and disseminate culturally specific understandings; analyze problems and thought patterns; and draft action plans for the BYI. The elder faculty members are facilitators, organizers, conveners, and hostesses of learning circles. They are a new generation of scholars and culturally engaged leaders in which the CWC is a leader in developing. Today, after 20 years of working in the community, the CWC has on record given over 1000 people the renewed focus of living in harmony with community and culture.

by Atum Azzahir and Andre Graham

The Cultural Wellness Center (CWC) exists “to unleash the power of citizens to heal themselves and to build community.”… Read the rest “BACKYARD INITIATIVE: A Cultural Wellness Center community engaged model for improving health of communities, cultures, and corporate partners”