August 15th, 2010 by Nieeta

Saturday, August 21, 10 to 11 a.m.

University between Western and Marion!

Public Assembly at Western Park 11:15!

We want a better University Avenue! We want a more unified University Avenue! The light rail is coming and we want to celebrate our community, and show our pride! And we want you to celebrate with us!

We will be going from Jackson School, along Thomas to Virginia, along Virginia to University, along University to Galtier and along Galtier to the Western Sculpture Park and the Hmong Arts and Music Festival!

After the parade, we will have a Public Assembly on the main stage at the Music Festival. We will be speaking about what brought us out from 11:15- 11:45!

This parade has been organized by concerned citizens and community groups, including the Metropolitan Interfaith Coalition on Affordable Housing (MICAH), the Aurora-St. Anthony Neighborhood Development Corporation (ASANDC), the Center for Hmong Arts and Talent (CHAT), the District 7 Planning Council, the St. Paul Council of Churches, and more. We have been brought together by concerns over the light rail, and want to show our care, concern, and pride in the University Avenue communities.

We are still accepting registrations, if you wish to participate in the parade! (Contact Vaughn Larry at ASANDC at 651-222-0399 or by email. ) We would love to see you either in the crowd, in the parade, or at the Hmong Arts and Music Festival! For further information, contact John Slade at 651-491-2084 or by email.

July 25th, 2010 by Nieeta

Central Corridor light rail station rendering

Monday, July 26th
1:00-2:30pm
Central Corridor Resource Center
1080 University Avenue West (south side of University, just east of Lexington)

Come hear about preliminary Saint Paul staff recommendations and provide your ideas, comments and questions on zoning in the Central Corridor area and possible changes to Traditional Neighborhood zoning regulations that would apply citywide. We are engaging in an informal public discussion process to get community input prior to finalizing staff recommendations to the Planning Commission. This session is targeted to developers and other involved in the development process.

Buses #16 and 50 stop near the Central Corridor Resource Center.

If you have any questions, please visit the city web site and click on ‘Central Corridor Zoning Study’ or send an email.

May 23rd, 2010 by Nieeta

Gordon Parks. Courtesy Los Angeles Times photographic archive, UCLA Library

You’re invited to the first annual Media Arts Premier for the “Transitions: University Avenue” project.  Meet the students, interview subjects, community members and teachers who are making this project possible. The event will begin at noon May 26 at Gordon Parks High School, 1212 University Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55102. Driving Directions

The “Transitions” project combines audio interviews and photography to document the before, during and after of Central Corridor Light Rail Transit development on University Avenue. The project has  interviewed more than 10 community elders.  The project’s “soundslides” will be featured on a website created by the Minnesota Historical Society.

Community listening/brainstorming sessions last winter sparked numerous ideas about how best to serve the needs of students and community through this project. At this premier students will show off a portion of their completed soundslides; the production crew (made up of students, teachers, community members) will describe the production process they’ve used for the project; and we’ll share lunch together, catered by Arnellia’s and Golden Thyme.

May 23rd, 2010 by Nieeta

The Community Justice Project, along with the Aurora/St. Anthony Neighborhood Development Corporation, will be holding a community gathering for Brotherhood, Inc. on the afternoon of Friday, June 4, at ASANDC’s patio, 774 University Ave. The event starts at 2 pm with a short program at 4 pm. Please, come meet us on the patio to learn more about Brotherhood, Inc. and all of its exciting plans!

Brotherhood, Inc.’s mission is to empower African American youth and young adults to envision and achieve successful futures. We seek to break the debilitating cycle of crime and poverty ensnaring African American youth and young adults in the Twin Cities by providing services and support to facilitate permanent lifestyle change. Our goal is to take a holistic approach to community-building through comprehensive, culturally-sensitive social services, educational opportunities and on-site employment.

RSVP by calling ASANDC at 651-222-0399 ext. 100.

April 28th, 2010 by Nieeta

Nieeta Presley of ASANDC and Joan Vanhala of Alliance for Metropolitan Stability

Please join us for the 2010 Allies for Justice Awards Dinner and Celebration on Wednesday, May 19, from 5:30 – 8:30 p.m. at Nicollet Island Pavilion (40 Power Street, Minneapolis).

Join us to honor this year’s Allies for Justice Award recipients, chosen because they embody Headwaters Foundation’s conviction that, together, we can create social and political conditions that guarantee justice for all.

GRANTEES: MOVING JUSTICE FORWARD ON TRANSIT EQUITY
For the first time, the Allies for Justice Awards will honor a group of organizations for their collective impact in the local community. Through their collaboration with each other and numerous other community organizations on Central Corridor Light Rail Transit development in St. Paul, these Headwaters grantees have brought attention to the issues of affordable housing, maintaining bus service in this transit-dependent community and, in a recent victory, the need to add stops in three high-density neighborhoods. The 10 organizations being recognized for moving forward on transit equity are:

• Alliance for Metropolitan Stability
• Community Stabilization Project
• District 7 Planning Council
• Got Voice? Got Power! / Aurora St. Anthony NDC
• ISAIAH
• Jewish Community Action
• JUST Equity
• Metropolitan Interfaith Council on Affordable Housing
• Somali Action Alliance
• TakeAction Minnesota

April 15th, 2010 by Nieeta

Building Connections to Community Program: A Three Session Leadership Training Program

• The Building Connections to Community program is designed to introduce people to community work and focuses on helping participants develop a greater awareness of themselves, make connections with others in the community, and build skills to more actively engage in the community.
• 3 sessions
• Program is FREE for participants

Click here for an informational flyer and application.

(If you apply, you’re committing to attend all 3 sessions)

1. Saturday, May 8 – 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
2. Saturday, May 15 – 9:00 – 3:00 pm
3. Saturday, May 22 – 9:00 – 12:30 pm

o   Child care is available.
o   Learning occurs through engagement in group activities, small group discussions, personal and shared reflection, and exchange of personal experiences.
o   Fill out your application and send it to PattiJo Verdeja at Wilder NLP@wilder.org or by phone at 651-280-2457
o   It’s a great leadership development opportunity at no cost to the participant.

April 11th, 2010 by Nieeta

Watch the video above to learn more about the Fiscally Fit program, sponsored by Aurora/St. Anthony Neighborhood Development Corporation and Camphor United Methodist Church. Fiscally Fit is a two-year finanical empowerment and homebuyer training program.

March 16th, 2010 by Nieeta

University Avenue

Small businesses that can change and adapt to the challenges and opportunities of light rail transit will be more successful than those that can’t. They will survive light rail construction and make more money if they know how to prepare. How do small businesses and entrepreneurs adapt? What are the challenges? How do you prepare and increase your revenue?

Workshops to be held this week will teach small businesses and entrepreneurs how they may benefit from light rail transit. You will learn:

• What you can do to prepare for LRT construction
• What you can do to keep revenues up during construction
• What you can do to bring in new customers when the light rail is running

When: Thursday, March 18, 2010
2:30- 4:30 PM (Vietnamese interpretation available)
6:00-8:00 PM (Hmong interpretation available)

Where: Lao Family Community, 320 University Ave W, St. Paul, MN

Lunch and dinner will be provided. Free and open to the public. For more information call 651-222-7798 or email

The “Creating Successful Businesses with LRT” workshops are led by Mr. Tran T. Nhon, MBA. Mr. Tran is a nationally noted expert on supplier diversity and an advocate for minority owned businesses.  He is chair of the Ramsey County Small Business Enterprises Advisory Board and a board member of the State Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans.

These workshops are supported by a grant from National CAPACD. AEDA is supported by the B.C. Gamble and P.W. Skogmo Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation, Twin Cities LISC FRAN Project, and The Saint Paul Foundation.

More information:

Asian Economic Development Association
712 University Ave W Suite 105
Saint Paul, MN 55104
651-222-7798 | www.aeda-mn.org

March 3rd, 2010 by JenHosterman

About 100 people showed up for the Frogtown Square meet and greet

Frogtown Square meet and greet

On the corner of University Avenue and Dale Avenue is an empty lot where the old Saint Paul Police Western District Office used to stand. However, it will not be empty for much longer: A new mixed-use development, known as Frogtown Square, will be built there.

There was a ground breaking for the four-story project on November 23, 2009, at which Mayor Chris Coleman, City Councilman Melvin Carter and others spoke enthusiastically about the project. Greater Frogtown CDC, Model Cities, Neighborhood Development Center, and Aurora/Saint Anthony Neighborhood Development Corporation have collaborated to see this mixed-use building come full circle. The ground floor of Frogtown Square will be for commercial use, approximately 10,000 square feet for shops and offices, all of which have been rented by small, minority-owned businesses in the area. The upper three floors will be affordable apartments for independent seniors.

On Feb. 22, developers held a meet-and-greet at the Central Corridor Resource Center to connect general contractors, Benson and Orth Associates/Meyer Contracting JV, with local subcontractors and residents from the neighborhood looking for construction jobs.

Nieeta Presley of ASANDC shared the hope behind the meet-and-greet between the general contractors and the subcontractors. “The development is designed to help the community grow through people working together to make things happen in their own neighborhood,” she said. “Plus, it gives an opportunity to low-income people, minorities, and women. It helps the area to become a better community by letting folks get to know each other and make a difference in their neighborhood.”

Because the project has received Section 3 funding from HUD, it is required, to the greatest extent possible, provide job training, employment and contract opportunities for low- or very-low income residents in connection with projects and activities in their neighborhoods, according to HUD.

Close to a hundred people showed up to the event and were able to meet the general contractors and get connected with those they have already subcontracted with.

Construction is set to begin in earnest later this month.

March 3rd, 2010 by Nieeta

About 30 people attended the Organizer Roundtable on the Building Sustainable Communities project.

More than 30 attendees from 22 organizations gathered at the Model Cities Communities Room on University Avenue on February 24, 2010, to hear impassioned community leaders share their raw experiences — the triumphs and the difficulties — in realizing the true meaning of collaboration.

Collaboration, in this case, meant creating neighborhood-centric, multi-partner coalitions aligned with the Building Sustainable Communities initiative supported by Twin Cities LISC.

As part of a monthly roundtable series organized by the Alliance for Metropolitan Stability, the event, titled “Community Partnerships for Success,” drew excellent attendance according to Joan Vanhala, coalition organizer with AMS.

“I appreciated the different leaders who talked honestly about their challenges in working with coalitions towards one common goal,” said Vanhala.

Those leaders included Mari Bongiovanni, executive director, East Side Neighborhood Development Company; Staci Horwitz, program director, City of Lakes Community Land Trust; Cathy Maes, executive director, ICA Food Shelf; Judy Elling, executive director of ResourceWest in Hopkins; and Nieeta Presley, executive director, Aurora/St. Anthony Community Development Corporation.

During the two-hour session, leaders outlined the formulation of their collaborative, conveying both excitement and frustration in the challenges and rewards of developing cross-sector partnerships.

“I can see that in the different presentations, we’re at different levels of maturity, and we all came out in completely different ways,” said Bongiovanni. “We [St Paul’s East Side] needed to sit at the table for quite a while.”

After four years, Bongiovanni admitted her collaborative is still working on finding a comprehensive voice, which has slightly fragmented recently due to resident churn in a tough economy. That said, she noted the effort put forth in a multi-year process that started with informational meetings and evolved into 64 organizations sitting at a table calling each other to ask for advice and referrals.

“That was a big step,” she said. “Before we were all in our little silos and hoping that we would get funded and others wouldn’t because that would be more money for us.”

The next Organizer Roundtable will be “Race, Power and Organizing,” which will address the dynamics of race in day-to-day life, and how to integrate racial equity in campaign focus.

Race, Power and Organizing

Noon – 1:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 31
Rondo Community Library
461 N. Dale St.
St. Paul, MN 55103