LISC’s AmeriCorps program seeks to attract talented individuals to serve for one year to help build organizational capacity. LISC is seeking an AmeriCorps member to work with the Aurora St. Anthony Neighborhood Development Corporation. ASANDC, established in 1980, aims to address neighborhood quality of life issues, advocacy, organizing and community economic and housing development in St. Paul’s Ward One neighborhoods of Aurora St. Anthony, Summit-University and Frogtown.
The AmeriCorps member working with the Aurora St. Anthony Neighborhood Development Corporation (ASANDC) will serve as a Program Assistant and will work on a variety of initiatives and projects, including:
Developing resident leaders through ASANDC’s Power of One Plus One Program (PO1+1), a program that aims to increase the level of engagement of community residents. The program provides training to residents and helps them develop the necessary skills, knowledge, ability and power to decide the direction of their neighborhood.
Assisting with the project management of the Frogtown Rondo Action Network, a collaborative of 10 non-profit organizations working to ensure that community residents in the Old Rondo and Frogtown neighborhoods achieve long-term stability and well-being. In this role, the AmeriCorps member will support the development and implementation of specific strategies identified by FRAN; participate in community meetings, events and other public forums; and maintain cooperation and participation with collaborating groups.
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
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
Surrounded by a panorama of black and white photographs in his Franklin Avenue studio, Wing Young Huie is the portrait of a photographer. Cameras and lenses cover his desk, a large wooden work table has countless pictures, open photography books and quotes written on small pieces of paper arranged in a kind of ordered chaos that is the early soup of Huie’s University Avenue Project.
The internationally renowned photographer is scheduled to debut his work in May of 2010, along the Central Corridor. Huie is working in collaboration with Public Art Saint Paul to create a 6-mile public art gallery along University Avenue. Photographs will be displayed in shop windows, on the sides of buildings and projected on an outdoor screen. More than 500 photographs will be on display, transforming the Central Corridor into an exploratory visual experience that plumbs the depths of University Avenue’s complex cultural and socioeconomic diversity.
Among the community organizations that support this project are University United and the University Avenue Business Association. The exhibit will run for six months, from May through October of this year.
To read more about Wing Young Huie and the University Avenue Project, pick up the spring edition of the Aurora/St. Anthony newsletter.
Vic Rosenthal, Executive Director of Jewish Community Action, knows how beneficial it is to partner with other organizations to meet a common goal. That is why he and other dedicated, passionate people at JCA are collaborating with Frogtown Rondo Action Network, not only during the upcoming construction on the Central Corridor Light Rail project, but also well beyond that for the health of a multicultural community a long way down the road.
Vic Rosenthal of JCA
JCA is one of 10 community-based organizations working together as FRAN. With a heart and passion all their own, JCA makes up a key element to this group. JCA’s members have strategically placed themselves inside and outside of synagogues for all Jews who are interested in social justice, no matter where they are. The door is open to everyone, Rosenthal said. The hope was, when they started 14 years ago to be a “Jewish voice for social and economic justice in the community … to be able to put their values and religion into action,” said Rosenthal. “There were a lot of other religious voices in the community and this seemed to be missing.”
JCA’s very mission plays perfectly into what they have begun doing with FRAN, building power within Frogtown and Rondo by forming alliances or collaborations with other organizations and government. By creating and being a part of these alliances, “people who think alike and care about the same issues, are able to work together to advance a common agenda,” Rosenthal said.
To read more about Rosenthal and the JCA, pick up the Aurora/St. Anthony spring newsletter, which should hit the streets in about a week.
The conference will feature a keynote address by author and Wayne State University Law School Dean Dr. Frank Wu. Wu is the author of Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White, and co-author of Race, Rights and Reparation: Law and The Japanese American Internment.
The conference theme, “Where Do We Go From Here?” is inspired from Dr. Martin Luther King’s final book written in 1967, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? The Minnesota Department of Human Rights 26th annual Human Rights Day Conference will feature more than 20 workshops on some of today’s most important human rights issues.
Hiawatha LRT construction photo courtesy of Met Council
The University Avenue Business Preparation Collaborative — known as U7 — is working to help existing and new businesses survive the Central Corridor Light Rail Transit construction phase and to improve their businesses after the construction is complete. We plan to offer technical assistance and business development planning in areas such as cash-flow management, advertising, customer retention and more. Plans also include new pools of funds for short-term lending and real-estate acquisition lending. The collaborative includes:
Rendering of Frogtown Square by Trossen Wright Plutowski Architects, PA
The Frogtown Square project, a planned mixed-use development on the northeast corner of Dale and University, is getting ready to go out to bid. The project, adjacent to the Rondo Community Outreach Library, will include commercial space and senior housing. Interested contractors should send a letter of interest and their qualifications to Becky Landon at Ponterre Group, LLC. Call her at (651) 647-3457 for more information. Women- and minority-owned businesses are encouraged to apply.
Scenes from the 2009 Selby Ave JazzFest, held Saturday, Sept. 12, at Selby and Milton in St. Paul. The eighth annual JazzFest featured the Sounds of Blackness and Grammy-winning saxophonist Kim Waters. Thousands of festival-goers browsed artwork and other wares in dozens of vendor booths and enjoyed food from around the world and around the Twin Cities. The event is sponsored by FRAN partner, the Selby Area CDC, and featured an information booth staffed by another FRAN partner, Aurora/St. Anthony NDC.
Nieeta Presley discusses fund-raising with Access Philanthropy consultants.
Steve Paprocki spoke clearly when he addressed the Frogtown-Rondo Action Network meeting on April 28. “The time is now for you to come together on a common work plan, work force and work vision to raise $8 million for this community.” A consultant from Access Philanthropy, Paprocki knows what he is talking about.Representatives of nearly a dozen FRAN organizations nodded their heads in agreement. $8 million dollars is the lucky number FRAN aims to raise over the next three years to support its rollout of 11 community-based initiatives to, in its words, “start the next great chapter in Frogtown-Rondo’s history.”
Nieeta Presley, executive director of the Aurora/St. Anthony Neighborhood Development Corporation led the formative meeting. “This is an opportunity for community organizations to interact with each other and create a streamlined plan for raising money and implementing programs,” Presley said.With a line-up of community-building orga- nizations at the plate, the multimillion-dollar goal seems feasible. The ASANDC, Community Stabilization Project, Greater Frogtown CDC, Camphor United Methodist Church, Concordia University, Hmong Business Association/Asian Economic Development Association, Jewish Community Action, Just Equity, Selby Area CDC, University United and the University Avenue Business Association are taking roles that range from educating community members and business owners about managing their finances to advocating for creation of green jobs and energy efficiency.
As the plan moves forward, FRAN will continue to strengthen its network of campaign supporters, community supporters and community capital.
To read more about the work of FRAN and its partner organizations, pick up a copy of the latest Aurora/St. Anthony NDC Newsletter.
The Met Council’s Joey Browner and Ax-Man owner Jim Segal discuss business issues along the Central Corridor.
Jim Segal knows how important University Avenue is. Owner and CEO of the Ax-Man surplus store, his livelihood comes from the avenue.
“I’d like to keep growing the business … and to make it as sustainable as possible,” Segal says.
Thousands of Twin Cities residents no doubt feel the same way. The Ax-Man has been in business for more than 40 years, offering quirky, rare and just plain weird surplus items to shoppers all over the state. The locally famous shop gives University Avenue much of its unique flavor.
But Segal and other University Avenue business owners are worried about challenges that the proposed Central Corridor Light Rail Transit project might pose to small businesses. A member of the University Avenue Business Association steering committee, Segal and others have been organizing to get their voices heard.
“With the bad economy on top of the fact that we have to deal with the construction, I just want to make [the construction period] the best bad situation possible,” Segal says. “Someone needs to start real solutions.” In an effort to do just that, UABA recently hired a consultant to conduct a peer city study of other rail projects around the nation. The study found alarming statistics about the effects of lengthy construction projects along business-heavy avenues.
UABA is seeking support through community channels, meetings with the Metropolitan Council and with local, regional and statewide elected officials.
“I think that the elected officials are really listening to us,” Segal says with optimism. “[UABA] creates a good forum where a group of people with the same relative interests can share ideas and voice their opinions in one place instead of the elected people dealing with 100 different people. We can amass the main issues of the group and put them forward, which gives credibility to the issues.”
One thing UABA isn’t doing is considering legal action.
“We don’t intend to put the financial resources into legal action — and let me be clear. We don’t intend to stop light rail,” said Segal. “We are concerned about the construction and development issues. We know our business is going to be severely impacted.”
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FRAN Development Partners
The Frogtown/Rondo Action Network, a community-driven and -managed collaborative effort, serves an area from Rice Street west to Lexington, and from Thomas south to St. Anthony in St. Paul, Minnesota.
FRAN, which shares a unified vision and common purpose, is made up of:
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