| Public Safety | No |
| Housing | No |
| Economic Development | No |
| Public Services | Yes |
| Environmental Justice | No |
| Built Environment & Transportation | No |
| Public Health | No |
| Arts & Culture | No |
| Workforce | No |
| Spending | No |
| Data | No |
| Community Engagement | Yes |
Minneapolis has a network of 70 nonprofit neighborhood organizations covering all neighborhoods of the city (except industrial areas). Neighborhood-level community organizing and the neighborhood organizations that support it play a critical role in keeping residents informed, connected to their community and empowered to guide and influence decisions that affect their lives. Providing funding to Community Based Organizations in partnership with neighborhoods compliment the historic funding of geographic based neighborhood organizations by supporting engagement efforts that are reaching those residents who are currently under engaged.
Population and demographics:
Minneapolis is home to a rich and diverse variety of communities. The estimated total population is 429,606 people. According to the 2020 American Community Survey (5-year estimates), the racial demographics of Minneapolis are as follows:
- White: 62.9%
- Black or African American: 18.9%
- American Indian and Alaskan Native: 1.4%
- Asian: 5.9%
- Two or more races: 6.0%
- Hispanic or Latino: 9.6%
Source: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/minneapoliscityminnesota
Neighborhood breakdown:
There are a variety or resources to learn about the diverse makeup of Minneapolis neighborhoods, including:
- City of Minneapolis neighborhood organization profiles, NRP and CPP reports, activities and bylaws on NCR’s website: http://www2.minneapolismn.gov/ncr/links/index.htm.
- Minnesota Compass, a project by Wilder Research, that measures progress in our state and its communities using social indicators. Minnesota Compass provides nonpartisan, credible information and tracks trends in areas like education, the economy, the workforce, health, housing and more. Minnesota Compass uses comprehensive data from the census, the American Community Survey, Minnesota Demographic Center and others to create neighborhood profiles. Minnesota Compass website: http://www.mncompass.org/profiles/neighborhoods/minneapolis-saint-paul.
The Partnership Engagement Fund is intended to address the disparity in representation and engagement practices. This fund brings together recognized neighborhood organizations with community-based organizations in a cooperative effort to amplify all residents’ voices.
Over the past 30 years, neighborhood organizations have been the primary means by which the City provided direct funding to community and through which it listened to community voices. The Neighborhood Revitalization Program focused significantly on housing.? A literature review by Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) noted that “Analysis of NRP housing loan and grant programs from 1993-2000: 88% of all recipients were white.” Starting in 2011, the Community Participation Program shifted a focus from housing to building more inclusive community engagement and participation. Despite this focus, board diversity surveys conduct in 2014, 2016, and 2018, showed a vast under-representation of People of Color and tenants on neighborhood organization boards across the city. New immigrant communities and non-English speaking residents are rarely represented on neighborhood organization boards even when they make up a sizeable portion of neighborhood residents.
https://www2.minneapolismn.gov/government/departments/ncr/neighborhood-programs/neighborhood-board-diversity-surveys/
The goal of the Partnership Engagement Fund is to support groups and organizations who are actively engaging historically under-represented residents that are not currently being reached. The Partnership Engagement Fund’s intent is to encourage partnerships, working relationships and potentially increase diversity within the neighborhood system.??
Additionally, the fund also prioritizes partnerships with the existing neighborhood organization structure in order for neighborhood organizations to further their relationships in meaningful ways with other community-based organizations and residents that are not currently engaged with their organizations.
At this time, though 2020 census data is now available, it has not been aggregated at the neighborhood level, but it will be used in future formulas. In addition, it should be noted that disaggregated demographic information about race and ethnicity at a local level is not readily available. In addition, Neighborhood and Community Relations does not feel it has reliable data for variables including undocumented and documented immigration status, languages spoken, transgender, queer and gender non-conforming identities or housing stability.
Due to Covid-19 there was not a board diversity survey conducted with neighborhood organizations in 2020 or 2021. Continuing to track these data sets will help monitor the impact of the Neighborhoods 2020 funding, including the Partnership Engagement Fund.
Neighborhood organizations, through the Equitable Engagement Fund, have identified historically un/under-represented communities in their neighborhoods. This fund utilizes cross-sectional data to incorporate city, county, state, federal and neighborhood data.
| Inform | Yes |
| Consult | Yes |
| Involve | Yes |
| Collaborate | Yes |
| Empower | No |
NCR has been planning for the reset of neighborhood programming, funding and governance for nearly five years. From 2017 to 2020 NCR Staff worked with community and partner organizations, holding many workshops and input opportunities with hundreds of people, and from this engagement the need for a program such as the Partnership Engagement Fund resulted. This next iteration of programmatic goals, community engagement and funding guidelines reaches into the core of neighborhood organizations' work and their relationship with the City and expands funding to deepen relationships with Community Based Organizations.
After City Council approval in December 2020, NCR staff began development of the Partnership Engagement Fund for launch in spring of 2021. NCR staff included neighborhood and community specialists who worked together and gathered input from their respective community partners to develop the application, grant process and timeline for the Fund.
Adjustments made based on lessons from the pilot year:
· The application was simplified to be clearer in multiple languages and to get distinct answers on the project scope.
· The pre-application interest form become a required step to ensure technical assistance to establish partnerships ahead of the final application deadline.
· The video interview format was adjusted and aligned more toward the application deadline so it more closely aligned with the final application.
· Language specific community review committees were established for the Hmong and Somali community in addition to the Spanish community for 2022.
· Materials and Interest Forms were made available from the first day in multiple languages with direct access.
· The timeline was lengthened to give more time for partnerships to be established and applications to be developed.
The Partnership Engagement Fund opened for applications this year on February 25, 2022. During the application period NCR held several engagement opportunities:
• Multiple information sessions about the fund for neighborhoods and community organizations.
• One on one conversations for interested applicants to learn more.
• 19 site visit video interviews with potential applicants
• 110 organizations completed the initial interest form
• 48 community organizations and neighborhood organizations participated in a Partnership Connection event to introduce community-based organizations and neighborhood organizations who were unaware of each other’s activities.
• Cultural community convenings for Spanish, Hmong, and Somali speaking residents had the opportunity to provide a community review of applications that were submitted with a primary focus on their specific cultural community.
• 19 community members and 5 city staff were involved in the final review.
Lessons learned throughout the engagement process:
Intentionally creating avenues for historically underrepresented voices to feel comfortable and heard is important and valued by the community. Utilizing specialized staff, like NCR’s Cultural Specialists, brought value and purpose to the intended audience.
During the application process NCR developed alternative methods for applicants. Meetings conducted through in person visits, virtual visits and submitted videos provided a means for applicants to showcase their work. These multiple approaches were met with significant appreciation in the first year, even while not significantly utilized. In our second year, NCR received even more requests for video interviews and hosted more community information sessions.
Cultivating Partnerships
A significant lesson from the first year of the program was that many of our interested community-based organizations did not have an existing relationship with a neighborhood organization. Of the 101 CBOs that completed our interest form, 75% did not have an existing partnership with a neighborhood organization.
Having recognized this gap in existing partnerships in 2021, there was more effort invested in cultivating relationships during the application process in 2022. This included ongoing and consistent engagement with neighborhood organizations during the Citywide Neighborhood Organization monthly meetings, hosted by NCR. During those meetings, organizations were informed of the Partnership Engagement Fund, examples of successful partnerships, and the logistical opportunities to identify partnerships. Similarly, NCR used the monthly Citywide Community Based Organization meetings to discuss the fund and the importance of establishing a strong neighborhood partnership.
As part of the application process in 2022, NCR required the completion of the Interest Form ahead of completing a full application. This allowed us to individually reach out to each potential applicant, inform and discuss the partnership requirement, and provide them with direction and opportunities for developing those partnerships. Our partnering events, that brought together Neighborhood and Community Based Organizations went from 9 groups attending in 2021 to 48 attending in 2022. These presentations were also recorded and made available to all 70 neighborhood organizations, along with project and partner request summaries for those organizations looking for a neighborhood partnership.
This additional engagement work resulted in several neighborhood organizations stepping up to serve as strong partners for multiple potential applicants. And only one application was rejected due to a lack of a required neighborhood partner.
Additional Partnerships
One of the valuable byproducts of our emphasis on partnership through the application process is the space and opportunity to develop additional partnerships beyond the official one with an existing neighborhood organization. Our partnering events saw CBOs spending lots of time networking with one another and discussing possible future collaborations. CBOs also took the opportunity of building their applications to include other community partners in their projects beyond the neighborhood organization.
Building a more accessible application process
City requirements are difficult to navigate for non-English speaking community members, thus the Partnership Engagement Fund application was developed to remove as many barriers as possible. This included providing materials in multiple languages and allowing groups to apply in their preferred language and via video or audio if the written application was inaccessible.
A recorded video interview was conducted to allow those who prefer an oral presentation to have that opportunity to compliment any written materials. This approach also allowed community members to participate in the review process who might otherwise be overwhelmed by long written applications.
While these approaches made the application process far more accessible, other aspects of navigating city requirements have proven challenging for applicants. More work was invested into explaining the contracting process. This was done by including more information in the program guidelines, the information sessions, and the application process.
Partnership Engagement Fund furthers the City’s goal of addressing racial equity by:
1. Providing funding to Community Based Organizations, with neighborhood partners, that are reaching historically under-represented community.
2. Creating an application and review process that ensures equitable access to funding opportunities for all communities within Minneapolis, including oral, immigrant and non-English speaking communities.
3. Prioritizes funding to organizations led by and impacting our historically under-represented communities to organize and improve their lives and neighborhoods.
Community based organizations and neighborhood organizations funded through the Partnership Engagement Fund will be required to submit reports and keep NCR staff updated on their work. Final reports will collect data about completed activities, as well as the impact of the funds.
Success indicators and benchmarks will be included in the reports and will be aligned with the SREAP and the 2040 Comprehensive Plan goals. NCR will identify success indicators and benchmarks based on the individual projects. Organizations will include updates on these indicators in their reports.
In 2024, NCR will use a third party to conduct another racial equity analysis to compare the effectiveness of historical engagement practices to those under the new program guidelines.
NCR has a robust engagement system which uses both structured and unstructured engagement practices to ensure stakeholders and impacted residents are informed. This engagement style allows the department to constantly receive feedback from the community on the success of this project.
The project partners will submit an annual/completion report which will be made available on the NCR website, neighborhood sponsors page and the NCR annual report. While 2021 was the pilot year of the fund, projects were not contracted until fall and many have primary engagement activities in the spring and summer. For that reason, reporting on 2021 projects won’t be available until late 2022.