Minnesota Community Foundation Awards 10 Vision Grants

Marking its second round of statewide grantmaking, Minnesota Community Foundation announced the 10 recipients of its 2005 Vision Grants. The grants of up to $10,000 each are designed to fund visionary ideas that address needs critical to Minnesotans: education, the environment, health and public safety.

This is the second year of a three-year grantmaking program, which will put $300,000 toward innovative projects across the state.

"The applications for our second round of Vision Grants showed that organizations around the state have a tremendous ability to address a broad spectrum of community needs with a relatively modest amount of funding," said Judith H. Dutcher, president of the foundation. "It is our hope that the availability of Vision Grants will produce a statewide network of innovative collaborations — an incubator for ideas that can grow and be replicated in other communities."

Educating Children and Youth 

• Communities Together for Kids/Freepops, Faribault, will engage professionals to teach at-risk students basic landscape design skills and create a new, safe play area for children

• District 518 Community Education — Comprehensive Latino Parent Involvement, Worthington, will create a program to help parents of immigrant students become more involved in their children's school success

• Ely Community Resource will expand its Empowerment and Leadership for Youth project to help teens resist alcohol and other drug use and the at-risk behaviors associated with chemical use

• Sabes Jewish Community Center, Minneapolis, will partner with Benilde St. Margaret to teach middle-school youth about tolerance and human rights through Holocaust and arts education and the production of Angel in the Night.

 
Improving Health and Well-Being and Increasing Public Safety 

• Minnesota Creative Arts and Aging Network will involve seniors in four Greater Minnesota communities in creating meaningful artwork and will build a Web site to foster additional opportunities for artistic engagement by older adults across the state

• Jacob Wetterling Foundation will develop a personal safety instruction curriculum appropriate for children in first through third grades, with a goal to shift abduction prevention education from fear-based methods to proactive dialogue between youth and adults

 
Protecting/Enhancing Natural Resources 

• Friends of the Mississippi River will work in Anoka County to develop a new model for volunteer streak monitoring that will provide reliable data to help influence public policy and keep rivers safe

• Leech Lake Area Watershed Foundation will work to preserve sensitive watershed areas by establishing lake associations for eight to 12 lakes and assist in the creation of Conservation/Preservation Committees in the tri-county area of the Leech Lake Watershed.

Strengthening Economic Status 

• Southwest Minnesota State University's Small Business Development Center will expand access to business development programs for Hmong individuals in the Walnut Grove/Tracy/Marshall area

• Western Community Action will launch its "Circles of Support" program in Windom. The program matches families living in poverty with community allies to create a support network and help them increase their incomes.

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