The Neighborhood Leadership and Organizing program wishes to congratulate recent graduates of our Spring 2021 Neighborhoods Now! cohort. Neighborhoods Now! is an innovative community educational series to strengthen the work of individuals and organizations working in neighborhoods so they can organize to win issues for people and places, build power to change systems for racial equity and economic justice, build organizations whose leadership is reflective of the community, and build diverse and effective cross…

The Hennepin-University Partnership's (HUP) project to connect the Hennepin County Elections Division with University of Minnesota student volunteers to process absentee ballots has been recognized with an Achievement Award from the National Association of Counties (NACo). The award honors innovative, effective county government programs that strengthen services for residents. 

For this partnership in the 2016 general and 2018 midterm elections, a total of 600 students provided 3,000 hours of volunteer effort. Mark Chapin, the Director over the Elections Division, praised the partnership. “Without the hundreds of student volunteers helping to process and count absentee ballots…

Announcement from CLA Commencement 2021 website. The virtual commencement is Sunday, May 16, 1 p.m. CDT.

Dr. Brittany Lewis is a well-respected community engaged qualitative scholar, thought leader, speaker, and author known for bringing those most often locked out of local decision-making processes to the action research table. Dr. Lewis is the Founder and CEO of Research in Action, an urban research, evaluation, community…

CURA is pleased to announce the recipients of this year′s Fesler-Lampert Chair in Urban and Regional Affairs and Faculty Interactive Research Program Award. 

Forrest Fleischman from the Department of Forest Resources is the 2021-2022 Fesler-Lampert Chair in Urban and Regional Affairs with this project, Urban Environmental Policy Advocacy: How Citizens Shape Cities’ Environmental Policy Agenda in the Twin Cities.

Additionally, three Faculty Interactive Research Program proposals were funded:

• Samuel S. David (Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of…

Researcher: Forrest Fleischman (Department of Forest Resources, College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resources Sciences)

In recent decades cities have emerged as a major locus of environmental policymaking. Policymaking is the result of people advocating for policy change, yet there are few studies examining what makes advocacy effective at changing policy. Ineffective advocacy strategies by individuals and groups such as businesses, community organizations, and nonprofits may waste community resources and lead to poor policy outcomes when important voices are left out of decision-making. The long history of environmental advocacy in the Twin Cities has…

Researcher: Soumya Sen (Information and Decision Sciences Department, Carlson School of Management)

Substance abuse and addiction to alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs have a significant and costly impact on the health and well being of residents of our state. In partnership with the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation of Center City, MN, we propose to take a data-driven approach – using machine learning and data analytics on electronic health records of patients suffering from substance use disorder – to help care providers improve their understanding of the patient population, predict risk of relapse, and design better treatment plans. Our research…

Researcher: Melissa A. Koenig (Institute of Child Development, College of Education and Human Development)

In our research, we investigate the nature of children’s trust in other people, and the role that trust plays in children’s learning and socio-emotional well-being. We study trust as an important mechanism of interpersonal connection and learning, one that varies from child to child, and from relationship to relationship. If successful, support from the Faculty Interactive Research Program would provide funding for the research support and the teacher, staff and parent compensation that is required to launch the project described in our letter. Ascension…

Researcher: Samuel S. David (Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education and Human Development)

Finding effective ways to teach reading comprehension to English learners (ELs) is a critical challenge for educational researchers nationally, and in Minnesota specifically. TRANSLATE is an instructional model designed for ELs performing below grade level, providing teachers with the means to access ELs’ myriad language resources. Qualitative analyses of the TRANSLATE approach have shown that students engaged in TRANSLATE lessons develop new comprehension strategies that capitalize on their home language resources, and an early mixed-methods pilot…

Rashad Williams, a CURA Research Assistant and Public Affairs PhD Candidate at the Humphrey School, was recently selected by the City of Burlington, VT to co-lead a study on the extensive history of anti-Black racism within the state of Vermont and to develop racial reparations proposals for Burlington. Rashad has previously written on what he has termed “reparative planning”–a normative planning theory that centers the demands of corrective (or reparative)…

Too many people in the Twin Cities region do not have access to safe, healthy, affordable, and reliable housing. In particular, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) communities, people with disabilities, and low-wealth communities face barriers to this critical resources. Market conditions have shown that the housing market does not work for most low-income people, so solutions may require questioning long held assumptions, creating innovative solutions, and attempting new ideas to address housing stability.

To address these challenges and identify solutions, the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) and the …

We are excited to announce Scott Vargo as the new Hennepin-University Partnership Director. Scott is taking over for the recently retired HUP Director Kathie Doty, HUP’s founding director who led the partnership for over 15 years and grew it into a nationally recognized model for cross-sector collaboration. With new leadership HUP will continue to coordinate partnerships that reinforce the mission and goals of both the University of Minnesota and Hennepin County. 

Scott most recently worked at Hennepin County’s Center of Innovation and Excellence. He is committed to supporting…

Program Time Frame: January 2021 - January 2022

Desired Start Date: Late December 2020 to early January 2021

Compensation: Negotiable

Proposal due date: December 18, 2020 on or before 10:00 a.m. Closing date for all questions: December 04, 2020 before 10:00 a.m.

Pre-proposal conference: if Applicable

For more information, questions, or concerns, please contact Laurel Lilligren (llilligren@peopleservingpeople.org; 612-252-4027).

RFP Background

People Serving People,…

The Hennepin-University Partnership, a strategic alignment between Hennepin County and the University of Minnesota, has coordinated several recent projects and events bringing these two institutions together around pressing contemporary issues:

• Between May and September, the HUP hosted 8 webinars in our Summer Webinar Series featuring 15 presenters from the University (faculty, staff researchers, and graduate students) reaching more than 325 Hennepin County staff. Attendees shared positive feedback about the range of timely topics including a presentation from CURA Director Ed Goetz and PhD student Rashad Williams…

The Neighborhood Leadership and Organizing program wishes to congratulate recent graduates of our Fall 2020 Neighborhoods Now! cohort. Neighborhoods Now! is an innovative community educational series to strengthen the work of individuals and organizations working in neighborhoods so they can organize to win issues for people and places, build power to change systems for racial equity and economic justice, build organizations whose leadership is reflective of the community, and build…