The Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) is thrilled to announce that its Neighborhood Leadership and Organizing program and Neighborhoods Now! training have received the Unsung Hero Award from the National Community-Based Organization Network (NCBON).
The Unsung Hero Award serves to highlight the often unheralded accomplishments of community leaders who work tirelessly toward improving public health and equity at the local level. Neighborhood Leadership and Organizing program offers training and organizing assistance to support community leaders in identifying and tackling local issues, and in building vital communities that value full participation and embody racial equity and economic justice.
The Neighborhood Leadership and Organizing program was nominated for this award by Fall 2022 Neighborhoods Now! alum Cirien Saadeh. “Neighborhood Leadership and Organizing is a network weaver and many community organizations rely on them to connect them with other organizations and resources that support their efforts,” said Saadeh. “This small group of individuals within the massive University are often unseen and unrecognized for their tireless efforts, but their impact is massive.”
“It means so much to have Cirien nominate us for this award,” said Ned Wik Moore, Program Director. “We are so thankful to our alumni and community partners who affirm and lift us up in this work. The success of our program would not be possible without them.”
Neighborhood Leadership and Organizing program staff received word of the award shortly before meeting with Neighborhoods Now! Alumni and Hamline Midway Coalition staff Jenne Nelson (Spring 2021) and Justin Lewandowski (Spring 2022), happily sharing the news. “This is so awesome!” said Lewandowski, “It is great to know that I’m an alum of a nationally recognized-training program.” Nelson added, “I’m updating my LinkedIn!”
“The greatness of our program is the day-to-day and year-to-year resilience, love, and innovation of communities fighting for justice for generational change. We will appreciate this award as a monumental time for celebration, plus accountability to sustain this work for years to come,” said Ish Malik Holt Shabazz, Program Director.
It is gratifying to receive the award alongside so many other respected community based organizations, such as Brass Solidarity, Cultural Wellness Center, East Phillips Neighborhood Institute-EPNI and the East Phillips Health Team, the Harm Reduction + Street Outreach Team (Native American Community Clinic), and the Black Storytellers Alliance.
CURA is proud to be a part of NCBON’s legacy of honoring leaders making meaningful change in communities everywhere. Make sure you are on the Neighborhoods Now! email list to hear about the 2025 session.
Ned Wik Moore
Ned Wik Moore has over 20 years of leadership and organizing experience for racial, social, and economic justice. He graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2002 with a bachelor's degree in Political Science and Global Studies. In college, he studied liberation theology, social movements, and sustainable development in Cuba, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragaua. During and after college, he also participated in numerous human rights and international solidarity initiatives including serving as a student delegate, human rights and elections observer in Cuba, El Salvador and Colombia.
Ned worked for 7 years to build power in manufactured home neighborhoods in the Twin Cities suburbs and in Greater Minnesota, as a Community Organizer and Organizing Director at All Parks Alliance for Change (APAC). During that time he organized two dozen resident associations across the state to fight against displacement and parklord abuse which led to dozens local ordinances, successful lawsuits to expand and protect residents rights, improved living conditions, affordable housing preservation and cooperative ownership.
From 2009-2011 he was the Campus Minister for Social Justice at St. Catherine University where he led Justice Immersion Trips with students to El Paso and Denver exploring issues of immigration and homelessnes while exploring the connections between faith, social justice and leadership. He also supported and mentored students organizing in response to US militarism and human rights abuses in Latin America, food justice, 2010 Census, racial justice concerns on campus, and connections to critical community-led initiatives off campus.
For over a decade, Ned assumed various leadership roles in faith-based organizing to advance a relentless struggle demanding a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, training hundreds of community leaders, registering Latinx voters, and organizing countless direct actions in Congressional offices in Minnesota, Washington, D.C. and across the country, also conducting raid response and know your rights trainings, and offering direct support to families at risk of deportation.
Ned’s CURA involvement began in 2004 when he graduated from the Twin Cities Training Program for Neighborhood Organizers, later serving as an Advisory Committee member for CURA’s Minnesota Center for Neighborhood Organizing in 2007. He joined CURA staff in 2011, leading initiatives promoting racial equity and community organizing in response to the proposed build out of the regional light rail transit system in partnership with The Alliance and Nexus Community Partners. In partnership with The Alliance, CURA also supported the founding of Equity in Place, a regional wide coalition and diverse group of strategic partners from organizations led by people of color and housing advocacy organizations.
In 2015, Ned and colleague Malik Holt-Shabazz launched Neighborhoods Now! to support and develop neighborhood organizers and leaders in place-based organizing through a racial equity lens. To date, the program has seen nearly 300 graduates, and Ned has continued to coach, support and mentor dozens of program alumni.
Ned lives in Minneapolis, is a parent and spouse, and writes music.
Related programs
Ishmail Malik Holt-Shabazz
Prior to joining the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities’ Center for Urban and Regional Affairs and its Neighborhood Leadership and Organizing Program as its now Co-Director, Ishmail Malik started as a Union Organizer for the AFL-CIO Wisconsin Statewide and with Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition to promote access, equity, and community benefits of bicycle infrastructure, policy, and engagement.
He also served as the Executive Director and Economic Development Organizer of North Minneapolis’s Harrison Neighborhood Association for 11 years and three years as the City of Saint Paul’s Director of District 6 Planning Council leading in both organizations community engagement projects, racial equitable development initiatives, business development, community benefits agreements, equitable development scorecard strategies, and land use planning. He also served as statewide supervisor for AmeriCorps in the early 2000s.
Also, as of June 10th, 2022, Malik is a registered civil mediator through the Conflict Resolution Center of Minnesota. He received an undergraduate degree in Liberal Arts in Human Services with a minor in Sociology from the University of Minnesota Morris. Malik currently sits on the Board of Directors for Twin Cities’ Men’s Center and the Alliance for Metropolitan Stability. He is a former long-standing member on multiple grant review committees; multiple Minneapolis neighborhood association and Saint Paul district council volunteer boards as an officer plus in committee positions; is a 2004 graduate of Neighborhood Leadership and Organizing's Neighborhood Organizing Training Program, and is a past member of the Neighborhood Leadership and Organizing Advisory Committee. He is also a former Emergency Services Director for American Red Cross, Northwest Illinois-Rockford chapter.
Malik is a native of Chicago but has lived in Minnesota for over 28 years. His life has centered on family, spirituality, music, dance, and his love for learning, community capacity building, systems change, reparative racial justice, equitable economic development with local community benefits, and direct service. I'm honored.
