Community partners
Our community partners
We partner with community organizations to support the families they serve in making K-12 educational decisions and advocating for themselves within the school system.
These community partners have long-standing roots in the Minneapolis and Twin Cities community; combined, their programs and staff serve more than 5,000 households. Through our partnership work, we ensure 2,500 families receive direct support in navigating the education system, such as finding a best-fit school, determining if their children are on grade-level, best communicating with their children's teacher!
Centro Tyrone Guzman
Founded in 1974, Centro Tyrone Guzman is the oldest and largest Minneapolis-based multi-service Latine organization. Their mission is: to contribute to the well-being and full participation of Latines through education and family engagement. Following the model of an Intergenerational Learning Community, they use a Montessori-influenced approach across the lifespan to provide information, connect, and engage Latines of all ages. They serve around 5,000 individuals annually.
Lead The Way
Project Lead The Way provides a transformative learning experience for PreK-12 students and teachers across the United States. The organization empowers students to develop and apply in-demand, transportable skills by exploring real-world challenges. Through its pathways in computer science, engineering, and biomedical science, students learn technical skills and learn to solve problems, think critically and creatively, communicate, and collaborate.
Little Earth Residents Association
Little Earth was founded in 1973 to create affordable housing in South Minneapolis. As the first urban housing complex with Native preference, Little Earth serves as a national model, at the forefront of American Indian migration into urban areas. Little Earth provides entrepreneurship training, interpersonal connections, multi-level support, and education services to the American Indian community in South Minneapolis. Their mission is to create highly rated educational and social programs, pre-school partnerships, elder services, neighborhood stability, health initiatives, and cultural programming that fosters a vibrant community.
MN Parent Union
MN Parent Union serves as a gathering space for community conversations and a megaphone for community solutions, pursuing a true-partner approach to family engagement by welcoming all ages to experience advocacy first hand. With an eye toward a holistic family advocacy experience – everyone from babies to elders – the Minnesota Parent Union model exemplifies family engagement. With a collective voice, parents and students alike, create action plans to improve children’s chances of living their potential today.
Northside Achievement Zone
The Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ) exists to permanently close the achievement gap and end generational poverty in North Minneapolis. They partner with organizations, to walk side by side with low-income families as they put their children on a path to college. NAZ’s wraparound framework effectively supports low-income children of color so that they will graduate from high school prepared for college.
Phyllis Wheatley Community Center
Phyllis Wheatley Community Center draws people and resources together to advance personal leadership and help build better lives. Located in north Minneapolis, they work with low-income residents in our community and beyond. Their asset-based, culturally specific approach to services allows individuals and families to grow their strengths. Core program focus areas include early childhood education, youth development, and adult empowerment.
Pillsbury United Communities
Beginning in 1879 with Minneapolis’s first settlement house, Pillsbury United Communities co-creates enduring change toward a just society. Built with and for historically marginalized and underinvested groups across our community, their united system of programs, neighborhood centers, and social enterprises connects more than 55,000 individuals and their families each year. They are guided by a vision of thriving communities where every person has personal, social, and economic power.
Urban Ventures
Urban Ventures' focus is to provide comprehensive, coordinated, cradle-to-career support for youth living in a 25-block core area of South Minneapolis, with the ultimate goal that all children will complete a post-secondary program and become leaders in their community. Urban Ventures provides youth with an academic pipeline from birth through college, plus wraparound support for the entire family, including athletics, nutrition education, parenting classes, and referrals to a strong network of social service partners.
Way to Grow
For over 30 years, Way to Grow has brought the community together to address the serious and prevalent gap in early childhood education in Minneapolis. Way to Grow supports families with children from birth to age eight, empowering the next generation of leaders. They are proud to work with more than 2,400 individuals in both North and South Minneapolis. With a team of talented Family Educators and Resource Advocates, they provide year-round services every day to these families.
