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Benevolence - Current Grantees

CHILDREN, YOUTH AND FAMILIES

African American Family Services
The mission of African American Family Services (AAFS) is to help the African American individuals, family and community to reach a greater state of well-being through the delivery of community-based, culturally-specific (emphasis added) mental health, chemical health and family preservation services. Because mental health issues are generally denied in the African American community, culturally specific in this context means specifically that they have to get over the barrier of cultural resistance to seeking mental health treatment.

Ascension Place
Ascension Place  is a supportive housing program and shelter for women and children in North Minneapolis. Their mission is to provide women in crisis with a stable environment and the opportunity to explore options for the future. The goal is achieving long-term stability and  breaking the cycle of homelessness and poverty. Ascension Place  adds continuity in services with an Aftercare Program for families leaving shelter to  help them maintain self-sufficiency and  prevent reoccurrence of homelessness.

Creatives for Causes/Art Buddies
Art Buddies uses the power of creative mentoring to help low-income children in the Whittier neighborhood. They pair the children, one-on-one, with all types of creative professionals, including graphic designers, art directors, writers, illustrators and architects.  Their mentors help the kids discover their creative gifts, develop new visions of themselves, boost self-esteem and increase their motivation to learn.

Greater Minneapolis Crisis Nursery
The purpose and mission of the organization is ending child abuse and neglect, as well as helping to create strong, healthy families.

HIRED
With a mission of providing personalized and innovative solutions, HIRED’s primary purpose is to provide disadvantaged job seekers with effective employment and training services designed to meet the need of local employers. HIRED’s youth programs assist young people  in meeting their education and employment goals. HIRED has been working with the young people living at Nicollet Square.

Kinship
Kinship's mission is to support youth by carefully creating and sustaining long-term mentoring relationships that help them reach their fullest potential. Most of the children come from low-income homes, often without a father, and commonly are having trouble in school and difficulty getting along with family members and peers. By connecting them with caring individuals, couples or families who are committed to spending time with them, these children receive much needed additional adult support.

Pillsbury United Communities
PUC is a community-based, venture-driven nonprofit agency.  It is the result of the merger of Pillsbury Waite Community Services with Northside Settlement Services.  Its mission is to create choice, change and connection.  Services include childcare, youth services, refugee and immigrant services, services for the developmentally challenged, arts and cultural activities, crisis assistance, and employment and economic development initiatives.

Pfund Foundation
PFund provides grants and scholarships to youth-serving organizations and projects in the Upper Midwest. It advances social justice for LGBT communities by developing leaders, by  providing hands-on assistance, by inspiring giving,  and by reporting on issues of importance within the LGBT community. The foundation works to change attitudes and systems by breaking  down barriers at the intersection of identity—sexual orientation, gender, race, culture—to achieve social justice.

Tubman Center
Tubman promotes safe and healthy individuals, families and communities through evidence-based intervention, prevention and education. Today the agency's continuum of services includes family violence intervention and prevention, chemical and mental health counseling, legal services, youth and family services and community education and engagement.

We Win
WE WIN Institute, Inc. is a non-profit organization dedicated to the academic and social success of all children. WE WIN is helping children create achievements that are having the greatest difficulties being successful in school and in life. WE WIN’s programs are tailored to instill pride, confidence, academic as well as social skills in children by giving them knowledge and experiences, which honor and celebrate their cultural roots.

CHURCH AND NEIGHBORHOOD

The Dignity Center
The Dignity Center is an outreach ministry of Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church. Its mission is to help impoverished people in transition take steps to attain stability in their lives. Each client meets with a trained volunteer advocate to address each person’s unique needs, set goals and take steps toward stability. This program is a relationship based program founded on the idea that an ongoing supportive relationship ensures accountability, gives clients hope and encouragement and helps clients achieve concrete steps toward stabilization. The Dignity Center follows a unique, comprehensive model to help clients set goals and take steps in nine key focus areas—housing, income/financial management, employment, education, health, substance use, legal issues, criminal record, and relationships. Plymouth Church refers people to Dignity.

Downtown Congregations
to End Homelessness
Downtown Congregations to End Homelessness (DCEH) works together to transition from managing to ending homelessness and poverty through advocacy, education, support of Heading Home Hennepin (HHH) and building relationships with the homeless and near homeless, congregations, volunteers, and community organizations.

Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches
The mission is to unite people of faith to serve people in need.  There are 19 programs, including three new ones this year and a fourth in the planning and development stages, all serving greater Minneapolis populations in need.

Minnesota Council of Churches
Manifest unity in the church and build community in the world.  Areas of focus:  refugee resettlement, public interfaith worship and dialogue, weekly radio program, supports JRLC and iCAN

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Institute for Welcoming Resources helps facilitates the movement of religious traditions and congregations toward the full inclusion of LGBT people and families into the common life and ministry of pro-LGBT organizations. It assists in leadership development across the country while building  the grassroots power of the LGBT community with particular emphasis on social and racial justice and faith issues.

Plymouth Church Senior High Youth Group
Plymouth Church youth run a Summer Peace Camp for younger children that provides a safe and fun environment for all to learn about peace and justice issues. The Senior High Youth Group’s mission is to educate youth around social justice issues as well as equipping them to work for change in their own communities.

Restorative Justice
Restorative Justice Community Action (RJCA) works in Minneapolis neighborhoods to enhance offender accountability for urban livability crimes by empowering local citizens to participate directly in the justice process.

Stevens Square Community Organization
Provide a respectful forum for community involvement and leadership that builds on community strengths to promote and improve Stevens-Square-Loring Heights as a vibrant place to live, work and play.  They seek funding to support summer programs:  Red Hot Art and Cinema & Civics.

United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities
This is a totally ecumenical education institution that attracts scholars from the World Community. Grant includes the Campbell Scholarship.

HEALTH AND MENTAL HEALTH

Loring-Nicollet Meals on Wheels
Providing nutritious meals to the elderly and disabled in downtown Minneapolis.

Open Arms of Minnesota
Feeding people with HIV/AIDS and their household members five days per week. In the last three years the organization has expanded to feed those with ALS, MS, various forms of cancer and end-stage illness. They also engage in advocacy for health and medical issues. The organization has also opened a center providing 16,000 hot lunches annually to those with HIV/AIDS and families in Guguletu, near Cape Town, and are expanding to serve other HIV/AIDS populations in Africa.

The Minnesota AIDS Project
The Minnesota AIDS Project main mission is to educate the populous how to effectively prevent the spread of AIDS and advocating for the rights of those who have contracted the disease.

Sexual Violence Center
"Empowers our community by providing prevention and intervention services to all people affected by sexualviolence."  They operate a 24 hour Crisis line, to give support, information and resources; SVC advocates (trained volunteers) are on call 24 hours a day to provide support and advocacy to sexual violence victims at hospitals; provide individual and group counseling; school based prevention education; community education- speakers provide presentations for community groups, churches, civic groups; provide state-mandated Sexual Assault Advocacy training.

Southside Family Nuturing Center
"Together with families and community, we nurture children, build on family strengths and find alternatives to violence." They concentrate on culturally diverse families suffering the effects of child abuse and neglect. They will serve 20-30 families comprised of 55-75 children and 50-60 parents.


Westminster Counseling Center
Westminster Counseling Center is a non-profit counseling center housed in Westminster Presbyterian Church. It is open to the public with a special focus on integrating spiritual and psychological dimensions in its counseling. The Center works closely with the other downtown churches, including Plymouth, whose ministers regularly refer people to WCC. The Center takes third party payments and offers a sliding fee scale.

HOUSING AND HUNGER

Alliance Housing
The mission to Alliance Housing is to create, own, and operate housing for low and very low income people in Minneapolis and the wider Twin Cities metropolitan area. Alliance Housing develops, owns, and operates affordable housing for poor and homeless people. Started in 1991 by residents and staff of St. Stephen’s Emergency Shelter, Alliance Housing places homeless single adults and families in rooms and apartments in south Minneapolis. Prospective residents must be able to pay their rent and respect the property and their neighbors.

Groveland Emergency Food Shelf
A primary neighborhood food shelf serving mostly Steven's Square, Loring Park and near Downtown neighborhoods. These include a mix of housing including pockets of intense poverty and homeless individuals.Groveland Food for Youth is a Specialty food shelf serving teens and young adults who are homeless or transitioning from homelessness. This segment has seen the most rapid growth in use.

Hope Community
Mission: Hope Community is a catalyst for change, growth, and safety.  We are building a sustainable neighborhood model through community organization, active education, leadership, and affordable housing development.

Jeremiah Program
Assisting low income single mothers with small children complete their education and achieve economic self sufficiency.  Jeremiah operates two virtually identical residences with apartments for mothers with small children, including a child development center, individual coaching and personal development training, employment counseling, etc.  The agency has recently received a large planning grant to replicate the program in another community - considering Fargo/Moorhead or a Texas site.

Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans
MACV is a social service agency committed to preventing veterans’ homelessness and to returning homeless vets and their families to stable self-sufficient lives. Its mission is to provide assistance to positively motivated veterans who are either homeless or in crisis by providing a continuum of care including emergency assistance, housing, employment and civil legal services. Because homelessness is a complicated circumstance, it requires this comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to achieve measurable change.

Plymouth Church Neighborhood Foundation
PCNF is a faith-based provider of affordable housing opportunities, with support where needed, for homeless and underhoused populations in Minneapolis.

Project for Pride in Living
PPL’s mission is to work with lower-income individuals and families to achieve greater self-sufficiency through housing, employment training, support services, and education.

Project Homeless Connect
This year, Hennepin County and the City of Minneapolis hosted the seventh Project Homeless Connect (PHC), held at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Transforming more than 160,000 square feet of convention space into a one-stop service center, the event directly addressed the numerous and complex barriers that prevent homeless individuals from finding lasting employment and securing safe, stable housing. PHC has coordinated 6 of these events.

Simpson Housing Services
The mission of Simpson Housing is to house, support and advocate for people experiencing homelessness. Simpson knows that with close, individual advocacy and support, men, women and families experiencing homelessness achieve housing stability. They are committed to Housing First: house people quickly, then provide services as needed.

Third Sunday Meal
Serves more than 200 meals to neighbors in need each month. Plymouth hosts the Third Sunday meal, which strives to serve fresh, healthy food with dignity. Volunteers serve a free hot meal to more than 200 guests of all ages in Plymouth’s dining hall.

INTERNATIONAL AND IMMIGRANT

Aprendamos Computacion 
To enhance the marketable job skills of our Latino students, and to involve them productively in their children’s education by providing them the opportunity to study computer technology in their native language.

CAPI
Founded in 1982, CAPI's mission is to guide refugees and immigrants in their journey to self-sufficiency and social equality. Agency assists 3,000 refugees and immigrants (60 percent East African, 40 percent Southeast Asian) annually, through two integrated units: Employment and Social Services.

Centro Guadalupano
The mission of the organization is to be companions on the journey with immigrant families and the economically disadvantaged by providing educational programs and human services. It is the outreach site of the Holy Rosary Church. Educational programs include English classes, sewing classes, computer classes, after school tutoring and a domestic abuse program. Human services include the services of a social worker and a health/education coordinator.

Compatible Technology, Inc.
CTI was founded in 1980 by a group of General Mills Food Scientists and Research Engineers who sought ways in which their knowledge might help the poor in developing countries resolve food problems and increase food supply by using local resoures. CTI supplied peanut grinders that Plymouth's Sierra Leone group has taken with them on missions to Sierra Leone.

Cuba Connect
Plymouth's Cuba Connect has sponsored three trips to Cuba since 2005 and plans ongoing trips in the future. They have forged strong partnerships with two churches in particular, Canaan being the smaller and needier of the two. Their ministry includes a dormitory for patients to house people who come in from the nearby countryside, repairing torn clothing, a seniors' fellowship group, and a Sunday school, among other things.

International Village Clinic
International Village Clinic (IVC) is a non-profit, non-sectarian organization, dedicated to bringing health and medical services to the poor villages of India. IVC's goals include disease prevention and treatment, vaccination, nutrition for children and health education. Through our health clinic we will bring technology, skill and energy to achieving these goals, while respecting people's culture and complementing exisiting resources.

Our Saviour's Community Services/English Learning Center
Thousands of immigrants and refugees arrive in Minneapolis each year. Most do not speak English upon arrival and find U.S. urban culture very different from their own. Our Saviours’s/The English Learning Center is a faith-based organization which has been working together with these new neighbors to build bridges of understanding and to help build the skills needed to navigate their new country. This is done through advocacy and through culturally-sensitive classes in English language,  math, computers, cultural literacy and citizenship.

OneVillage Partners
(Sierra Leone-Plymouth Partnership)
Eradicating extreme poverty in rural Sierra Leone

Pan African Community Organization
The mission of PACO is to provide culturally and liguistically accessible education, support, and referral services to facilitate the health and wellness of African immigrants and their families in Minnesota.  A major emphasis has been HIV/AIDS awareness outreach in the African community, and employment assistance to African immigrants.

Southeast Asian Refugee Community Home
SEARCH was established in 1992 to meet the need for cultural and linguistic-specific employment services for a diverse and growing Southeast Asian community. In the past 17 years, SEARCH has placed over 2,000 immigrants and refugees into jobs, and has created several important supplementary programs. More recently, with the move of our corporate headquarters to the Phillips Neighborhood and the hiring of East African staff, SEARCH has extended services to a growing East African clientele. Today, SEARCH's increasingly diverse staff offer four core programs to almost 1,000 immigrant and refuges annually. SEARCH's mission is to assist newly arrived immigrants and refugees in becoming contributing members of their community.

 

 

          Children, Youth and Families

          Church and Neighborhood

          Health and Mental Health

          Housing and Hunger

          International and Immigrantl

         

          

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