 Ramsey County's Holiday Sponsorship Program matches community sponsors with Ramsey County individuals and families who are receiving Ramsey County social services and are identified by social workers as needing extra help with food and gifts during the holiday season. Sponsors get the opportunity to personally shop and wrap gifts for their matched individual(s) or family.
Sponsors can be a single individual, a family group, a work group, a school group, a church group, or members of a club, service or civic organization.
Sponsors make a commitment to provide an individual/family with at least:
- One clothing item per child.
- One toy item per child.
- One parent gift.
- One grocery gift certificate.
Gifts should be wrapped and labeled for their specific recipient. Sponsors are provided information about their matches, such as the ages of any children, clothing sizes and gift suggestions. Social workers will pick up gifts from sponsors and will deliver to families per Ramsey County policy to protect confidentiality.
A budget of $30 to $50 per person is recommended, plus an additional $15 per person for food for a holiday meal. For a family of four, a sponsorship would total about $180-$260. The cost of your sponsorship is tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.
To register to become a sponsor please visit our webpage.
 A map of properties with racial covenants (marked in green) in District 1. You can see a larger map on the Mapping Prejudice website, linked below.
Discriminatory covenants were once used to keep people of color from buying houses in many Minnesota neighborhoods, including some in Ramsey County. This resulted in a century of segregated communities.
The Ramsey County Board of Commissioners took action on this issue last year, voting to join the Just Deeds coalition in an effort to highlight the importance of discharging and releasing historical racial covenants on property records.
At last week's board workshop we heard updates from staff in the Property Tax, Records, and Elections Department on discharging racial covenants in Ramsey County.
To see if your community or property has racial covenants check out this map from the Mapping Prejudice Project. To learn how to discharge a racial covenant visit Ramsey County's webpage on the topic.
The Joint Development Authority (JDA) is hosting a community event about Rice Creek Commons on the evening of November 1, 2023.
Please check the Rice Creek Commons website for more information about the development and details about this event as they become available. |
