 Circulo de Amigos located at 2830 Cedar Ave, Minneapolis
Since opening in July 2015, Circulo de Amigos Child Care Center (CACCC) has
been providing children 6 weeks to 5 years old with foundations in Spanish
language and cultural immersion. When it began as a family-home daycare, CACCC
owner Maria Perez Gali, began to notice an increasing need for high-quality childcare in the area, motivating her expansion to her current building in the
Phillips Neighborhood. A former apartment complex, it underwent massive
renovations supported by a Great
Streets façade grant and TwoPercent Loan from the
City of Minneapolis. Now, with 68 students, Circulo de Amigos is close to their
capacity of 79 spaces, employing 14 teachers; Maria will soon be opening yet
another classroom.
Circulo de Amigos’ popularity is likely due to the
appealing skillset children can gain through the program. Though 90 percent of
the students aren’t native Spanish speakers, all communication is in Spanish,
helping children gain fluency.
Children are also encouraged to release energy in
positive ways through physical and sensory activities. Much of this occurs on
the daycare’s playground, which is in the process of being certified by Nature
Explore as an outdoor classroom. On the
playground, which is constructed mainly from recycled and natural materials,
children learn about how to make good use of resources by recycling and reusing
materials and how to value, love, respect and be responsible to our planet.
In the future, Maria also hopes to open the daycare’s
kitchen, helping her to ensure the food served at CACCC is as healthy and
natural as possible.
City staff held three community meetings seeking input on the zoning amendment
The Minneapolis City Council unanimously approved a zoning amendment
on December
11, 2015, to allow for more locations for homeless shelters. Previously,
shelters were only allowed when accessory to a religious institution or located
within a small area of downtown. This amendment allows for different types of
shelters with standards to ensure safety and the security of individuals and
families seeking shelter, while encouraging new shelters to be compatible with
the surrounding neighborhoods.
This CPED project was enormously successful due to the
participation and expertise of the steering committee with representation from
the Office
to End Homelessness, current shelter providers, and other non-profit
organizations providing support to homeless persons. In April 2015, staff and Council
Members Lisa Bender and Blong Yang attended a homeless shelter forum at Harbor Lights to
discuss needs related to livability, safety, access, location, and
transportation with individuals experiencing homelessness. Finally, staff held three
community meetings, the first to seek input and then to discuss the proposed
amendment, prior to presenting the amendment to the city council.
For more information about this zoning
amendment, please visit us here.
 TechHire student from Minneapolis' Cedar Riverside neighborhood in training. Photo credit: Creating IT Futures Foundation
After a series of pilot programs beat expectations this
year, in 2016 Minneapolis will put $350,000 into expanding TechHire the
public-private partnership that is part of a White House campaign to diversify
the tech sector – one of the fastest-growing corners of the U.S. economy.
TechHire provides accelerated training programs plus
job-placement help to groups historically shut out of high-paying tech
positions. It dovetails with Mayor Betsy Hodges’ push to reduce income
disparities between Minneapolis’ white and nonwhite residents. “This is not
just about getting people jobs,” said Mayor Hodges. “These are good jobs.”
TechHire runs out of City of Minneapolis Community Planning
and Economic Development, but a partner organization will be selected early in
2016 to coordinate the program, raise awareness and provide career counseling.
According to Deb Bahr-Helgen, Director of City of
Minneapolis Employment and Training, about $250,000 of the allocation will go
toward financial aid for students who qualify. The remaining $100,000 will
support an outreach campaign targeting community organizations and ethnic media
outlets.
Read More
 Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce, STEP-UP Achieve worksite
STEP-UP is building tomorrow's workforce today by
connecting businesses with the next generation of talented and diverse workers.
STEP-UP has provided over 21,000 internship opportunities since 2004.
One of the country's premiere youth employment
programs, STEP-UP places Minneapolis youth in paid internships with top Twin
Cities companies, nonprofits and public agencies, providing work readiness
training, on-the-job experience, professional mentors, advanced career
opportunities and ongoing support.
STEP-UP
not only changes young lives but can also help your business in countless ways.
Interns can increase your organization's productivity, energy and diversity,
providing rich payback for your investments of time and training. In our recent
survey of STEP-UP employers, 93% reported that their intern made a valuable
contribution to the workplace.
STEP-UP
serves populations that face the greatest barriers to employment, particularly
low income young people, youth of color and recent immigrant youth. These young
people are the future of our city! Check out the data on our 2015 class of
interns.
Learn
more and pledge to hire interns
STEP-UP
Brochure
Minneapolis Employment and Training has been selected by
Mayor Hodges to administer BUILD Leaders, a proven youth violence prevention
model developed in Chicago and adapted for Minneapolis.
BUILD Leaders is an equity focused, community oriented
intervention program for disenfranchised 18-24 year old youth with systemic
barriers to educational and economic opportunities (lack of diploma, criminal
records etc.). Youth will receive paid
training in facilitation, leadership, and job skills, and will deliver the BUILD
curriculum for younger youth, 9-12 years old.
BUILD Leaders will serve two cohorts of up to 10 youth per
cohort. One of these cohorts will serve youth from the Native American
community and one will serve the North Minneapolis community.
Minneapolis Employment and Training will issue an RFP to
select community-based agencies that will also leverage WIOA Federal funding.
 Thomas Lowry Memorial
In 2015,
five new properties and three new historic districts were designated bringing
the total to over 165 individual
landmarks and 15 historic districts in the City of Minneapolis. New landmarks
and districts are evaluated by the City of Minneapolis department of Community Planning and Economic
Development (CPED) staff and the Heritage Preservation Commission
(HPC). Final decisions are made by the
Minneapolis City Council and Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges based on
recommendations from CPED staff and HPC.
Following is a list of all the designations adopted in 2015.
Individual landmarks adopted in 2015:
(Name – Address – Date of City
Council Action)
Historic districts adopted in 2015:
(Name – Date of City Council
Action)
Many of the
designations completed in 2015 were made possible by a grant through the Minnesota State Historic Preservation Office
(SHPO).
View
Full Press Release
Read
2015 Minneapolis Heritage Preservation Annual Report
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