 South Minneapolis Walk-In Clinic located at 4727 Hiawatha Ave
Minneapolis
Abdullahi Hussein opened the South Minneapolis Walk-In Clinic with
social mission at heart. He noticed that many recent immigrants and low-income
South Minneapolis residents were seeking emergency room care for common
ailments like strep throat and stomach flu because they didn’t have a primary
care provider. For busy, working families, this was costing them significantly
more time and money than necessary.
Abdullahi, a physician assistant who moved to Minneapolis
from Kenya 11 years ago, noticed this and created a fast,
no-appointment-necessary, mid-level healthcare alternative. He opened the
clinic last September with personal savings and financing and assistance from
the Metropolitan Consortium of Community Developers (MCCD), the City’s Alternative Financing Program, and the City’s Business
Technical Assistance Program (B-TAP) in a convenient location on Hiawatha
Avenue near Minnehaha Park.
Abdullahi says that he’s always striving to give back to the
community through his work. He is looking to add an additional care provider in
the near future that understands the needs of the demographic (primarily East
African community) he serves. Being fluent in Somali, Swahili and English, and
an immigrant himself, Abdullahi can create a comfortable and familiar
environment for his patients.
 The City of Minneapolis has developed an online Placemaking Hub,
a one-stop shop for public
realm enhancement. It combines a broad range of placemaking tools available
through the City on one web page. The Hub directs users to individual program
websites where details about process, implementation, and necessary permitting are accessible for community members and neighborhood organizations.
Possible enhancements and projects
featured on the Placemaking Hub include: sidewalk café, bike racks, bike
corrals, litter containers, ash receptacles, paint the pavement, artist
designed utility boxes, other art, parklets, temporary plazas, block events,
community gardens, urban farms, market gardens, trees, plantings, façade
improvements and other tools to enhance a street or corridor. For more information visit the City's website.
 Images from the 2015 Community Connections Conference
This year’s fourth annual Community Connections
Conference’s theme, Big Ideas: Your Minneapolis, invites you to join neighbors,
community members, non-profit organizations, business leaders, members of
Minneapolis’ design community, developers and City and Elected Officials to
think BIG about the future of Minneapolis. This free, family-friendly City of Minneapolis conference will be held on April 2nd, from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at
the Minneapolis Convention Center. Lunch will also be provided to all
participants.
The conference will feature Learning Labs
(workshops) around three tracks – Your City, Your Neighborhood, and Your Voice. The conference also features a Village Square
with 50 interactive exhibits and luncheon keynote speaker Shawntera Hardy among other special guests like Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges.
The Community Connections Conference will be the kick-off for Minneapolis 2040,
restructuring Minneapolis neighborhoods beyond the year 2020, and shaping City
policies. Your voice plays a crucial role in shaping Minneapolis’ future. To
learn more about the conference or to register visit the City's website.
 (Top:) A vendor, WBC staff, board member, and MetroTransit cops all visit at the West
Broadway Farmers Market; (Bottom Right:) A Northside Holiday Boutique jewelry artist helps a customer; (Bottom Left:) Passers-by contribute to a community mural as part of FLOW Northside Art Crawl.
The West Broadway
Business and Area Coalition (WBC) began in 2007 with goals to revitalize
the corridor through events, promotion, physical improvements, and providing
businesses with technical assistance. They orchestrate popular neighborhood
events like the 3-day FLOW
Northside Arts Crawl, which drew a crowd of 10,000 to West Broadway last
year. WBC founded the West
Broadway Farmers Market in 2010. Today, the market continues to grow,
bringing in anywhere from 7-20 weekly vendors on Fridays from June to October.
In addition to events, WBC facilitates their own Façade
Improvement program with the support of external funds from the City and the McKnight Foundation. Since 2008, they have
helped around 40 businesses/organizations, such as Friedman’s Department Store,
Juxtaposition Arts, and Fourth Street Saloon leverage grants to make exterior
updates and murals. WBC’s relationship with the City extends beyond façade
improvements by connecting businesses on the corridor to City staff and
resources that can help provide licensing, permitting and financial support.
One of two self-governed Business Improvement Districts in
the City of Minneapolis, WBC provides localized services such as place making
and street cleaning. In addition, they received a $250,000 ArtPlace America grant, broadening
their ability to make improvements to the public realm through new amenities
like benches, bike racks, wayfinding kiosks, and planters.
 Inside, before (top) and after (bottom) one South Minneapolis home rehabbed by Wilson Molina through the Vacant Housing Recycling Program
On February
19th, the City of Minneapolis and Wilson Molina hosted an open house
showcasing a completely rehabilitated home through the City’s Vacant
Housing Recycling Program. The home, located in South Minneapolis, was sold to Molina through the Vacant Housing Recycling Program in May
2015 and the rehabilitation of the property was completed in February 2016. The
rehabilitation of the home was extensive: plumbing, heating, and electrical
systems were replaced; a new kitchen and bathroom were installed; and the
basement and all of the walls and floors in the home were refinished.
The Vacant
Housing Recycling Program seeks to revitalize Minneapolis neighborhoods by
turning vacant properties into new housing opportunities. Through the program,
the City typically acquires tax-forfeited properties and sells them to either
developers or residents. Purchasers construct new homes on vacant land or
rehabilitate vacant structures to meet the program’s minimum rehabilitation
standards. Currently, there are 19 vacant structures and 321 vacant lots the
City is marketing through the program.
 Every eligible youth that applies to STEP-UP is invited to train. This year 3,400 youth are attending training!
This year,
STEP-UP invited 3,447 young people to work readiness training certified by the
Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce. This number represents every STEP-UP applicant
who was eligible to participate in the program. Youth that successfully
complete work readiness training will be eligible to be matched with STEP-UP
jobs. Job placements are not guaranteed.
Trainings
are being held at Minneapolis Community and Technical College on Saturdays from
late February to mid-April.
Youth are
placed in training based on their age and level of work experience.
- The most
work ready youth, mostly age 16 and above with some previous work experience,
spend five hours in the classroom followed by a mock interview with a business
professional.
- Middle level
youth attend ten hours of classroom training along with a mock interview.
- The youngest
youth, and those with no previous work experience, spend twelve hours in the
classroom, learning via hands-on activities and presentations by business
professionals and older STEP-UP interns.
The current
job recruitment goals for 2016 are to have 750 internships at the STEP-UP
Achieve level (16 and older), and 675 with STEP-UP Discover level (14 and 15
years old).
If you are
interested in hiring a STEP-UP intern for summer 2016 or to learn more about
STEP-UP, visit the STEP-UP website.
 In 2015,
the Business Technical Assistance Program (B-TAP) launched the “B-TAP 101”
training series to help businesses gain a better
understanding of how to navigate City of Minneapolis business processes. The
training was created through a collaborative effort between several City departments including Community Planning and Economic Develompent, Civil
Rights, Finance, and the Minneapolis Health Department. To make the “B-TAP 101” training series available
to a wider audience, the presentations were summarized into seven short videos which are each captioned in Hmong, Spanish, and Somali. The videos can be found on the B-TAP website. Below are the titles and descriptions of each of the short videos.
- “Intro
to the Business Technical Assistance Program (B-TAP)” - How the B-TAP program
works.
- “Understanding
Development Review” - The Development Review Process A to Z. Whether you are
building a multipurpose stadium or adding a patio.
- “Business
Licensing” - Learn which businesses need a license, how to apply, and renew
your business license.
- “Business
Development” - An overview of the resources available to support businesses
including technical assistance, loans, site selection support, and more.
- “Healthy
Food Businesses” - Best practices for Minneapolis’ food-oriented
businesses.
- “Doing
Business with the City of Minneapolis” - How to find business opportunities,
and register a business to become a bidder.
- “Disadvantaged
Business Enterprise (DBE) Certification and Inclusion” - Learn about the
certification process.
We encourage you to share these informative videos with your own network via organizational newsletters, social media postings and training events. The City of Minneapolis values all of our business owners for doing business in Minneapolis and is committed to continuing to make doing business here easier.
 Kennosha
Hillard is a determined young woman who was raised in north Minneapolis and is
the single parent of a three year-old boy. She had been working full-time in
medical assembly but she is a ‘people person’ and wanted a job helping people. She
enrolled in career training assistance at Jewish Family and Children’s Service
of Minneapolis (JFCS) to get help to achieve her goal.
Kennosha
breezed through registered nursing assistant classes and eventually passed the
certification exam. Her counselor at JFCS helped her rework her resume to
include her new credentials and skill sets. Before Kennosha started
interviewing for positions, she and her counselor role played challenging
interview questions.
Next,
Kennosha started interviewing for positions and soon accepted a full-time position
at a hospital with benefits paying $15.80 per hour to start. She is now making
$16.10 per hour.
Kennosha
loves her job and is doing research about the next step in her career path –
checking out schools and programs. Her long-range goal is to become a
registered nurse but she realizes that this may be a ways down the road. In the
meantime she is enjoying the journey, her new found earning power and every day
of learning new things.
Minneapolis
Employment and Training’s Minneapolis
Career Training Assistance program provides Minneapolis jobseekers ages 18
and older with personalized career guidance, skills training, and job search
services through contracted community-based agencies such as JFCS.
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