Growing together since 1958, rooted in the Social Settlement values

Waite House Neighborhood Center-Pillsbury United Communities

On April 30th, Waite House launched a new chapter in it s sixty-four year old partnership with the Phillips Community of South Minneapolis. At 10 AM that Monday morning, Waite House opened its doors to welcome neighborhood residents to its new home in the renovated Phillips Community Center.

 It was in 1958 when the Edward F. Waite House opened its doors for fist time responding to the human needs of the people of Phillips. Since the beginning Waite House employed the Settlement House philosophy. A holistic approach to neighborhood improvement and a belief that social change comes through indigenous leaders and organizations. In this way, Settlement Houses differed from other social service agencies of their time and played a key role in addressing the issues facing local communities-.

In 1967, The Edward F. Waite Neighborhood House merged with Pillsbury Citizen Services creating the Pillsbury-Waite Neighborhood Services.  In 1969, due to the renovation and expansion of Highway I-94 Waite House moved its operations from Park Ave. to 2529 13^th Ave. South, where it settled for 43 years. On April 30^{th 2012}   Waite House relocated for a third time, signing a 20 year lease agreement with Minneapolis Parks and Recreation.

Contemporary Settlement House workers no longer live on site and many Settlement Houses have changed their names to 'community center' or 'neighborhood house' to reflect the fact that they are settlements-without-residents.   Still, Settlement Houses continue their long history of being integral to and embedded in their communities.  Settlement Houses continue to be distinguishable from other social service agencies, not by the type of services they provide but by their holistic approach to strengthening neighborhoods and families.

The Waite House-Pillsbury  team  recognize that issues and demographics of the Phillips Community have changed over the years,  But,  honoring our  legacy  and true commitment  for  social justice  Waite House will  keep, for years to come,  responding   with culturally relevant initiatives that build on peoples’ strengths, enhance the community’s capacity to care for one another and address injustices that exist in low income communities and communities of color

Waite House will be sharing space with Running Wolf Health Center, the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation, Minneapolis Swims, Somali-American Communities, Ventura Village and A Partnership of Diabetics. Waite House looks forward to finding ways to work with its new neighbors.

The move to Waite House’s new home would not have happened without help from the community. More than 75 community volunteers donated more than 400 hours of help. Our work is not possible without the support of Pillsbury’s Board of Directors, Waite House’s Advisory Council, private donors, government funders, the United Way, foundations, volunteers and other entities and individuals that have embraced our cause. 

Thank you-English;  Gracias, Spanish; Mahadsanid, Somali; Miigwetch, Ojibwe;  Kiitos.Finnish. Takk, Norwegian.

Francisco E. Segovia, Waite House Community Center, Director.

Dear Neighbors,

For those of you who may have heard about our Urban Farm kickoff /
workday originally scheduled for this coming Saturday, I wanted to let
you know that this has been rescheduled to Sunday, June 3 due to
logistical issues. We hope to see you there, further details below.

For those of you who have NOT heard about our 24th Street Community
Urban Farm project, here’s a little information:

The 24th Street Community Urban Farm is a collaborative project that
will grow food and educate the community about organic growing
practices and healthy food. We are developing a work/share model where
participants will earn a share of the food by volunteering hours
tending the farm. Our healthy produce will also be served at community
events. The first big workday is Sunday, June 3 from 10am – 3pm,
including lunch. After that we will have regular work shifts planting,
tending, watering, weeding and harvesting the crops. The Harvest will
be shared with coalition organizations’ programs and workers. The
work/share model is still under development, stay tuned for details.

So please join us:

•       Sunday, June 3, 10am – 3pm
•       North-east of the corner of 24th Street and 13th Avenue, across the
street from the Indian Health Board Clinic
•       All community residents welcome
•       We will be building raised beds and planting some crops
•       There will be some kids activities
•       Lunch will be served at noon until gone
•       Help build a working urban farm that will produce healthy, organic
food.
•       Come and learn how you can earn food through a work/share program.

For more information contact Bill Kingsbury at wgkingsbury@gmail.com

The 24th Street Urban Farm Coalition is: Ventura Village, Indigenous
Peoples’ Task Force, Women’s Environmental Institute, Indian Health
Board, Native American Community Clinic, Waite House, and Dream of Wild
Health.

Join the Midtown Greenway Coalition on the evening of June 9th for a dazzling night of fun activities on the Greenway!  From 6 PM until midnight, nearly 20 artists will be presenting free art, movies, dance, and musical performances along the Greenway as part of the 

Northern Spark all-night art festival.

June 9th is also the evening of the Greenway Glow, our biggest fundraising event of the year.  Formerly the Greenway Challenge, the Greenway Glow is a night time bike ride that will raise money for the Midtown Greenway Coalition's programs and services.  The ride (about 7 miles total, with optional loops for more distance) will feature rest stops at Northern Spark venues near the Greenway--and a big post ride party!

Participants will compete to see who can deck out their bike with the most creative lights, and prizes will also be awarded for best costume, for raising the most money to support the Coalition, and for having the largest team.

To participate in the Greenway Glow, cyclists will pay a registration fee ($25 early bird, $30 after May 25) and collect $75 or more in pledges/donations.  Our website will have a registration link up soon, so stay tuned for that! 

Not sure how to light up your bike in a prize-winning fashion?  Check these posts out for inspiration. And yes, I know it's not Christmas time.

         

Midtown Business Association
Next Meeting Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Agenda

2012 prioritized budget based on 2012 dues collected

Banners Dave Burrill

Midtown Music Festival Baba Letang

Membership Drive Mark Simon

Special service meeting update Dave Burrill

New business / new businesses

Minutes from April 17, 2012 meeting:

 After everybody had introduced themselves,    Dave J. said that
Neimer-Feger is helping with adapting the Midtown artwork to the
banner format.  He also said that there will soon be a special service
district meeting and asked if anybody wanted him to bring up anything.
Julie said that it looks really trashy in the streets–Dave said that
the special service district has contracted for cleaning, but he’s not
sure when they are scheduled to begin.  There was discussion of the
timing of putting up and taking down wreaths and the condition of the
wreaths.
    Baba discussed the music festival (Saturday, July 28)–they are in
good shape for volunteers.  They will have all kinds of music
represented.  They have so far received grants for $32,000 and hope to
have a final budget of about $45,000.
    New businesses in the area: Dave J. passed around the menu for the
new Chinese restaurant where Jan’s and Fortune Cookie used to be.
Baba talked about new businesses in the Global Marketplace–several
opening in May and some of the other businesses may move around within
the Marketplace.  Andy said Safari Express was covered on NPR last
week.
    Dave J. still plans to send out an e-mail about
merchant-to-merchant discounts.
    Dave J. said that $1750 in dues came in so far, but he’d like to
see more.  The city decided not to give us any grant money this year,
so we will have a lot less money to spend for 2012 than normal.  We
had come up with several catagories to support if we received the
grant, but will have to reconsider what we can support.  For the
Community Safety category, we discussed the Safety Center, Greenway
patrol, and National Night Out.  For the Community Interaction
category, we were going to support several projects including the
music festival and the May Day Parade.  Under the Midtown Area
Marketability category came things like the wreaths and clean-sweeps.
There’s still some Chicago-Lake money and Bloomington-Cedar-Lake money
in the old bank accounts.
    John Bauman reported that once the photo of the suspect was
published in the paper and on the internet, the thefts of air
conditioner coils stopped.  The number of armed robberies have gone
way down and have not involved the 2 guys involved in most of the
earlier robberies.  The Safety Center will become a distributor of
anti-graffiti supplies.
    Mark said that the owners of the former Sunny’s building are
starting to try to market the building for either lease or sale.  They
will be putting a new front on the building with lots of windows.
    Dave Rasmussen, the new branch manager for US Bank Midtown, was
elected the new treasurer to replace Ben, the former branch manager
who was transferred to another US Bank branch out of the area.
    There was discussion of the May Day Parade.
    Andy talked about the bicycle fund-raiser for the cure on the
first Saturday on June, starting at Minnehaha Falls.
Attendees:
Don Blyly                Uncle Hugo’s Science Fiction Bookstore
Dave Johnson                Chicago Lake Dental
Baba Letang                Global Market
Julie Ingebretsen            Ingebretsen’s
Dave Rasmussen            US Bank
Ben Liverca                US Bank
Drew Saterdalen            Alline Health
Mark Simon                Roberts Shoes
Andy Finsness                Sheraton
John Bauman                Midtown Safety Center

The Phillips Community Center celebrated its Grand Opening on Saturday.  Below is a video of the main speeches from the evening. The camera is a little shaky as I was taking care of my daughter at the same time!  We also didn't get to stay for the tour of the building.  

Here is the latest Sector 1 (Phillips Area) report from CPS Don Greeley. The text is below; to see this as an easy to read document, press the control key and click on this link: 12-SectorUpdate_5.09.12.pdf.

If you have a block club, please have a spring reunion event during the month of May. (It’s a great way to get reconnected, welcome new people, plan for National Night Out, etc.) If you’d like to start a block club, there is a training for new leaders on May 17. Details on spring reunion events and block leader trainings are below.  

Please share this message with anyone who would be interested. Thanks for your interest in reducing crime! And please let me know if you have questions or don’t want to receive this report from me in the future.

Week of May 2nd – May 9th, 2012 Sector One - 3rd Precinct – Minneapolis Police Dept.

East Phillips – Midtown Phillips – Phillips West - Ventura Village Neighborhoods

Spring Reunion Block Events

There is still time to schedule a Spring Reunion Block Event for your block. We have confirmed that money will be available - $50 per event, to offset some of the costs of holding your event. If you would like to be reimbursed please have a completed sign in sheet and receipts for the things you bought for the event.

If you are planning an event, please contact me so I can let others know about it as well.

Recent Highlights

On May 8th, two female victims were robbed at gunpoint at E 28th St. and 12th Ave So. Three suspects were captured by police and positively identified, shortly after the incident occurred.

On May 7th Officers stopped a vehicle at E. 26th St. and Bloomington Ave. So. They recovered a handgun, bullets and arrested the driver.

Noting an increase in activity near the Phillips Community Center, Officers conducted a saturation detail in that area last Thursday. Officers will continue to direct a substantial amount of patrol to that area. They have netted some very productive arrests, including getting a gun off the street on Monday of this week.

Our next Block Leader training will be on May 17th - 6:30 to 8 PM at the 3rd Precinct, 3000 Minnehaha. Please RSVP to me if you are planning to attend.

Questions

Contact CPS Don Greeley at (612) 673-3482 or donald.greeley@minneapolismn.gov

Minneapolis Police Department’s

3rd Precinct

UPCOMING BLOCK LEADER TRAINING

Thursday, May 17th (2012)

6:30 to 8 PM

Minneapolis Police Dept.

3rd Precinct

3000 Minnehaha Ave.

Topics to Be Covered:

Introduction to crime prevention

How to organize a block/apartment club

Services of community crime prevention

Responsibilities of crime prevention block leaders

How and when to use 911

How to solve problems effectively

Meet your Crime Prevention Specialist

Please RSVP if you are planning on attending.

Call: 673- 3482 or 673-2856

Join other leaders to develop skills for effectively working with your neighbors to prevent crime and build community.

John R. Baumann

Midtown Safety Center

Minneapolis Police Department

2949 Chicago Ave. S

Minneapolis, MN 55407

612-825-6138

john.baumann@minneapolismn.gov

www.minneapolismn.gov/safe