LEECH LAKE AWARDED $25,000 FOR HOMELESS
SHELTER
LEECH LAKE, Minn. – The Leech Lake
Band of Ojibwe was awarded the $25,000 Greater Minnesota Housing Fund
Grant for the its Homeless Shelter.
The Leech Lake Reservation Business
Committee Tribal Council renovated a building to address the homeless
crisis. The homeless shelter will have 30 beds available and one
handicapped unit for those clients that qualify for the services of
the shelter. It will also have a commercial kitchen, laundry
facilities, around-the-clock administrative services, transportation
and case management for clients.
The RBC Tribal Council has also
secured funding from the Open Your Heart Foundation in the amount of
$10,000 for a van and the Mardag Foundation is in the final process
of determining if they will fund the shelter with a $18,000 grant. In
addition, the tribal council will apply for funding through the
Minnesota Office of Economic Opportunity Homeless Assistance Grants
that will provide operational sustainability for the shelter.
The Greater Minnesota Housing Fund was
launched in April 1996 in a joint effort of the McKnight Foundation
and Blandin Foundation to address the urgent need for decent,
affordable housing in greater Minnesota.
LEECH LAKE TRIBAL COLLEGE RECEIVES
AWARD FROM INITIATIVE FOUNDATION
LEECH LAKE, Minn. – The Leech Lake
Tribal College received the 2015 Outstanding Nonprofit Initiative
Award by the Initiative Foundation of Little Falls, Minn.
The award resulted from the work that
the Leech Lake Tribal College did through a grant awarded for the
Financial Resiliency through Social Enterprise (FRSE) program. The
program is designed to assist central Minnesota Non-Profit
organizations to gain awareness and skills in earned-income, social
enterprise and social entrepreneurism to benefit the long term
achievement of financial resiliency.
The result of the grant is a new and
improved Bakitebii’iganiiwigamig (The Print Shop) capable of
designing and producing a variety of products such as business
stationery, books and binding, as well as a wide array of marketing
and advertising essentials.
The Leech Lake Tribal College received
only one of only four regional awards for excellence in leadership
and community service. Leech Lake Tribal College President Dr. Donald
Day spoke about its importance. “The award validates the work being
done in building a business plan for our Print Shop,” Day said.
“The Print Shop will benefit not only the college, but the
community as well.”
THAYERS TO RECEIVE MINISTRY AWARD
MINNEAPOLIS – The Global Worship 8
Concert will present its 2015 BridgeBuilder Award to Sheila and
Gordon Thayer on April 19.
The award is given each year to
outstanding Twin Cities leaders, chosen for their efforts in bringing
together people of various cultures through ministry work. The
Thayers founded Overcomers Ministry, a non-denominational Native-led
ministry in 1991 in the Phillips neighborhood of South Minneapolis;
both are ordained ministers, focusing on serving people with chemical
addictions.
From the start of their ministry the Thayers reached
out to the numerous homeless chronic alcoholic Native people living
on the streets; The location of their initial work was in the South
Minneapolis site where homeless camps were once located and now is
the site of Anishinabe Wakiagun, (“The Peoples Home”) a
supportive housing facility for forty late-stage chronic alcoholic
men and women. Wakiagun was opened in September 1996 under Gordon’s
leadership at the American Indian Community Development Corporation
(AICDC) where he served as the Executive Director and co-founder for
15 years, helping to rebuild the Franklin Avenue community. He
resigned in August 2007 to help launch the First Nations Recovery
Center.
Since 1992 they have either
administered or served as chaplains for the Hennepin County Detox
Center. Throughout the year Overcomers Ministry sponsors support
weekly groups, provides affordable housing at the “On Eagles Wings”
apartments for Native people in recovery and the First Nations
Recovery Center, an outpatient treatment program contracted by
Hennepin County. Overcomers also provides a youth hockey program to
Native kids, a week-long summer Native family camp in northern
Minnesota, outreach ministry to the Mishkeegogamang Ojibwe Reserve in
northern Ontario and the monthly Sobriety Friday events in
Minneapolis and on the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe reservation in
Wisconsin.
Both Sheila and Gordon Thayer
struggled with addictions in the past; they now devote their lives to
helping others through their ministry. Sheila Thayer was instrumental
in building the capacity of Overcomers Ministry and was the lead
person in applying for the State Minnesota license to operate the
First Nations Recovery Center where she serves as the Executive
Director and holds her credentials as a licensed Alcohol and Drug
Counselor and a graduate of Northwestern University.
Gordon Thayer was elected in June 2011
to a four-year term on the Governing Board for the Lac Courte
Oreilles Ojibwe Tribe in Wisconsin and continues as a board member of
Overcomers Outreach Ministries, Inc. and an elder advisor to the
First Nations Recovery Center. Both have worked to build bridges
between the Native community and other cultures in South Minneapolis
and the Upper Midwest.
Global Worship 8 will begin at 6 p.m.,
April 19 at St. Paul’s Church in downtown Minneapolis. Musicians
from many cultures will share an evening of unique and exciting
worship. Music will include Latino, Oromo-Ethiopian,
Amharic-Ethiopian, Karen-Burmese, Hmong, Native American,
African-American, the Choir from Hope Academy and a couple of
multi-cultural groups.
The church is located at 1901 Portland Avenue in Minneapolis. For
more information visit www.GlobalWorship.net or call 612-874-0133. A
free-will offering will be received.
SMSC AND PARTNERS LAUNCH NATIVE
NUTRITION CAMPAIGN
PRIOR LAKE, Minn. – The Shakopee
Mdewakanton Sioux Community, along with three national partners,
announced on March 24 a $5 million campaign to improve nutrition for
Native American communities across the country with its Seeds of
Native Health.
According to a press release, SMSC
will work with First Nations Development Institute, the Notah Begay
III Foundation and the University of Minnesota to improve awareness
of nutrition problems, promote the wider application of proven best
practices and encourage additional work related to food access,
education and research.
“Nutrition is very poor among many of
our fellow Native Americans,” SMSC Chairman Charlie Vig said in the
release. “The SMSC is committed to making a major contribution, and
bringing others together to help develop permanent solutions to this
serious problem.”
“Many tribes, nonprofits, public
health experts, researchers, and advocates have already been working
on solutions,” said SMSC Vice-Chairman Keith Anderson. “We hope
this campaign will bring more attention to their work.”
First Nations Development Institute
has longstanding expertise in efforts to eliminate food insecurity,
build the health of communities, and support entrepreneurship and
economic development. It is receiving $1.4 million from the SMSC for
re-granting to projects relating to food access, food sovereignty,
and capacity building.
The Notah Begay III Foundation is
dedicated to promoting wellness among Indian children. It is
receiving $1.1 million from the SMSC for re-granting to projects
relating to childhood nutrition.
Chairman Vig said that selecting the
University of Minnesota as a strategic partner in this initiative was
natural. “The University is a world-class research and teaching
institution in the fields of agriculture, food science, nutrition,
and public health. We are fortunate to have a strategic partner in
our own backyard.”
The University’s campaign role will
include serving as the convening partner for a new series of annual
conferences on Native American nutrition, developing appropriate
cultural interfaces between academic research and its application by
Native communities, and creating a repository of best practices and
national expertise.
“The University of Minnesota and the
SMSC have a remarkable partnership, which includes, among others the
tribe’s support of scholarships of our Native American students and
support for our athletics programs. We are thrilled to lend our
expertise and leadership to this crucial campaign,” said University
of Minnesota President Eric W. Kaler.
For more information about Seeds of
Native Health, visit www.SeedsOfNativeHealth.org.