Grantees

GRANTEES

Our stars in the fight against poverty in the Twin Cities

The Constellation Fund celebrates the efforts of every nonprofit organization dedicated to alleviating poverty in our community, all of which are providing important support to those experiencing this pressing challenge. Because of this, there is a role for philanthropy to invest across the broader nonprofit landscape and its varied approaches. Constellation plays a specific and necessary role within this broader approach: to use the best available information to identify and holistically support nonprofit service providers with the potential to create transformational impact for those in our community who need it most.

We are privileged to support the following nonprofits in their poverty-fighting work.

Alliance Housing

Alliance Housing builds and manages affordable housing for people with very low incomes – the majority of their properties require 30 percent of area median income. Alliance’s niche is securing housing for the hardest segments of the population to house: those with criminal histories, seniors with histories of homelessness, people with serious and persistent mental illness, and those with previous evictions. Using a relational, flexible property management model, Alliance provides access to housing with minimal preconditions resulting in stable housing and very low eviction rates for low-income families and individuals.

ALLIANCE WEBSITE

Annex Teen Clinic

Annex Teen Clinic provides low-cost/sliding scale sexuality-related health care, education, counseling, and outreach to adolescents in Northwest Hennepin County and North Minneapolis who are at risk for unplanned pregnancies and in need of reproductive health care. Most Annex patients experience significant health disparities due to their age, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity, income levels, insurance access, transportation issues, or concerns about confidentiality. In addition to providing services at its Robbinsdale clinic, Annex takes sexual health services and education to youth in a variety of community settings through its Clinic in a Box program and school outreach.

ANNEX TEEN CLINIC WEBSITE

Banyan Community

Banyan Community originated as an informal block club and afterschool youth program in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis in 1998. The organization now exists as a community hub for resources and provides youth and family programming. Services range from youth development (including an on-site preschool, afterschool programs, homework tutoring, college mentoring and summer programs), family services (home visits, parent conferences), and community strengthening (gathering events, adult education, and neighborhood engagement). Almost every young person that connects to Banyan becomes part of the Banyan “family” and stays engaged through college.

BANYAN COMMUNITY WEBSITE

Centro Tyrone Guzman

As the oldest multi-service Latine* organization in Minneapolis, Centro Tyrone Guzman serves more than 7,000 individuals annually. Since 1971, Centro has served all ages, from infants to elders, using education, health, and wellness as the key strategies to build community strength, participation, and vitality. Its evidence-based, family- centered, and culturally-responsive services address health and education disparities and empower Latines to change systems and mindsets. Centro’s approach is unique in many ways, with its programming revolving around the model of an Intergenerational Learning Community, using a Montessori-influenced approach to educate, connect, and engage youth, adults, and elders.

CENTRO WEBSITE

Dougherty Family College (DFC) – Student Support Services

Dougherty Family College at the University of St. Thomas offers a two-year liberal arts associate degree program combining rigorous academics with comprehensive and culturally sustaining supports that prepare scholars to navigate and overcome social and financial barriers on their path to a bachelor’s degree. DFC sets the standard for preparing historically underrepresented scholars to earn a future four-year degree, get on the path to a meaningful professional career and step into their role as transformative community leaders.

DFC WEBSITE

EMERGE Community Development – Career Training Program

EMERGE Community Development provides workforce services and operates three social enterprises in the Twin Cities with locations in North Minneapolis and Cedar Riverside. Its workforce programs include work readiness and foundational job skill training, job placement, financial wellness, youth employment, employment retention, and career training and certification. EMERGE operates Second Chance Recycling, Nielsen Metal Manufacturing, and Furnish Office and Home social enterprises. The Career Training Program helps people obtain a job credential that increases likelihood of employment and pays higher average wages than among workers without the credential. Currently, EMERGE helps its trainees to obtain Certified Nursing Assistant, Personal Care Assistant, Commercial Driving License, and Forklift Operation credentials. EMERGE recruits trainees, prepares them for training, and provides job placement support following the training.

EMERGE Community Development Website

Family Tree Clinic

Family Tree Clinic is a nonprofit community clinic founded in 1971 that provides sexual health medical services and sexual education. Family Tree Clinic provides medical reproductive and sexual health services, limited primary care, and services that are culturally responsive to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community. Notably, this includes the only informed-consent gender affirming hormone therapy available on a sliding fee scale in Minnesota. Family Tree Clinic also provides sexual health education to Saint Paul and suburban public school students, to youth in the juvenile corrections system, to students at the Deaf, Deaf-Blind, and Hard-of-Hearing school in Saint Paul, and to adults and youth in community and clinic settings. Finally, Family Tree Clinic operates the Minnesota Family Planning and STD Hotline.

FAMILY TREE CLINIC WEBSITE

Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Minneapolis (JFCS) – ParentChild+ Home Visit Program

JFCS offers more than 30 programs in five major content areas: Career Services, Children and Family Services, Community Engagement, Counseling and Mental Health Services, and Senior Services. The organization also offers the ParentChild+ program — a free, intensive home visiting program for families with children ages 2-4 that supports families with school readiness, parenting skills, and child development. This program helps under-served children bridge the opportunity gap and prepare for success in school by bringing highly-trained Early Learning Specialists (ELSs) into families’ homes for twice-weekly visits over a two-year period.

JFCS WEBSITE

Keystone Community Services – Food Program

Keystone Community Services provides a number of programs for youth and seniors in St. Paul alongside its food programs, which are the focus of Constellation’s support. Not only does Keystone aim to give families access to food and emergency services, but we provide healthy choices and supplemental food sources to keep families on the right track – empowering them to build self-sufficiency and healthy eating habits. Constellation’s funding will support Keystone’s two fixed site food shelves, two “foodmobiles” that visit 26 sites (five of them health care locations), and a grocery delivery service that delivers free groceries to over 500 low-income senior citizens. These dollars will also leverage significant public funds, public and private food donations, and volunteer labor to reduce food insecurity for approximately 20,000 people in St. Paul and nearby suburbs.

KEYSTONE WEBSITE

Lutheran Social Services – Metro Homeless Youth Services

Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota (LSS) is one of the largest statewide private social service organizations in Minnesota. Program services are grouped into three service categories, including: Children, Youth, Families and the Center for Changing Lives; Services for Older Adults; and People with Disabilities. LSS’s Metro Homeless Youth Services program provides a continuum of supportive housing programs, with a goal of accompanying youth and youth-led families who are experiencing homelessness in the Twin Cities as they establish relationships with caring adults and work toward housing stability. Service beneficiaries include youth and youth-led families from ages 16 to 24 who are experiencing homelessness.

MHYS WEBSITE

Mental Health Resources – Health and Wellness Initiative

Mental Health Resources serves 6,000 metro-area residents each year who are recovering from serious or serious and persistent mental illness. MHR collaborates with clients and their families to facilitate learning and growth for individuals, families and the community, and to foster client empowerment and expectation of success. The Health and Wellness Initiative integrates primary care, dental care, tobacco cessation, and the pursuit of health, fitness and chronic disease management goals with MHR’s core mental care work. By building overall health and wellness, people with serious mental illness will live longer, improve their quality of life, and increase their ability to pursue recovery goals.

MHR WEBSITE

The Minnesota Prison Doula Project (MnPDP)

MnPDP, a project of the Ostara Initiative, provides pregnancy and parenting support for incarcerated women with the ultimate goal of ending prison birth in the United States. MnPDP provides birth support from trained doulas, as well as group-based and individual education and support to pregnant women and mothers. The staff work with women serving sentences in the Minnesota Correctional Facility – Shakopee (Minnesota’s only women’s state prison) and women held in county correctional facilities in Ramsey and Hennepin counties.

MnPDP WEBSITE

Montessori American Indian Childcare Center

Montessori American Indian Childcare Center (MAICC) provides American Indian children (prenatal to 6) and their parents access to a high-fidelity Montessori early learning experience grounded in American Indian culture and values. The preschool also provides opportunities for children to study the Ojibwe and D/Lakota language. Funding from Constellation supports MAICC’s general operations, including staffing needs, family stabilization programs, and parenting education and support.

MAICC WEBSITE

Neighborhood Development Center (NDC)

Neighborhood Development Center (NDC) conducts entrepreneur training and lending, makes working capital available to targeted businesses, and develops other innovative economic development initiatives in these same neighborhoods. NDC’s primary programs are: an entrepreneur training program that guide participants in how to own and operate their own business; a lending and profit based program provides funds to start-up and existing businesses; and a technical assistance program that offers ongoing support to businesses.

NDC WEBSITE

Neighborhood HealthSource (NHS)

NHS is a nonprofit Federally Qualified Health Center, providing primary and preventative health care to low-income, often uninsured women, men, and children in North and Northeast Minneapolis. NHS provides primary and preventive visits, care coordination, mental health and substance abuse services, and health education, and also works to address the social determinants of health through bi-directional referrals to community resources that provide needed social services.

NHS WEBSITE

Oasis for Youth – Mall of America Program

Oasis for Youth supports youth ages 16 to 24 experiencing or at risk for homelessness in Bloomington, Richfield, and Edina. Oasis’ overall objective is to prevent youth homelessness. When that is not possible, the organization works to ensure that episodes of homelessness are brief, rare, and non-recurring. The organization’s goal is to keep youth connected in their home community, enabling them to finish school, remain employed, and maintain positive social connections.

OASIS FOR YOUTH WEBSITE

Project for Pride in Living (PPL) – Career Pathways Program

PPL provides services to low-income individuals with the overall goal to build self-reliance. PPL implements its mission through housing with a variety of services, which includes 1,500 units of affordable, multi-family residential rental housing and comprehensive support services to create economic independence. In addition, PPL assists in the economic advancement of individuals through free employment training, workshops, and credentialed programs focused on overcoming barriers to employment and job retention.

PPL WEBSITE

Repowered

Repowered is a social enterprise that provides employment training through on-the-job experience for adults with barriers to employment such as criminal histories, homelessness, addiction recovery, or mental illness. Individuals and businesses donate used electronics that are then refurbished and sold. Recycling and refurbishing electronics provides paid employment, and Repowered’s job training program provides skills training, customized development plans, as well as ongoing coaching and support. Participants also receive one-on-one coaching sessions to improve soft skills, create resumes, and acquire job search assistance.

REPOWERED WEBSITE

St. Mary’s Health Clinics

St. Mary’s Health Clinics (SMHC) is a mission of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet that provides primary care to uninsured families and individuals who are not eligible for government programs, all of whom live below 200% of the federal poverty guidelines. The clinics conduct health screenings, education and promotion and outreach in collaboration with community organizations. SMHC also assists low-income people to find affordable healthcare coverage. Constellation’s general operating grant supports SMHC to pay nursing staff, community health workers, pay for specialty care on behalf of its patients, and purchase medication for its patients.

SMHC WEBSITE

Southside Family Nurturing Center

Southside Family Nurturing Center (SSFNC) serves children and families at-risk for abuse and neglect by providing a therapeutic center in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis. SSFNC’s early childhood education program serves children ages 16 months to 5 years, with a focus on helping each child develop healthy social/emotional, motor, self-regulation, and developmental skills, as well as academic kindergarten readiness skills. All preschool students can access on-site therapies such as music, play, or occupational therapy and receive two nutritionally balanced meals a day. The organization also provides supportive early intervention and home visiting for young families with young children to interrupt intergenerational cycles of poverty and violence.

SSFNC WEBSITE

Southside Harm Reduction Services

Southside Harm Reduction Services operates the largest syringe service program in the Twin Cities. It provides injecting drug users in Minneapolis and the midway neighborhood of St. Paul clean needles and related supplies to reduce the spread of disease, distributes naloxone to reverse opioid overdoses, conducts HIV testing, and refers people to addiction treatment, medical care, and social services. Southside delivers to homes, distributes in encampments, and encourages its clients to share extra supplies with peers. General operating funding for Southside will support its syringe services programming.

SOUTHSIDE WEBSITE

Summit Academy OIC

Summit Academy OIC trains and retrains individuals who are unemployed or underemployed, secures placement for trainees in jobs, and promotes other educational and developmental programs. Summit is accredited as a post-secondary vocational school by the Council on Occupational Education. Located in North Minneapolis, Summit Academy provides four 20-week career and technical education programs (electrician, carpentry, medical assistant, IT/service desk specialist) to students at no cost and with no loans, as well as a 10-week GED program. Summit Academy has emerging relationships with technical colleges, allowing graduates to pursue further education.

SUMMIT WEBSITE

Teen HOPE

Teen HOPE is a program of Hennepin Healthcare that provides public health case management to all Hennepin County teen parents who receive grants from Minnesota’s Family Investment Program and are without a high school diploma or GED. The primary goal of the program is to increase the number of low-income young parents who graduate from high school or earn their GED and succeed in college or training. All participants and their children receive home visiting services from a public health nurse, case management from the nurse or a social worker, and educational support from one of two sites designed to help young parents complete their high school education and pursue postsecondary plans. Constellation’s grant to Teen HOPE will support general operations for its program, allowing the organization to easily switch programming offerings as participants and staff return to the office, or to expand services into the evening.

TEEN HOPE WEBSITE

Ujamaa Place

Ujamaa serves African American men between the ages of 17 and 28 experiencing barriers to employment, including undereducation (no high school degree or GED), criminal history, homelessness, mental health, and substance abuse. Ujamaa provides academic and employment skill development as well as life skill development, including financial management, supports for healthy relationships, and fulfilling basic needs such as transportation, food, access to health care services, and support with housing. Ujamaa focuses on five critical outcomes: stable housing, increased educational attainment, securing and retaining a job, connections to family and children, and the elimination of contact with the penal system.

UJAMAA PLACE WEBSITE

Volunteer Lawyers Network – Housing Program

Volunteer Lawyers Network (VLN) provides a referral network which connects individuals and families – the majority of whom are living below the poverty line – with legal advice and services provided without charge by volunteer licensed attorneys. VLN’s housing programs aims to keep families stably housed in safe, healthy, and affordable rental homes by providing legal assistance in eviction defense, repair litigation, and eviction expungement. The approach is highly collaborative; VLN partners with other legal aid organizations in Minnesota, the courts, mediators, and financial resources at housing court clinics. Constellation funding provides general operating funds to VLN’s Housing Program supporting Hennepin, Ramsey, and Anoka Counties.

VLN WEBSITE

Way to Grow

Way to Grow prepares children for academic success and supports families by providing holistic, culturally-appropriate educational services through home visits and in-school activities in North Minneapolis and the northern suburbs. Way to Grow works with 33 Minneapolis Public Schools, 27 charter schools, eight private schools, and dozens of community organizations. In its cornerstone program, Great by Eight, Family Educators assess each family’s unique situation and connect them with relevant services and resources. They also implement Way to Grow’s home visiting curriculum, which builds a supportive educational pipeline from birth through third grade and continuously scaffolds educational activities as children’s skills advance to the next level.

WAY TO GROW WEBSITE

Wallin Education Partners

Wallin Education Partners enables college and career success for high-potential Minnesota students with financial need through scholarships and comprehensive advising support. Wallin scholars are four- and two-year college students who receive last-dollar scholarship support from the organization, as well as scholar advising through college completion.

WALLIN EDUCATION PARTNERS WEBSITE

YMCA of the North’s Youth and Family Services (YFS)

YFS serves vulnerable youth ages 16 to 24 who are in foster care, homeless or unstably housed, in the juvenile justice system, experiencing violence, or disconnected from their school or community. YMCA of the North’s staff work with youth and families to find and maintain safe, stable, affordable housing, and to address barriers to stability, which include support with both employment and educational goals. YFS has significant expertise in providing the holistic support needed to move youth and youth-headed households out of poverty. The depth of its programming allows YFS to meet youth needs and address barriers through employment at YMCAs across the metro, leadership opportunities, access to basic needs, and parenting supports.

YFS WEBSITE

30,000 Feet

30,000 Feet is focused on addressing educational disparities faced by students in St. Paul, ensuring that all students are able to achieve their full potential. Its objectives are to increase academic achievement among African American students, reveal and nurture students’ artistic skills, and use art as a way to improve literacy outcomes. 30,000 Feet works towards this goal by providing culturally-responsive academic tutoring to elementary and middle school students during the school year, enrichment activities during the summer, and a coding program targeted at high school students, including those who have had involvement with the justice system.

30,000 FEET WEBSITE