Saturday, March 31, 2018

[Minnesota Rising Dispatch] March 2018


[#mnrising Dispatch] March 2018

The Gregorian calendar shows that with the Vernal Equinox springtime has arrived in our hemisphere of the world and the alternating warmer days and snow showers help us to begin making the transition ourselves. The link below featuring the recent YNPN Twin Cities blog post, Living into the answers details how we at Minnesota Rising have been shifting in the past few years in response to questions about what we are willing to let go and what we want to center instead.

Like others, we gained hope from the intention behind the intersectional approach to this month's March for Our Lives and drew inspiration to continue investing in youth and communities as #NeverAgain #MeToo #BlackLivesMatters continue to compel us to create change. And so we offer some great current opportunities to do so locally: share with a young woman of color and/or Indigenous woman about St. Kate's First Step Summer Institute, submit a story to #MinneAsianStoriesby CAAL to deepen the diversity of Asian Minnesotan narratives, encourage Latinx/Latina/Latino youth ages 12-18 who live in Minnesota to apply for the NAVIGATE MN (Unidos MN) Youth Action Summer Camp, pass along AmeriCorps opportunities with Public Allies and C3 TwinCities, and spread the word about a Marketing 101 session specifically for BIPOC small business owners and entrepreneurs. See the rest of this Dispatch for other community-building and resource-sharing opportunities!

YNPN Leadership Institute

Deadline April 30

Are you hungry for leadership and personal development opportunities, but struggle to find them in your daily routine? Do you work in the nonprofit and/or philanthropic sector? Fired up about your work and want to see that flame burn brightly throughout your career? Well that takes fuel, that takes space, and that takes tending. That takes the Leadership Institute. YNPN Twin Cities is offering a unique cohort experience. The experience is aimed at encouraging exploration of the big career questions you’ve been asking, and will continue to ask, while doing some serious skill swapping and network weaving across the local philanthropic and nonprofit worlds. [Read more.]


Living into the answers

by Diane Tran, YNPN Twin Cities Blog
“Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.” – Rilke At Minnesota Rising, our mission is to build trust, relationships, and a shared vision for the future of Minnesota, while developing the collective capacity of the rising generation to lead collaboratively. Just how we do this has evolved over time, as we continue to inquire into and assess our strategic intent and impact. For those nonprofiteers who also value emergent learning and developmental evaluation, we offer a couple of our questions and answers. Q1: What are we willing to let go? [Read more.]

Emerging City Champions

Deadline April 2 

Emerging City Champions is a fellowship program for young civic innovators with transformative ideas. They are looking for future city leaders with creative solutions to activate public life in public spaces, enhance mobility options, and build a culture of civic engagement in their communities. This program elevates new voices in city building, and supports projects that strengthen communities. Champions will receive $5,000 in seed funding to implement one community project in one year. These projects must address public space, mobility, and civic engagement challenges in the community. They are looking for projects that respond to community needs, build on local assets, and are implemented through collaboration. [Read more.]


Political Leaders of Tomorrow Internship

womenwinning

womenwinning is seeking candidates for the Political Leaders of Tomorrow Internship Training Program. The program trains the next generation of political leaders in Minnesota. womenwinning staff teach participants how to navigate campaigns and the tools to be successful on any campaign. Staff then helps interns find a candidate to intern with for hands-on, real-life experience. After completing this training, participants will be a great asset to a candidate’s team and have built the foundations of a strong network. This is the first step to starting a fulfilling career in politics! Program details: Interns hired into the program will recieve an in-depth training hosted by womenwinning covering a wide range of topics from the Minnesota political landscape to how to run a successful campaign operation at any level of office. [Read more.]

News from the Network

Updates and events with our esteemed partners and collaborators!

Community Conversation: Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Assassination 
Wednesday, April 4
4:30pm - 5:30pm
YWCA Minneapolis

Art as Inspiration for the Common Good: Honoring Joan and Walter Mondale
Thursday, April 5
5:00pm
Humphrey School

Social Media Breakfast MSP: Social Media Case Studies
Friday, April 6
8:00am - 10:00am
514 Studios

Mu Gala 2018: The Can Can Wonderland Edition
Monday, April 9
5:30pm
Can Can Wonderland

The Forum on Workplace Inclusion: Power the Future 
April 10 - 12, 2018
Mpls Convention Center

2018 API Day at the Capitol: "Our Youth, Our Future"
CAPM
Thursday, April 12
9:30am
Capitol Rotunda

Twin Cities Young Professional Summit
Eden Prairie Chamber of Commerce
Friday, April 13
7:30am - 1:30pm
Sheraton Bloomington

Succession Planning: You Need to Start—Yesterday!
Friday, April 13
9:00am - 12:00pm
Hamline University

CLA Lunch and Learn
MINN
Friday, April 13
11:30am - 1:30pm
CliftonLarsonAllen

Pho vs. Khob Poob (Nplooj Radio's Spring Fundraiser)
Saturday, April 14
12:00pm - 5:00pm
Indigenous Roots Cultural Arts Center

St. Stephen's Human Services Benefit
Saturday, April 14
6:00pm
UST Law School Atrium

2018 Consumers Celebration
Citizens Utility Board
Monday, April 16
5:00pm Reception
Metro State University

Ron McKinley Philanthropy Fellowship Information Session
Friday, April 19
10:30am - 12:00pm
MCF

Scholar Reception & Community Fundraiser for College-Bound APIA Youth
NAAAP-MN
Friday, April 19
5:30pm – 7:30pm
Campus Club

Arts & Crafts 2018: The Creative Race
COMPAS
Sunday, April 21
3:00pm - 6:00pm
Can Can Wonderland

Inclusive Science
Saturday, April 28
1:30pm - 4:30pm
MN Humanities Center

The TCBPN 10th Anniversary Get Together: Design Thinking Crash Course 
Thursday, May 3
6:00pm - 8:00pm
University of St. Thomas


Copyright © 2018 Minnesota Rising, All rights reserved.

Friday, March 23, 2018

[Blog Buddies] Living into the answers

It was time this month for my annual YNPN Twin Cities blog post and I had questions. And . . . some answers. See below for an update on what Minnesota Rising has been inquiring into and how we've been responding over the past couple of years.

Living into the answers


“Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.” – Rilke
At Minnesota Rising, our mission is to build trust, relationships, and a shared vision for the future of Minnesota, while developing the collective capacity of the rising generation to lead collaboratively. Just how we do this has evolved over time, as we continue to inquire into and assess our strategic intent and impact. For those nonprofiteers who also value emergent learning and developmental evaluation, we offer a couple of our questions and answers.
The Minnesota Rising Un/Conference was our network’s first signature event, bringing together 100-150 emerging leaders each year. The daylong events featured optional AM connecting and creativity sessions, keynote speakers, breakout sessions, Open Space sessions, Show and Tell sessions, and a happy hour. Through these annual gatherings between 2010 – 2014, we built the leadership capacity of volunteer event planners, provided emerging leaders opportunities to showcase their talent and knowledge earlier than they might be invited to do so in their professional careers, and built community among our state’s emerging leaders as well as young professional groups. The most commonly cited outcomes for attendees were the ability to connect with other leaders via an energizing event as well as to gain and generate new ideas for specific projects they were advancing.
As we considered our strategy moving forward after hosting five successful Un/Conferences, we lamented the potential loss of a key event that our community had come to know and rely on and the opportunity to collaborate with a wide array of local emerging leader groups and organizations. On the flip side, planning and hosting an annual Un/Conference took a great deal of resources and we knew we could afford to let go of the five months of extensive planning required annually. So we chose to take a hiatus from the annual Un/Conference and began to explore opportunities to more directly help emerging leaders connect and collaborate in ways that could more efficiently leverage our volunteer time and organizational resources.
The IDEA GENERATION was our effort to test a more focused format that innovated on how to help emerging leaders move even further and faster in their efforts to impact Minnesota’s future. A Pro-Action Café allowing attendees to share and workshop their ideas with one another in real-time, the two events we hosted in 2015 were highly regarded and resulted in several ideas proffered gaining additional traction and/or coming to life following the events.
A1: Rather than continue to host an event, no matter how great an event, in perpetuity, we wanted to be thoughtful about what other formats or methods might help us best achieve our goals. Further, we anticipated that this move might demonstrate to the rising generation the importance of letting go and the ability to become increasingly comfortable with impermanence. Rather than end up ourselves as long-time leaders who struggle to let go of power or to make space for others, we wanted to begin to gain a comfort and confidence in letting go of things early and often as individuals and as a generation.
Our approach at Minnesota Rising is meant to create a tent large enough that anyone who connects themselves to this geography or generation (i.e. Minnesotan or Millennial) can come together beneath it. While this broad lens would seem to inherently encompass “all,” since most Millennials eschew labels and not everyone living in Minnesota feels welcome here, considers it is their primary or most visible identity, or would characterize this native land as the #BoldNorth, we miss those not in the mainstream. Indeed, the words “we” and “us” are not always as inclusive as they aspire to be.
In fact, in order for us to center those at the margins of this conversation, we have had to narrow in on who with and how to have new conversations. The two ways we responded:
An initiative of Minnesota Rising, Greater Minnesota Rising was a research and community engagement project in North Central and West Central Minnesota. From April 2015 – February 2016, the project team sought to outline the region's assets and challenges related to workforce needs and community vitality and develop recommendations for engaging local emerging leaders and community organizations in northwestern Minnesota. We conducted an environmental scan, focus groups, and a World Café in effort to engage the insights of emerging leaders in developing recommendations to ensure their local communities could offer the lifestyles, relationships, and opportunities to support them, their families, and their futures.
An initiative of Minnesota Rising founded in 2013, LOCUS works to provide space, connection, and opportunities for authentic community building, identity-driven leadership, and resource sharing – by and for people of color and indigenous peoples. LOCUS aims to host meeting grounds for authentic community building and we host regular dialogues, events, and Family Dinners. We embrace and support each other through the pursuit of stronger connection and inclusiveness. Through these practices, we strive to cultivate a pool of identity-driven leaders, ready to lead in our local communities.
A2: By spending time in communities where our network has not been as deeply engaged, building relationships and having the conversations they’re interested in, we develop a more expansive understanding of the stories and opportunities in our state. With this context, we can support emerging leaders to connect with one another, identify what they want to build in their own communities, and move to action on co-creating those assets and relationships that help us shape a stronger Minnesota inclusive of voices that are not always interested in or that do not feel invited to participate in the mainstream conversation.
What questions have been sitting with you or your organization lately? And how have you found yourself living into them?
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