Shanta Link offers Somali youth in Minneapolis a helping hand on to college
The new foundation provides not only financial help but also models and mentors.
Cynthia Boyd
Cynthia Boyd, MinnPost’s Community Sketchbook reporter, covers poverty, homelessness, mental health, and other topics related to the social and economic challenges facing communities. Community Sketchbook is sponsored by The Minneapolis Foundation. Email Cynthia at cboyd@minnpost.com.
Counting the homeless is challenging, especially in Minnesota
State and federal estimates differ on the tally of Minnesotans without a permanent place to lay their heads.
School-readiness report: Poverty biggest hurdle for Minnesota’s vulnerable children
Wilder Research study author says early childhood policies and practices are misdirected.
Mankato program finds creative ways to get low-income families transportation
Wheel Get There 3 matches up low-wage earners and vehicles they need and can afford.
Minnesota report focuses on programs that work for Indian students
Faced with the nation’s lowest on-time high-school graduation rate for Native American students, researchers examine why three programs are having success.
How to help solve some social problems? Improve our health
Participants at the Minnesota Healthy Communities Conference highlight examples of health-focused programs that improve society.
As church scandal grows, Catholic Charities keeps an eye on donations
Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis is closely watching for any decline in giving because of fallout from the ongoing clergy sexual-abuse scandal.
From Ethiopia to Minneapolis coffee shops, Somali community cheers Warsame’s election
Political activists and ordinary voters alike see hope in the face and promises of Somali-born Abdi Warsame.
Turning Minnesota’s job-skills gap into an opportunity for low-income families
A conference in St. Paul could help bring about a win-win situation for both the state and job-seeking Minnesotans.
Temporary food aid expires for about 500,000 low-income Minnesotans
The additional benefits were put in place to help the needy get through the Great Recession.
Social worker wanted to help the needy — so she became an auto mechanic
The Lift Garage, a godsend for low-income folks with ailing vehicles, is the brain child of Cathy Heying.
Outreach effort explains Minneapolis elections to homeless — and the complications of ranked-choice voting
There will be workshops and Q-and-A sessions on ranked-choice voting directed at often-disenfranchised communities, including the homeless.
Getting people who speak for the powerless into positions of power
Nexus Community Partners is aiming to bring voices of the poor, immigrants, people of color and the disabled to tables of power around the Twin Cities.
59 percent of American Indians in Minnesota smoke, new study reveals
The report, released to MinnPost, is described as the most comprehensive state-wide data in the country on tobacco use among American Indians.
Shutdown threatens 2,500 Minnesota children in Head Start programs
The executive director of the Minnesota Head Start Association said: “We got slammed on sequestration. We’re going to get hit again.”
How census numbers on poverty can be misleading
Some anti-poverty measures are not taken into account in Census figures.
As shutdown looms, Minnesota’s low-income families face cuts in benefits
Shutdown cuts would come on top of the expiration of a temporary hike to food benefits mandated in the 2009.
Behind Minnesota’s poverty numbers: Rates stabilize, but job quality declining
State demographer Susan Brower points to high rates of poverty among some racial groups.
Born poor, a mother at 16, stabbed five times, shot — and then a new life
Speaking at a Wilder Foundation event, Robin Hicks describes her experience with poverty and violence to make a point.
What’s the relationship between poverty and poor decision-making?
New research may surprise you — it’s not the connection may people think.
