Women’s Foundation Awards $300,000 in Grants to Support Future Economic Prosperity for Minnesota Girls

The Women’s Foundation of Minnesota has awarded 20 multi-year grants and three planning grants totaling $300,000 to nonprofit organizations through its girlsBEST (girls Building Economic Success Together) Fund. This grant represents the sixth cohort of girlsBEST grantee-partners who are receiving the first of a multi-year grant from girlsBEST. Multi-year grants will be renewed for up to three years, based on an annual grant review and approval of progress towards goals. Seed grants, awarded to support planning, are limited to one year. The grant period is June 15, 2020, to June 14, 2021.

In response to the disparities highlighted amid COVID-19 and the additional ways in which many grantee-partner organizations are leading as first-responders in a crisis, the grants support general operations to allow grantee-partners to be more responsive and flexible to address the rapidly changing needs in this environment. Further, as WFMN accelerates its commitment to racial justice, we are listening to communities and organizations most impacted and investing in healing spaces and services dedicated to Black women and girls and additional communities of color.

Launched in 2002, girlsBEST awards grants to girl-led programs that build the opportunity and future economic success of Minnesota’s girls, ages 12-18, particularly low-income girls, Native girls and girls of color, girls in Greater Minnesota, and additional girls experiencing disparities in academic and professional outcomes. Grantee-partners increase girls’ awareness of systemic gender and racial inequities, grow their sense of being change agents, foster their development as leaders, and build their capacity for individual and collective activism in order to increase girls’ readiness to achieve economic well-being.

Multi-year grantee-partners:

The ANIKA Foundation (Minneapolis) | $14,000 — To support TEXTURE, a youth social enterprise that teaches technical skills, provides wraparound support for soft skills, emotional,  and spiritual development, and equips youth with financial wellness education to make sound personal and business decisions through their WE! program. The ANIKA Foundation promotes healthy equity, civic engagement, and economic empowerment.

Asian Media Access (Minneapolis) | $14,000 — To support Asian Girls Empowerment (AGE) Project, which trains Asian American girls in Asian dances and bicultural leadership to build cultural pride and enhance girls’ self-esteem and develop skills. Asian Media Access supports creative solutions for problems facing the Asian American & Pacific Islander community through education, production, information technology, and community organizing.

Bagosendaan (Mahnomen) | $14,000 — To provide horseback riding experiences for low-income youth, ages 11 to 18, to engage their interest, provide motivation, and build competence. Bagosendaan builds self-esteem and promotes leadership among youth as they mature into successful adults by using talking circles, counselors, and guest speakers, and horseback riding.

Centro Tyrone Guzman (Minneapolis) | $14,000 — To support Jóvenes Latinas al Poder which provides tools and opportunities to Latina teen girls and femme-identifying youth to exercise their leadership and collective power to advocate for justice, inclusion, and equity. Centro Tyrone Guzman helps Latina girls gain confidence in their ability to lead and advocate through self-confidence building, establishing professional networks, and preparing them for post-secondary education and career success.

Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio (CLUES) (Minneapolis & St. Paul) | $14,000 — To fund a leadership retreat for youth participants in the YA! and Entre Mujeres (“Between Women”) programs, both of which empower Latinx youth from low-income households through activities and offerings including mentoring, leadership development, college access services,  and safe and culturally anchored spaces for growth. CLUES connects individuals and families with services, resources, skills, institutions, and systems and creates an environment for people to be engaged and empowered.

Dakota Wicohan (Morton) | $19,000 — To provide the Dakota Wicohan’s Dakota Itancanpi Kte Unkihduwiyayapi /Dakota Youth Leadership Program, the only year-round out-of-school youth program in the Lower Sioux area. Dakota Wicohan empowers Dakota youth and prepares them as culture bearers, positively connects them to their community, and grounds them in their Dakota culture to help them on a path to contribute to our community academically, economically, socially, and culturally.

Hmong American Partnership (HAP) (St. Paul) | $14,000 — To enable the Nthxais Hmoob Career Program (NHCP), modeled after a Learn & Earn framework, which combines career counseling, wraparound support services, individualized services plans, and connections to employers to support Hmong and Karen girls, ages 14 to 18. HAP empowers refugee and immigrant communities in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.

Hnub Tshiab: Hmong Women Achieving Together (St. Paul) | $14,000 — To run the Girls Enterprise Zone (EZ), a social, entrepreneurial, and workforce development program that uses teaching and hands-on work experience with Hmong girls, ages 13 to 18, to explore, create, and market their own products for sale. Hnub Tshiab’s is a catalyst for lasting social, cultural, and institutional change to improve the lives of Hmong women.

Liberty Community Church, PCUSA (Minneapolis) | $14,000 — To administer The 21st Century Academy that equips K–12 scholars, particularly girls and young women, to be accelerated learners, game-changing global leaders, and justice-oriented entrepreneurs through academic support, enrichment, STEM learning, nutrition, and more. Liberty practices radical hope through the healing of racialized trauma, academic excellence, artistic expression, and innovative activism.

The Link (Minneapolis) | $14,000 — To support the Career and Leadership Development program which targets economic well-being, helping LGBTQ+ girls and young women of color to develop skills related to professionalism and the workplace, finance, and interpersonal abilities. The Link works with youth and families to overcome the impacts of poverty and injustice.

Men As Peacemakers (Duluth) | $14,000 — To empower girls of color to change the systems impacting youth and to normalize the power, influence, and leadership of girls of color. Men As Peacemakers helps Native girls and girls of color navigate an environment where sexual violence and exploitation has become normal.

Project DIVA (Minneapolis) | $14,000 — To fund the Business Academy 369, a program designed to allow Black girls the freedom to determine a career or business while allowing them to connect with successful women in those fields to learn more. Project DIVA guides Black girls throughout the Twin Cities to make informed decisions as they transition into adulthood through a supportive coaching program focused on economic literacy and five other key focus areas of development.

Project FINE (Winona & St. Charles) | $14,000 — To run the Girls Reaching Above and Beyond (GRAB) program, which supports and builds power with girls from refugee and immigrant families to helps them discover their identities and create a road map to pursue their dreams.

Range Engineering Council (Hibbing) | $14,000 — To run #night programming, which invites high school girls to come to the Iron Range Engineering (IRE) campus to learn about opportunities in engineering careers by experiencing hands-on projects, interacting with female college engineering students, and attending workshops led by female engineers from industry. The Range Engineering Council supports and facilitates educational activities across the Iron Range that promote awareness of and encourage participation in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.

RECLAIM! (St. Paul) | $14,000 — To host the Queer & Trans Girls in Helping Professions group, which supports young people (ages 14 to 18) as they develop a group with therapeutic supports as well as career and professional development skills building. RECLAIM! works to increase access to mental health support so that queer and trans youth may reclaim their lives from oppression in all its forms.

Restoration for All (West St. Paul) | $14,000 — To fund the Future Solution Now (FUSON) project to equip, train and support 15 African immigrant and refugee girls, ages 12 to 18, in ethnic entrepreneurship. Through the program, girls become aware of economic opportunities while recognizing personal skills needed to achieve economic self-sufficiency and abilities using culturally appropriate strategies. Restoration for All nurtures and empowers individuals, organizations, and communities to discover, renew, and restore their cultural connections with improved socio-cultural well-being.

St. Catherine University—Minnesota Center for Diversity in Economics (MCDE) (St. Paul) | $14,000 — To administer a mentorship program for girls and young women called Cross-generational Female Economist Mentorship (C-FEM) for girls and young women from area high schools, ages 14 to 18.The MCDE promotes and supports gender and racial diversity in economics at every stage of the educational and career pipeline, while leveraging its position at a women’s college to design, implement, and study interventions.

St. Paul Youth Services (St. Paul) | $14,000 —To support the YouthPower Leadership Institute, a year-round, youth-designed leadership program where black girls ages 13 to 18 come together to discover, celebrate, and exercise leadership. St. Paul Youth Services (SPYS) is a leader in reimagining how our community engages with and holds itself accountable for youth.

uCodeGirl (Fargo-Moorhead) | $14,000 — To support Crack the Code: Mentorship, a program that provides supportive networking and STEM-focused events and opportunities for girls in the Fargo-Moorhead area. uCodeGirl builds a support system for teen girls to be nurtured for STEM academic success and to support students’ pursuit of their academic and career aspirations.

United Community Action Partnership (Marshall) | $14,000 — To support Generation Next, which works with girls, ages 12 to 18, and focuses on building awareness around gender inequities and cultural competency as a group and in their schools and local communities. United Community Action Partnership eliminates poverty by empowering individuals and strengthening communities.

Seed Grantee-partners:

Hispanic Advocacy and Community Empowerment through Research (HACER) (St. Paul) | $5,000 — To fund the Lateen Mom Households, a 10-month program for 20 Latinx teen moms that helps them identify their strengths while receiving support from their community. HACER works in concert with the Latinx community to access, generate, and disseminate credible and relevant research studies to inform institutional decisions and public policy while building power with community.

Pillsbury United Communities—Brian Coyle Center (Minneapolis) | $5,000 — To host Girls Tech Fridays, where East African girls forge a career path that honors their cultural and religious traditions in a positive, supportive environment. The Brian Coyle Center hosts a continuum of programs designed around the neighborhood’s rapidly changing immigrant communities.

Sisters-N-Technology (Minneapolis) | $5,000 – To increase Black girls’ knowledge of STEM fields and prepare them to fill future STEM job opportunities through an after-school coding program. Sisters-N-Technology engages young women in computer science and related information technology fields.