Sept. 16, 2019 (MINNEAPOLIS) The City of Minneapolis has engaged the University of Minnesota's Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) for the final phase of Neighborhoods 2020. CURA has several decades of experience working with many neighborhood organizations to create strategic initiatives, planning and board development. It also works to benefit historically marginalized communities. CURA will help the Neighborhood and Community Relations Department with these elements of the final phase of Neighborhoods 2020:

• Developing overall program goals and outcomes.
• Developing metrics to measure progress toward goals.
• Developing the Neighborhoods 2020 program guidelines.
• Defining a racial equity analysis of neighborhood association operations and activities.
• Developing a “logic model” for the new neighborhoods program that includes inputs, activities, outputs and outcomes.
• Convening the governance and funding workgroups and include additional stakeholders such as Neighborhood Revitalization Program Policy Board members, Neighborhood and Community Engagement Commission commissioners and neighborhood association members.
• Emphasizing renters and community members who are not currently engaged in neighborhood associations.
• Identifying a budget-neutral structure for the City to best support neighborhood associations. Developing accountability measures for exclusionary practices.

Next steps

In the fall of 2019, the Neighborhood and Community Relations Department and CURA will hold meetings for various stakeholders including neighborhood organizations and black and indigenous communities and communities of color to further develop program guidelines, a racial equity analysis and a “logic model” for the new program. These materials will be posted for a 45-day public comment period in late January 2020. The final draft will go to the City Council’s Public Health, Environment, Civil Rights and Engagement Committee in late March with final approval by the City Council in late March or early April 2020.

Background
Neighborhoods 2020 is a plan for continuing to fund neighborhood organizations and community-based organizations in Minneapolis and identifying expectations for the work they do. When the existing funding source for Minneapolis neighborhood organizations ends, Neighborhoods 2020 is the City of Minneapolis recommendation for carrying on the vision to preserve its neighborhood organizations and the expectations to create equitable communities where all people are valued, communities are engaged and leadership mirrors the diversity of the city.

Find more information on Neighborhoods 2020 and its process here.

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