Community Prosperity

Strong communities have a sense of shared experience, goals, and challenges. In order to face these opportunities and challenges together, the urban American Indian community needs to work collaboratively both within the community and with other communities to achieve success. It is imperative that the American Indian community continues to foster a sense of belonging and participation amongst community members.

Community Voices
• “Community development tries to build community through transportation, housing, education, recreation, business-elements that sustain a community, this is how community development happens all the time.” – American Indian community member
• “Community is when everybody stands together.” – American Indian man
• “Realizing ways agencies can work together., it reduces duplication of services. It develops a sense of community.” – American Indian community member

Implementation Strategies

Vision: American Indian people live in a community that builds and nurtures leaders from within, and the urban Indian community has a strong voice in local, state, and national politics

Strategies:
o Foster active, engaged American Indian community citizenship
o Create opportunities for youth to learn about and develop leadership from a traditional/cultural grounding
o Provide innovative forums for leadership to gather, reconnect, and utilize traditional leadership in a contemporary context
o Maintain a vibrant geographic community base in south Minneapolis with population density that provides a center of political power and influence
o Promote and increase the number of American Indians running for and holding political office
o Build strong community relationships with governmental institutions
o Build strong connections to tribal governments
o Increase community understanding of the political process
o Develop a Franklin Planning Council with strong American Indian representation
o Increase American Indian grassroots political involvement
o Develop a prominent regional American Indian political caucus
o Increase the visibility of the American Indian community in the region

Vision: American Indian people are served by an efficient and collaborative social service network that reduces dependency and fosters self-sufficiency

Strategies:
o Develop collaboration and relationship building among American Indian and other non-profit organizations and their staffs
o Promote the efficient use of resources and the reduction of redundant overhead costs in American Indian organizations by sharing office space, instituting collaborative purchasing contracts, sharing staff, and other strategies
o Foster a sense of shared purpose and goals amongst organizations
o Increase dialogue with and oversight from American Indian community members in program development and implementation so that program participants are involved in the decision-making process
o Develop all programming with an asset-building approach that develops participant self-sufficiency and discourage program dependency
o Eliminate redundant programming and support successful programming

Vision: American Indian people have a geographic home in the Twin Cities that provides a strong sense of community pride and lasting relationships

Strategies:
o Implement the American Indian Cultural Corridor
o Create and maintain spaces and places for the American Indian community to gather such as:
• Outdoor space/parks
• Meeting space
• Event space
• Performance space
• Ceremony space
o Strengthen relationships between tribal and urban Indian communities
o Develop and present year-round cultural activities in the Cultural Corridor and throughout the metropolitan region
o Ensure regular community-based neighborhood planning and continuous community engagement during the planning and implementation process in the Cultural Corridor
o Maintain and expand American Indian participation in neighborhood organizations
o Create and support citizen groups such as block clubs
o Increase community cooperation with adjacent neighborhoods/organizations to the Cultural Corridor
o Build ties with other ethnic and cultural groups and partner on projects
o Focus on internal and external relationship building in the community
o Increase the production and distribution of American Indian media content
o Develop a community digital signage system to compliment the American Indian Cultural Corridor
o Position the Franklin Library as a center within the County library system for information on American Indian culture and history
o Market the Cultural Corridor as a desirable place to live, work, and shop

Vision: American Indian people have a safe urban community where they feel welcome, secure, and valued

Strategies:
o Foster a healthy relationship between community members with police and other city departments
o Foster culturally aware and sensitive police officers, including greater recruitment of Indian police officers
• Build a relationship with the Minneapolis police department to create a pipeline for American Indians to police jobs
• Maintain an active community safety center in the Cultural Corridor
o Strengthen American Indian involvement in neighborhood watches
o Utilize building and community design that encourages safety
• Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles: adequate lighting, no blind corners, etc.
• Safe and attractive pedestrian improvements under Hiawatha/LRT underpasses that are at a human scale
o Develop ex-offender programs to support re-entry to work after incarceration
o Foster positive police and youth interaction
o Foster a sense of community pride and ownership that does not tolerate crime

Vision: American Indian people have access to a world-class transportation and transit system

Strategies:
o Advocate for safe, convenient, attractive, and frequent public transit options for the metropolitan region
o Advocate for maintaining access from the Cultural Corridor area to the regional roadway system
o Plan and support the development of bike lanes
o Develop and implement high-quality pedestrian paths and streetscaping in the Cultural Corridor that accurately reflects American Indian cultures
o Promote land-use and density that supports urban transit

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