Deer River Implements Full Service Community Schools Model to Improve Student Outcomes Up to two-thirds of a student’s ability to succeed in school is determined by what happens out of school. A child who is hungry or cold, in pain due to untreated medical needs, or exposed to traumatic stresses can have trouble with memory, …
Forums on Race Spark Conversations that Matter to the Future of Rural Minnesota Rural Minnesota communities are facing changes and pressures today that test long-held assumptions and challenge local leaders to forge new relationships. In fact, between 2010 and 2015, Minnesota has added four times as many people of color as white residents, according to …
Labeled a silent epidemic by two previous surgeons general, oral disease is on the rise in the United State as access to dental care dwindles in hard-to-reach places. At home in Minnesota, remote rural areas grapple with unrealistic dentist-to-patient ratios, distance to clinics, lack of transportation and clinics that cannot afford to accept dental assistance. …
Take a step back in time, to a 1900 logging camp in the Northwoods of Minnesota. While there, you can take in the smells of the bunk house where lumberjacks sleep two to a bed, visit the cook shack where men eat piles of flapjacks, wind timbers, sinkers and swamp water, grab your gear in …
Engaged. Networked. Community-focused. Just three of many ways to describe rural Minnesota community leaders. When a group of our leadership program alumni in the Redwood Falls area gathered last fall, three leaders agreed to share what fuels their work. Their thoughts were entirely on-target with the day’s discussion, which centered on skills community leaders can …
MacRostie’s traveling exhibit “What’s Left: Lives Touched by Suicide” is a perfect example The art exhibit “What’s Left; Lives Touched by Suicide” was created to open a more honest conversation about mental illness and suicide. For over two years, it has done just that, crisscrossing the state, forcing people to talk about, and truly “see” …
Colorful murals, performances in the park, public art sculptures – vibrant, healthy communities are made up of many interrelated dimensions, but perhaps none are as visible as a community’s commitment to integrating art into daily life. Thriving communities explore and reflect the cultural backgrounds, talents and experience of all community members through art. By infusing …
It’s January. Many folks start each new year focused on improvements they want to make. Itasca area youth programs are doing the same. Today, 30 staff from nearly a dozen organizations that provide after-school activities and programs are reviewing data about the quality of their programming, and charting a course for change. The programs are …
As new populations move into rural communities across Minnesota, local leaders are met with new opportunities, challenges, and, above all, hope for stronger communities. To share these stories, Blandin Foundation awarded a grant to MinnPost, along with many other funders, to extend their New American coverage outside of the metro area. Here’s a bit about …
Minnesota Council on Foundations recently profiled Public Policy and Engagement Program Associate Becky LaPlant for their latest issue of Giving Forum. In the article, Becky shares her journey to philanthropy and how, after 15 years at the Foundation, she approaches her community work. The Blandin Foundation continues to work internally and externally in ways that …