Thank you to all of our community members and Ward 10 council candidates for participating in our forum! It was great to hear the candidates' visions for our ward and city. The forum can be viewed here in its entirety. 
Host: Kevin O'Hara, LHENA Treasurer
Moderator:  Charlie Rybak, Co-Founder SWPLS News
​The Candidates:Click a name to be directed to campaign website.

• Aisha Chughtai​
• Steven Frich
• Alicia Gibson
• Katie Jones
• Chris Parsons
• David Wheeler

The LHENA Board of Directors will convene on February 17th for its monthly meeting. The public is welcome to attend. A draft agenda is attached below. 

LHENA Board Meeting
Wednesday, February 17
6:30-8:30pm
​Zoom

If you have questions, please contact paul@thewedge.org. ​

LHENA believes in the power of neighbors helping neighbors. We’re hoping you do too. Brothers EMpowered is making a difference in Minneapolis and can make an even bigger impact with our help. The Lowry Hill East Neighborhood Association (LHENA) has partnered with Brothers EMpowered to support the organization’s work to bring back that village mentality. At this moment in Minneapolis, we need all hands on deck to address the trauma that is impacting our communities. Young people need more positive role models, and mentorship can have positive ripple effects in youth lives to create real, generational change.

You can play a part in funding the work of Brothers EMpowered to prepare youth for greatness and equip them to excel in every aspect of their lives. Our aim is modest: to raise a total of $5,000. This money will support Brothers EMpowered programming, services, and events, and help them expand their community outreach. Anyone can contribute, and every contribution will help build a bridge to a brighter tomorrow and a more equitable future. 

Donate today. 

Everyone deserves an opportunity to reach their full potential. But not everyone gets that opportunity. We have an opportunity gap in America, and public safety has become a pressing issue in Minneapolis because of it. Since George Floyd's death in 2020, violence is up, and public morale is down across the city. The crime problem is primarily in the 3rd and 4th Precincts, but everyone living in Southwest Minneapolis (the 5th Precinct) is being impacted. The saddest part is that many of the people committing crimes and being hurt or killed are young people. Now is the time to remember that it takes a village to raise a child and figure out how we can help be part of solutions.

A number of unsung community organizations in the city already are doing this. One of those is Brothers EMpowered in North Minneapolis, led by Charles Caine, who has a simple mission: bring back that village mentality. Caine started Brothers EMpowered in 2014 to help men of color overcome the barriers in their lives and the lives in their communities. They work with youth starting at the age of 9 and provide life coaching, mentorship, healing and restoration, business training, community peacekeeping and community outreach.

Brothers EMpowered has a strong connection within the community in North Minneapolis. They believe there is no positive influence in the urban community without positive action in the urban community, and their community engagement mentorship program teaches youth how to engage with their community by giving back. They have organized food share programs, school equipment drives and more. Through their programming and services, inner-city youth learn skills to develop leadership, accountability, discipline, self-respect, good work ethics, and a positive sense of purpose and direction — skills that can close the opportunity gap and help youth reach their full potential.

In these times, it’s easy to feel cynical and perhaps even powerless. But we have more power in the community than sometimes we realize. We hope you'll give what you can (even if that's just spreading the word about this fundraiser) to help us increase the peace and create more opportunities for all people in Minneapolis. By bringing people together from different neighborhoods and walks of life, we can build that village all children need. 
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We are filled with gratitude for the love and generosity of this community we get to serve. Thank you, everyone, for whatever part you can play in community mentorship. We're doing something necessary and great together.

If you are interested in being a community mentor for youth in Minneapolis in the future, we would love to hear from you. Please share your thoughts on community mentorship.  ​

Donate

At an Environmental Committee meeting earlier this month, representatives from the Midtown Greenway Coalition, including Wedge neighbor Zack Mohlis, presented on a campaign to extend the Greenway path from Minneapolis across the Short Line bridge into St. Paul. This would allow neighbors to bike from the Wedge to St. Paul and would bring new traffic into our local businesses from across the river. (Read about the project here and here.)

Neighbors at the meeting voted to support this project and sent a motion to LHENA's board that would make LHENA as an organization a formal supporter. On Wednesday, 1/20, the board (ten Wedge neighbor-leaders) voted on this motion and unanimously approved, which means that LHENA is now a sponsoring partner of the effort to extend the Greenway.

Thank you to all the neighbors who supported this project, and thank you to Zack and Soren for bringing the project to the attention of neighbors.

What's next? Zack says, "Right now the main bottleneck is the railroad, and we need to do everything we can to put pressure on them to allow us to improve their bridge and add a bike path. So anything that helps keep Extend the Greenway in positive public discourse is super helpful!"

Zack also says that contacting elected officials and voicing support for extending the Greenway over the river would help. "Particularly ways it would benefit the local businesses in the communities and the economy ie biking to the soccer stadium or getting a beer with your friends who live in Saint Paul." You can also become a member of the Midtown Greenway Coalition.