Tusaalo Mentorship Program is an innovative program developed with the goal of connecting Somali youth with local Somali professionals through culturally-specific and school-based mentorship. In Somali, to be a "tusaalo" is to be an example, which is precisely the role we envision for Somali professionals. Focusing on 9th and 10th graders, our goal is to establish the foundations necessary for increased academic engagement and performance.
Our Space Is Spoken For is a multidisciplinary public art storytelling project to creatively foster largescale awareness and dialogue around the untold narratives of how historically marginalized communities redefine and negotiate space. TCMA will curate a cohort of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) artists and St. Paul BIPOC residents to create public art performances inspired by residents’ stories, which will be filmed and later screened as part of a public event and discussion.
This project will complete a chloride management plan which will lay out a strategy for addressing chloride impacts to our surface waters for the 7-county metropolitan area. This chloride management plan will satisfy EPA requirements for impaired waters, address waters not yet listed, and develop a strategy to protect waters that are currently meeting the water quality standards.
This project will provide the MPCA and all local partners in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area (TCMA) the information and tools necessary to improve and/or maintain water quality with respect to chloride for the 7-county metropolitan area during the winter maintenace period.
National Register of Historic Places nomination preparation and a management plan for the 47-acre Two Points property on Ottertail Peninsula, Leech Lake. Included is a spatial analysis of physical artifacts, researching documentation of the site, creating and annotating maps, taking photos and completing the nomination form with attachments and bibliography.
The Two Rivers Watershed is listed as a high priority in the Stearns County Comprehensive Water Management Plan. This project will inventory the existing public drainage systems and develop a targeting program to measure, prioritize and target the factors causing the water quality problems of Two Rivers Lake (impaired for nutrients) in Stearns County. With public access and a county park on the lake, it is a destination for fisherman in the area.
The goal of this project is to assess groundwater sustainability in the I-94 corridor between the Twin Cities and St. Cloud due to the corridor's significant expected growth, the inerent natural limits of groundwater, and the vulnerability of groundwater to contamination.
Through our “Somali Language and Culture” gatherings, Central MN neighbors will learn conversational Somali phrases they can share with their colleagues, customers, clients, patients, and/or friends. These gatherings will also include a time of learning about the Somali culture! These sessions will be taught by Farhiya Iman, a member of the St. Cloud Somali community, a Unite Cloud speaker, and a local small business owner.
For this project, we are partnering with a local Somali-owned business, Nori Cafe and Creamery. Nori Cafe and Creamery provides a space that bridges the gap between different cultures through events and an array of coffee, tea, smoothies and cold drinks. Starting this past June, they have hosted bi-monthly “Somali Language Nights” where a local member of the Central MN Somali community teaches Somali phrases to non-Somali community members. #unitecloud has promoted this event on our social media and the response has been fantastic!
The Institute of Child Development has provided the home for the Laboratory School since 1925 and has a long history of supporting research, academics, and outreach programs in early childhood. The language nest program will be overseen by PI Sheila Williams Ridge who has been supporting or directing the Laboratory School since 2010. Sheila has a deep understanding of culturally appropriate early childhood education.
Our primary objectives during this project start are to plan and create a comprehensive curriculum based on the knowledge of Dakota elders and community members, early childhood educators, and families. This will begin by connecting with and visiting language nests (either in person or virtually) to build a program plan. The program plan will include the curriculum for young children, college students, and families. It will also include building a foundational knowledge base around Dakota culture and language for the Child Development Laboratory School staff.
The goals of the project are to create unique learning opportunities for Dakota language students and families, increase enrollment by Indigenous peoples into the early childhood program to help prepare students for teaching in Indigenous language immersion programs, and support language learning in early childhood that leads to continued learning in later years, and develop a parenting skills curriculum for parents.
Fund stewardship projects at Clifton French Regional Park that focus on upgrading facilities that have reached their normal end-of-life. Project improvements include a new Creative Play Area, complete rebuild of parking lots and roads, and complete rebuild
Though many parts of the Twin Cities metropolitan area are urbanized, there are also has large areas of natural lands that continue to serve as important habitat for fish, wildlife, and plant communities. However, pressure on these remaining lands continues to intensify as population and development pressures increase.
This project will target three identified drainage systems contributing to one tributary outfall to Long Lake, an impaired water body of the Sauk River Chain of Lakes. These systems produce large volumes of stormwater runoff that degrades the tributary and compromise water quality.
This project will provide the monitoring of reaches where there are data gaps, incorporate new data and analyze relevant data, identify pollutant sources, hold a stakeholder meeting, and gather information towards the future development of a Draft Restoration (TMDL) and Protection Plan.
The goal of this project is to conduct water chemistry monitoring at two subwatershed sites based on flow conditions, targeting runoff events using protocols defined in the Watershed Pollutant Load Monitoring Network (WPLMN) Standard Operating Procedures and Guidance. The data collected will be submitted to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and used in the FLUX32 model for calculating pollutant loads. This loading information, in turn, will be used at both the state and local level to guide policy and strategies for the restoration and protection of Minnesota’s waters.
The goal of phase 1 of this project is primarily to support organizational planning and coordination among project partners, forming and training a civic engagement team, creating a civic engagement strategic plan, holding two watershed kick off meetings and gathering and summarizing available water quality data. The completion of phase 1 will help provide significant momentum towards the completion of the future phases of the Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) process.
This project will support the monitoring of reaches where there are data gaps, incorporate new data and relevant data, continue identification of pollutant sources, complete load duration curves, coordinate and encourage participation in stakeholder meetings. The information gathered during Phase IIB will be utilized towards the development of a Draft Restoration (TMDL) and Protection Plan (Plan).
This project will extend the simulation period for the Hydrological Simulation Program - FORTRAN (HSPF) models for the Grand Rapids, Brainerd, Crow Wing, Redeye, Long Prairie, Sartell, Sauk, St. Cloud, and Crow watersheds, and review and comment on the calibration.
This project will extend, calibrate, and validate watershed models using the Hydrological Simulation Program - FORTRAN (HSPF) watershed model for the Mississippi Headwaters, Leech Lake, Pine, and South Fork Crow Watersheds.
Upper Mississippi, North Fork Crow River Major Watershed TMDL Project led by CROW with assistance from local partners North Fork Crow River Watershed District (WD); Middle Fork Crow River WD; Wright Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD).
The primary goal of this project is to examine the calibration and validation of recently extended Hydrological Simulation Program – FORTRAN (HSPF) watershed models for the Mississippi River-Headwaters, Mississippi River-Grand Rapids, Mississippi River-Brainerd, Mississippi River-Sartell, Mississippi River-St. Cloud, Leech Lake, Pine River, Crow Wing River, Long Prairie River, and Redeye River watersheds and revise the calibration.
This project will develop a watershed restoration plan that provides quantitative pollutant load reduction estimates and a set of pollutant reduction and watershed management strategies to achieve water quality standards for all impairments within the watershed. It will also an important framework for civic and citizen engagement and communication, which will contribute to long-term public participation in surface water protection and restoration activities throughout the watershed.
The project included documenting all existing interpretive panels and markers of the U.S. - Dakota War in the MN River Valley and researching potential sites for new interpretive panels or markers. The end result is a written document with an inventory of existing marked U.S. - Dakota War sites in the MN River Valley, research of unmarked sites and an overall strategy of which sites could be marked to better tell the story. The report will provides guidance in telling a more complete story of the U.S. - Dakota War of 1862 through interpretive markers.
