Building Better Futures: Urban Ventures Announces Grand Opening of Innovative Lake Street Works Vocational Training Center

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Building Better Futures: Urban Ventures Announces Grand Opening of Innovative Lake Street Works Vocational Training Center

Minneapolis, MN – 2/20/24 – Urban Ventures is pleased to announce the grand opening of the newly renovated Lake Street Works training center at 3017 4th Ave S. The training center is a pioneering vocational education facility designed to empower underserved communities of Minneapolis. The event on Tuesday, March 5 at 5 pm, will highlight the essential role skilled trades play in providing high-paying and fulfilling career paths.

The Lake Street Works training center recently underwent an extensive renovation and now boasts enhanced accessibility, modern life skills training areas, and a workshop equipped with industry-standard tools and workbenches. These vital updates ensure students gain firsthand experience in carpentry, electrical work, plumbing, HVAC, and a variety of finishing trades, closely mirroring the real-world industry settings they will encounter.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, vocational careers often lead to median annual wages significantly above the national average, offering a viable alternative to the four-year college route and underscoring the value of trade skills in today's economy.

"We're excited about the potential this remodeled training center brings to our community," said Dave Hawn, President of Urban Ventures. "Offering an alternative to the traditional educational path, Lake Street Works equips students with the skills, confidence, and opportunities to pursue fulfilling careers in the trades, contributing to the economic vitality of our neighborhood."

The program’s director, Jess Coykendall, adds, “Exposure is one of the biggest challenges that local youth face with getting a foot in the doorway to a career in construction.”

The Lake Street Works program has a track record of success, with numerous participants receiving scholarships to trade schools and securing positions in the trades upon completion. This underscores the program's efficacy in not only teaching practical skills but also in nurturing personal growth and professional development.

“The majority of our students graduate the program having already engaged in their career plan, giving them a head-start over most other high school graduates.” Coykendall shares, “We want to give youth the means to break the generational cycle of minimum wage job hopping. Construction is a well-paying career that doesn’t require a traditional 4-year degree or $100,000 worth of debt. There are a million different strong avenues within the construction industry that a student could choose to pursue.”

Victor Cortes Smith, a graduate of Lake Street Works, explained how the program changed the trajectory of his life. “We learned hard skills downstairs and soft skills upstairs. The different projects we built, the team building activities we did, the field trips we took, all helped me get to a position I never thought I would be in.” Victor is now studying at Dunwoody College of Technology on a scholarship obtained through his time at Lake Street Works.

The grand opening event offers an opportunity for the community to explore the new facilities, meet with educators, coaches, and students, and discover the positive impact of Lake Street Works.

For more information about the Lake Street Works program and the grand opening event, please visit lakestreetworks.org. Join us as we celebrate this milestone in vocational education and community development.

 

About Urban Ventures:

Urban Ventures is a non-profit organization focused on breaking the cycle of poverty in South Minneapolis through education, family support, and community building initiatives. With a holistic approach, Urban Ventures offers programs for every age and every stage of a child’s development, from cradle to career.

 

About Lake Street Works:

Lake Street Works is an after-school workforce development program serving young men and women, high school seniors from the lowest income communities of Minneapolis. Students develop both trade skills and life skills through program counseling, instruction, activities, mentoring, and hands-on learning.

 

Contact:

Photos and videos from the training center and student projects are available upon request.

Luke Trouten, Director of Development
Urban Ventures
Email: media@urbanventures.org
Phone: 612.545.9874

Nathan's Journey: Pathway to New Beginnings

The other men exit the room as Nathan settles down in his chair, next to the plaque he just received. Class finished a few minutes ago. For most of the others, they’ll be back in a month to continue. But today is graduation day for Nathan, he has officially completed the Pathway to New Beginnings program at Urban Ventures.

The Pathway program began as a pilot with the Minneapolis Department of Justice. The impressive results have made it a template for cities around the nation looking for a different approach to nonviolent firearm arrests.

Nathan's journey to the program mirrors that of others — by choice, albeit a constrained one. "I didn't want to be here," Nathan admits, "but it was either this or jail. So, I figured I'd endure the stupid program."

Pathway offers an alternative for individuals arrested for unlawful firearm possession, often discovered during unrelated activities. Nathan, like many, was apprehended during a traffic stop. "I was on my way to my mom's house," he explains. "Someone had broken into her garage, and I was going to help secure it." Instead, he found himself in front of a judge.

Previously, such charges meant jail time and/or a fine. Minneapolis recognized this punishment did little to deter residents from carrying unregistered weapons, as most were rearrested within a year. For many, a criminal record meant lost work opportunities and social support, fostering desperation and likely leading to further crime. It was a feedback loop where the intended solution only amplified the issue.

Pathway adopts a different stance. Looking back, he laughs about his initial attitude. “I was 100% the rebellious teenager. I assumed it was all part of a system to punish me. I didn’t like the idea of it.” However, he began to sense that something was different about this approach.

The program was conceived by Priscilla Brown, a trained therapist profoundly affected by gun violence — her son was killed by an unregistered firearm. Her grief catalyzed a quest to understand the prevalence of gun violence and potential deterrents.

Pathway aims to address the root causes of firearm offenses. Many, like Nathan, feel compelled to carry a weapon for protection. "You experience things very young, and they become your norm." He hadn’t even reached middle school before his first experience with gun violence.

Around 10 years old, while outside a local market, older kids started ushering them around the corner. Behind him, Nathan heard yelling, and then gunshots. Not long after that he was talking to a friend about defending himself. Like most teenage boys he was convinced he could win a fight. His friend paused before making a sobering statement, “Man, people don’t fight anymore.”

“It’s so rooted in the community,” Nathan reveals. “You end up having to brace yourself all the time. Everything is so volatile. It can go from me and you having a conversation to shots fired.” Nathan shares stories that, sadly, are too common where he grew up: being robbed at gunpoint, kids dying from stray bullets, a family member who was murdered due to mistaken identity.

“You realize that nobody is going to come save you. But a Black man with a gun is considered a criminal. I just want to make it home. But it’s not seen as wanting to defend ourselves, it’s not considered our right as citizens.”

It can feel like there is no alternative path. The feedback loop intensifies. It’s a literal arms race between those who cause harm and those trying to avoid it. “We’re taught conflict. We’re taught disconnection. We’re not taught the resolution and reconciliation piece of life. We only know what we see, and that’s a lot of trauma.”

Asked what makes Pathway different, Nathan doesn’t hesitate. To him, it’s obvious. “This is not a gun diversion program. This is group therapy. And it’s needed.”

“This is not a gun diversion program. This is group therapy. And it’s needed.”

The program involves classes and exercises focused less on firearms and more on creating the life participants desire.. As Nathan explains, “As I got older it wasn’t the life I wanted for myself. But it was the life that was given to me.”

This feeling of being trapped creates a difficult tension. Nathan continues, “The most important term I learned in this class was ‘cognitive dissonance.’ I feel that, I was taught this life from an early age. I knew how to operate the gun before I knew the laws around it. You know it’s wrong, you know that your way of thinking is wrong, but you justify it.”

The program allowed Nathan to reflect on his motivations, distinguishing between reactions (emotionally driven) and responses (rooted in understanding). “Now I have the tools to think in a long-term state of mind, not just short term.”

He explains how the program has helped him strengthen his emotional intelligence. “I don’t need a gun to feel safe,” he says, “and this isn’t worth my life.” Overcoming his past's momentum is challenging, but during the last class, Maurice, one of the directors, reminded the men, “Be who you are, not who somebody else told you you’re going to be.”

Yet, the stigma of a criminal record persists. “People look at me and say, ‘there goes trouble.’ They judge me based on how I look. They don’t know I work in IT, that I’ve worked for Fortune 500 companies. They just see how I look and where I live and think they know me.”

A key Pathway benefit is the eventual expungement of records, which has significantly lowered recidivism rates among graduates. For Nathan, this was a decisive factor.

“We’re not criminals, we’re humans. Humans make mistakes. Mistakes are how we learn. Some of us just bump their heads harder than others.” He sees potential in programs like Pathway, designed with an understanding and kindness often absent in the legal system.

As a graduate, Nathan now focuses on reemployment and financial improvement. “It’s tough, there are so many barriers. I understand why guys say, ‘I might as well go back to what I know.’” But with newfound self-awareness, he remains hopeful. Maurice echoes the sentiment, “I have never seen someone get what we’re trying to do here as much as he does. He is the perfect example of what can happen in this program. Who knows, maybe in a few years Nate will be running this place.”

 

Students react to becoming Act Six 2023 scholarship recipients

Our big goal is to send every child in our neighborhood to college or another form of postsecondary education. One of the greatest barriers to a college education is cost. Through the Act Six program, students receive full-need, full-tuition scholarships to one of our six parter colleges and universities.

One of the highlights of our year is sharing the news with applicants that they have emerged from hundreds of applicants to become one of the 40 scholars chosen to receive the scholarship.

In addition to financial support, each of these young leaders will receive leadership development training and academic support through Urban Ventures during their college career. It is a crucial part of our cradle-to-career structure of support and an pivotal moment in the lives of these students, their families, and our community.

You can make moments like this possible when you donate to Urban Ventures. Will you donate today and help continue expanding access to education and creating more moments like this?

Minneapolis Mayor, Local Leaders to Attend Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for New Cornwell Early Learning Center Serving Low-Income Families

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – October 6, 2022 — A ribbon cutting ceremony will be held on Wednesday, October 12, to celebrate the grand opening of Urban Ventures’ Cornwell Early Learning Center in South Minneapolis.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Minneapolis City Council Member Jason Chavez, Hennepin County Commissioner Angela Conley, and other local leaders including principals, business leaders, and families, will be in attendance to recognize the important addition to the South Minneapolis Community.

Urban Ventures is a faith-based non-profit that has served the Philips, Central, and surrounding neighborhoods in south Minneapolis for nearly 30 years. Urban Ventures offers “cradle-to-career” programming to support children and families at every stage of life, with the goal of sending every child in the neighborhood to college or another form of postsecondary education. The Cornwell Early Learning Center is one of the most significant expansions of UV’s “pipeline of support.”

“Most kids in our neighborhood arrive at kindergarten without the basic skills they need,” said David Hawn, President and CEO of Urban Ventures. “Kids who start behind often stay behind. This center is another way of demonstrating our commitment to helping prepare kids in our neighborhood to succeed.”

Located in the Colin Powell Center, Urban Ventures main building and community center, the Cornwell Early Learning Center (CELC) is a state-of-the-art early childhood education hub. The CELC can serve up to 84 students and their families. Children’s ages range from six weeks old through preschool. The center began accepting students last fall, earning a four-star Parent Aware rating in its first year of operation.

The center specializes in helping low-income families gain access to high-quality childcare. Research shows that children who experience the greatest gains from quality, stable early childhood education – lower income and BIPOC children – also experience the most barriers to affording and accessing that care. Urban Ventures mitigates these barriers by helping families navigate the complicated process of applying for county aid and offering scholarships to make enrollment affordable. The entire family benefits from this model.

MaryBeth Stotts, Director of the CELC, extolled the benefits of having a center within Urban Ventures. “We know that to serve kids well we need to serve their families well. Because we are a part of Urban Ventures, we can offer programs to parents and older siblings that most centers don’t have. It’s not just that your child is getting important developmental support, but you can also join a class on parenting or financial literacy. Your older kids can take music lessons, receive intensive reading support, or get after-school homework help. We’re able to come alongside the entire family.”

The final piece of construction, an outdoor play area, was added in front of the Urban Ventures building this summer. The space provides a safe and secure place for children to play outdoors. Key to the design was leaving the existing trees intact. “It’s unique to have a small, wooded area for kids to play in the city. And after all that’s happened in our community these last few years,” shared Hawn, “it’s a joy to see kids playing outside near Lake Street.”

The ribbon-cutting celebration will take place on Wednesday, October 12, from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm at the Colin Powell Center (2924 Fourth Ave South). The event will include remarks from local officials, a story time and song by the children, and a testimonial from a parent of children in the center.

CONTACT:
Luke Trouten
Associate Director, Advancement – Urban Ventures
612.545.9874 | luketrouten@urbanventures.org

Urban Ventures Outdoors

Urban Ventures’ Newest Program

We believe that nature—and its power to foster community, self-discovery, and personal development—should be open and available to everyone. This summer, Urban Ventures is launching a new program: Urban Ventures Outdoors. The program will provide access to wilderness experiences for students and young adults in our community.

Urban Ventures Outdoors is an expansion of a pilot trip taken last summer: a five-day wilderness canoe trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA). The trip, which included UV staff, college students from UV’s Act Six College Scholarship Program, along with adult mentors was a big success, and left us excited to expand our programming. This summer Urban Ventures will send four separate student/mentor groups on similar BWCA canoe trips.

How it Works

Each BWCA canoe trip will pair UV supported college students with adult mentors from the Twin Cities area on a six-day wilderness expedition. The trips have a twofold mission:

  1. provide students with a wilderness expedition that can boost their confidence, promote mental and physical wellness, develop new skills, and foster self-discovery;

  2. use the trip as a catalyst for the students to build durable relationships with the adult mentors that can serve as a continued resource for them as they move into their adulthood and professional careers.

The trips will be outfitted by the non-profit Wilderness Canoe Base, which operates a camp and outfitter service at the end of the Gunflint Trail on Seagull Lake at the edge of the BWCA wilderness. Wilderness Canoe Base will be providing us with professional guides, equipment and meals, as well as lodging at their Island base camp at the beginning and end of each trip.

Each of the four trips this summer will be gender specific, and include the following nine members:

  • 1 Professional Guide from Wilderness Canoe Base

  • 1 Adult Staff Member from Urban Ventures

  • 2 Adult Volunteer Mentors

  • 5 College Students from the Act Six Scholarship Program

Based on the success of last year, Urban Ventures is excited for what this summer’s expansion will bring. You can help make these trips possible by making a donation today.

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