You are here: Home / Community Assets Search / The Meadow Park Initiative

The Meadow Park Initiative

Families do better when they live in a strong community with economic mobility, employment security, and self-advocacy. Since challenges such as poverty, unemployment, and housing instability tend to concentrate in areas negatively impacted by a history of disinvestment, targeted investments in these neighborhoods can develop them into the kind of place that allows families to reach their full potential. Established in October 2018, the Meadow Park Initiative focuses on a neighborhood with significant barriers to long-term financial stability and educational attainment. Residents are leading the way in developing an action plan for working together to make a difference in people’s lives in the neighborhood by identifying and cultivating local leadership, building meaningful connections between neighbors, and learning about residents’ hopes and dreams for the community.

Project Impact(s): Children & Youth, Diversity and Inclusion, Immigration, Neighborhood, Recreation & Open Space

This project is in Available Phase

Explore this page to view Beam's assessment of the basic description of the project, its impacts and collaboration atrributes. Also shown are status reports related to the project.
Please click this Link to get to Beam's view of the project's strategy, expected results, and monitored metrics.

Collaborators, Project Type, Impacts, Related Projects

Collaborators

Lead Organization: Family Service Rochester

Contact: April Suitor ; Email: asutor@familyservicerochester.org ; Phone: asutor@familyservicerochester.org 507-287-2010 ext 1022

Known/Likely Collaborators: Family Service Rochester ; Friendship Place ; IMAA ; Olmsted County Public Health Services ; RNeighbbors ; United Way of Southeast Minnesota

Potential Collaborators:

Related Projects

Impacts

Major Impact:

PlanScape Impacts :

Level 1: Children & Youth, Diversity and Inclusion, Immigration, Neighborhood, Recreation & Open Space

Level 2:

DMC Impacts:

Community Health Impacts:

Type of Project

Programming

Detailed Description

Sep 13, 2019, 12:09 PM

Dear Friends of Family Service Rochester,

FSR, in partnership with the Intercultural Mutual Assistance Association and the United Way of Olmsted County, is a finalist for the 2019 Mayo Clinic Shared Value Award in recognition of the Meadow Park Initiative.

The award provides up to $30,000 of support to new or existing collaborative efforts addressing a complex social challenge and increasing our community's capacity to improve health and vibrancy.

I hope you will help us by voting and sharing today. You can do both now in less than 30 seconds.

The Meadow Park Initiative creates community connectedness, fosters relationships, and reduces barriers through culturally appropriate activities and resident-driven efforts for the diverse Meadow Park residents. It brings Somali, Latino, African-American, Asian, and Caucasian residents together to work on shared aspirations, with the long-term goal of improving the quality of living, education, and health outcomes of residents.

In less than a year since its launch in November 2018, the neighborhood and partners have opened an office and formed a leadership council; completed a neighborhood assessment; participated in Rochester’s A Litter Bit Better campaign; arranged with Meadow Park Apartments for more frequent garbage collection; partnered with Hy-Vee to increase the availability of healthy foods including fresh fruits and vegetables, milk, and bread; and, established a soccer program with parent coaches and more than 50 youth.

Community members and Mayo Clinic employees will choose the winner from among three finalists. Voting will take place through October 15^th. Your vote counts for much and sharing your vote and this email can make it count that much more. Please take just a moment to VOTE and SHARE now. Then, share this email with your family and friends.

April Sutor, MPA

Director of Innovation and Collaboration

Family Service Rochester

4600 18^th Ave NW

Rochester, MN 55901

asutor@familyservicerochester.org

507-287-2010 ext 1022

www.familyservicerochester.org

Solution

The Meadow Park Initiative in Southeast Rochester is an emerging effort to build knowledge, skills, connections, partnerships, and leaders among diverse residents to collectively take action to advance their health and vibrancy. In less than a year since its launch in November 2018, the neighborhood and partners have opened an office and formed a leadership council; completed a neighborhood assessment; participated in Rochester’s A Litter Bit Better campaign; arranged with Meadow Park Apartments for more frequent garbage collection; partnered with HyVee to increase the availability of healthy foods including fresh fruits and vegetables, milk, and bread; and, established a soccer program with parent coaches and more than 50 youth.

Impacts

This intercultural neighborhood initiative creates community connectedness, fosters relationships, and reduces barriers through culturally appropriate activities and resident-driven efforts for the diverse Meadow Park residents. It brings Somali, Latino, African American, Asian, and Caucasian residents together to work on shared aspirations, with the long-term goal of improving the quality of living, education, and health outcomes of residents.

Other Community News and Reports having impacts on:

Children & Youth, Diversity and Inclusion, Immigration, Neighborhood, Recreation & Open Space

February 16, 2025: Chateau Theatre Upkeep

Feb 6, 2025 DMCC

Feb 3, 2025 City Council Proceedings

PB Reporting

February 14, 2025: Minnesota Selected for National Cohort Around Dual Enrollment Policy

Saint Paul, MN – Minnesota is one of seven states selected to join The Next Phase of Dual Enrollment Policy Cohort, a new initiative from the College in High School Alliance (CHSA) that seeks to advance dual enrollment policies across the nation. The cohort also includes New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington.

February 13, 2025: Journie 2025 Activities

Journie Juneteenth Recognition: 2025 Mr. & Miss Juneteenth Scholarship Recognition Application and Sponsorship Opportunities

The Juneteenth Experience Event at Mayo Civic

February 11, 2025: City SUPPORTING TRANSFORMATION - BOLD Unbound

City Council Study Session:

Video Recording Link

Presentation

Collaboration Commitment

February 11, 2025: Vision 2050 Report and Next Steps

Press Release

Results Report

City Council Study Session

February 08, 2025: Accountability and Metrics

DMCC Feb 2025 Meeting Accountability and Metrics engagement:

Presentation, Memo and Video Recording

February 07, 2025: DMC Equitable Economic Development

Feb 2025 DMC Board Meeting Report: Community Co-design, Equity Alliance Topics, Community Connection & Capacity Building, Pitch Event, Targeted Business Metrics, Affordable Housing

February 06, 2025: DMC Feb 2025 Key Topics

Feb 2025 DMC Board Meeting Key Topics:

Annual Report; Metrics and Accountability; 2nd Street SW Public Realm Enhancement; Public/Private Collaboration to advance City for Health brand; Video Recording

February 04, 2025: City Council Approval of Seneca Site for Sports Complex

Authorizing finalization of negotiations with Seneca Foods Corporation to purchase the approximately 160 acres of property in the amount of $5,000,000 for the Rochester Sports and Recreation Complex, to be finalized by survey of the property.

PB Reporting

February 01, 2025: Rochester Sports Complex Community Inputs

ISIAH: Ask Rochester City Council to Ensure Equitable Benefit of the Regional Sports Complex: "We believe it’s important that this complex offer equitable community benefit to residents and particular families who lack accessible recreation spaces and affordable, structured programs for their children."

January 31, 2025: 2024 – 2026 OLMSTED COUNTY COMMUNITY HEALTH IMPROVEMENT PLAN (CHIP)

A Collaborative Community Effort Led by: Olmsted County Public Health Services, Olmsted Medical Center, and Mayo Clinic

The Community Health Assessment and Planning (CHAP) Process is about improving the health and well-being of residents in Olmsted County. Every three years the community conducts a health needs assessment to determine Olmsted County’s health priorities; formulate a plan to address the needs; and publish an annual progress report. Olmsted County Public Health Services, Mayo Clinic, and Olmsted Medical Center engage with diverse partners across our community to lead this process.

January 30, 2025: Black History Month Series of Events

(1) 2025 Blank History Month Press Release (2) 2024 Black History Month Press Release

(3) 2023 Black History Month Press Release (4) 2022 Black History Month Press Release;

(5) 2021 Black History Month Press Release

January 25, 2025: Rochester International Relations Committee

1. 2025 Sister City Trips: Japan, Germany

2. Rochester Sister City Application (Roles and Responsibilities)

3. Meeting Info: Dec 2024 Meeting Minutes; Dec 2025 Mtg Agenda

January 21, 2025: Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Guidebook

W.K. Kellogg Foundation Publication: Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Guidebook: "Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) is a proven method for activating our collective dreams for our children. It enables communities to look at the root cause of the issues children and families face, namely racism; to begin healing from trauma and the embedded belief system that upholds racism; and to envision and build a more equitable future."

January 18, 2025: One Olmsted: Celebrating 2024 successes of diversity, equity, and inclusion

One Olmsted – Olmsted County’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiative – is about envisioning and developing a workplace and community where everyone is treated equitably. Olmsted County staff continue to make progress toward this vision and some highlights of their work in 2024 are noted below.

Last modified by support on 2022/08/03
Created by support on 2019/09/13

Site Information

Project Phase Definitions

The following defines the various project phases:

Available - a product, program or service is in production
Develop - program or application is being developed
Plan - idea is solid, stakeholders are identified, and there is strong commitment to go forward from all parties.
Concept Phase - idea scoped out with enough details to give an early sizing and/or to build a proof of concept
demonstration
Pre-concept Phase - an early idea or a requirement.

About Beam

Community Beam (dmcbeam.org) is a registry of private and public resources (organizations, projects, initiatives, programs) that underpin economic and social developments of greater Rochester:

For the commercial sector, we tend to register startup activities (new companies and new commercial projects) that bring diversification and high-impact opportunities to the area.
For the non-profit sector, we wish to shine light on all the organizations and services that otherwise labor under relative obscurity.
Our hope is that dmcbeam.org will encourage cross-sector collaborations and creative solutions.

While there are a number of registries in the community, dmcbeam.org's distinct value is to pilot a database with a data structure and categorizations that answer the questions such as: What organizations or projects/programs in our community that have purported relevance with some of the over-arching focuses put forward by initiatives such as DMC, J2G and Health Improvements?

This database could be used as one of the ways to explore the capacities of the community. If you are someone on an exploratory journey to learn about the greater Rochester community. dmcbeam.org could be an interesting first step.

Links to Beam sub-sites

Sample of Beam sub-sites:

Sections

The Meadow Park Initiative

This project is in Available Phase

Collaborators

Related Projects

Impacts

Type of Project

Solution

Impacts

Other Community News and Reports having impacts on: