Community Wellness

A holistic approach to address community needs

Food access, clinics, green space, and lighting — chosen block by block by the people who live there, because what Collegeville needs is not what Evergreen needs.

About Our Community Wellness Initiatives

Wellness here means the ordinary conditions that decide how long people live: a clinic you can reach without a car, groceries that are not a gas station, a park that is maintained, and a block where the streetlights work. We pick those fights with residents and deliver them with the city.

Health Access & Screenings

In partnership with [health partner], we bring vision, dental, and behavioral health screenings into neighborhood schools and community sites, removing the transportation barrier that keeps families from care.

Food Security Collaboration

We chair a standing table of [XX] partners — pantries, congregations, and the school system — so fresh produce, shelf-stable goods, and prepared meals reach Northside families without three agencies running the same route twice.

Green Space, Safety & Beautification

Vacant lot reclamation, walking trails, lighting, and neighborhood clean-ups planned with residents and delivered with the city — the visible signals that a neighborhood is cared for.

Northside Block Leaders

A resident leadership cohort. Fellows meet weekly with elected officials, business owners, and community leaders, and leave able to run a neighborhood association meeting, read a city budget, and get a work order answered. The point is that the next round of decisions about these blocks gets made by people who live on them.

Our Other Initiatives

Mixed-Income Housing Strategy

New and rehabbed housing across the income range, with affordability locked in by deed restriction rather than by promise — so the families here now are still here in twenty years.

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“Cradle-to-career” Education Pathway

One unbroken line from an infant classroom to a paycheck — early learning, a partner school, early college credit, and a credential that employers actually hire on.

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Economic Vitality

Trade apprenticeships, employers who commit to interviewing locally, and support for the businesses already operating here. Wages first, wealth second.

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A roof, a semester of tuition, a first apprenticeship hour — on the Northside, each one is funded by someone who does not live here.

Donate to Northside Initiative

Concentrated poverty on the Northside was engineered — by redlining, by the interstate, by plant closures. It can be un-engineered the same way: deliberately.

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Stand with the Northside

Come work a Saturday. Homeowner repair crews, vacant lot clean-ups, and tutoring all run on volunteer hours.

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