Northside foundation puts youth in charge
Diani Reynolds, of North High School, left, and Jeremie Niyonkuru, Jr., of Camden High, review grant proposals. Provided photo
By Kiya Darden, North High School
A leading funder in North Minneapolis is turning over some of its funding decisions to a group of teens.
The Northside Funders Group started the Northside Youth Enrichment Fund in 2023, which just finished its second round of applications. NYEF is a hyperlocal grant that targets organizations that bring social, economic, and educational opportunities to youth in North Minneapolis.
Over the course of two days, the group of students went through seventy proposals from community organizations and divided out a sum of $170,000 to twelve groups. Putting the decision into the hands of youth was an intentional design from NYFG’s vision to redistribute wealth, decentralize power and put economic control into the hands of the Northside.
“The best people to know what young people, especially Northside young people, would be attracted to…are their peers,” said Joel Luedtke, program manager at the Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation of Minnesota. Luedtke was one of three adults joining the nine youths in this process.
Rabya Hassen, program officer at the Mortensen Family Foundations, said the youth board could be used to eliminate opportunity gaps for students of color that the community sees year after year. Youth on the board is an essential part of the Northside.
“A lot of times adults say their youth are future leaders, but I believe that you all are our leaders right now,” Hassen said to the group of students.
Aside from the opportunities and benefits provided by the programs that the grant funds, the Northside youth serving on the board gain valuable experience.
“The last time I did this was right around the time we were writing our final essays for English, and I realized that I was proofreading the exact same way they told us to here,” said youth board member and North High student Sawyer Erstad.
Diani Reynolds, also a North student and youth board member, said this experience inspires him to want more for his community.