AveNEWS April & May 2018

With your help, Avenues will be home to more than 300 youth in 2018. 

Upcoming Events

Get Ready for Pride! 
Avenues will be at Twin Cities and Golden Valley Pride this year. Make sure to stop by our booth to grab some candy and chat with staff. Details of where our booth will be are coming soon. 

Golden Valley Pride: June 10
Twin Cities Pride: June 23-24

The Strongest Fundraiser in Minnesota: Pull for Pride 
Join Avenues and Movement Minneapolis this Pride season for the 2nd Pull for Pride event! For every dollar donated to their crowdfund, lifters will lift that weight! Learn more here and join us on June 23rd! 
Get Out Your Dancing Shoes!  
Local celebrity Erin Schwab and Derek Murray are dancing for Avenues at the Dancing with the Twin Cities Celebrities Ball! Erin and Derek are up against a Project Runway genius, the founder of Airborne/Emergen-C and a singer from The Voice! Help cheer them on for charity by attending the event. 

When: June 2, 6:30 p.m. 

Learn more here about the fundraising ball here. 
Gratitude 
This Month 

Thank you to the Women's Employee Network of Delta Air Lines for donating these goodies for the young women at Avenues! 

Because of Girl Scout Troops 14071 and 16694, we got to surprise youth with boxes of cookies! Thank you for your donation, girls.

Thank you Lush at 50th and France for supplying us with bath and cosmetic goodies! We can't wait to pass out Mother's Day gifts to parenting youth.
Recommended
  Reading
Read about one of Avenues' youngest supporters, Shrey, in this Star Tribune Article.
Wish List
We keep our wish lists updated with our current needs. Click here for a printable list. S hop locally and deliver to Avenues. Contact Craig Freeman  to schedule your delivery. 

Or shop online at  Amazon , Target and Walmart . 

Conduct your own in-kind donation drive at your workplace, neighborhood, faith or civic organization! Avenues makes it easy: if you want to hold a drive, we will supply donation bins and marketing materials. Our staff can even drop off and pick up the bins and supplies. Contact Craig. 
 
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  Avenues for Homeless Youth

1708 Oak Park Ave North
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55411
612-522-1690
Dear Friends:

Spring is finally here! I am writing this with my office windows open and the aroma of Minneapolis Avenues' first cook-out of the season wafting in. From the sounds of it, the young people are having fun. It's a great reminder of the difference we make at Avenues every day: we provide youth a safe and stable place to live so that they can relax, recover from trauma, have fun and begin to dream about their futures.

This issue of AveNEWS is full of ways for you to connect with Avenues and support the dreams of our youth. Watch a beautiful video about Avenues and the impact of caring adults in young peoples' lives. Come to our May Open House and learn the fascinating history of our Minneapolis building. Join Pull for Pride, endorse the Make Homes Happen campaign, or check out our wish list.

For all that you've done and all that you continue to do to support youth experiencing homelessness, thank you from all of us at Avenues!

Katherine 

Katherine Meerse, Ph.D. 
Executive Director 

Thank You For Making Dreams Possible!

We are so thankful for those who made our 5th annual Building on Dreams event a success! On Tuesday, May 1, 250 guests and sponsors raised over $75,000 to support youth experiencing homelessness. 

During the event  Commissioner Marion Greene spoke about the importance of agencies like Avenues. Guests also heard powerful testimony from former Avenues' youth Hanie and Makeda about their journeys at Avenues.  Click the link below to watch Makeda's story. 


On behalf of the youth and staff of Avenues, thank you to all those who attended or supported Building on Dreams! A special thank you to our presenting sponsor, Alerus Mortgage, and to our other sponsors: Luther Automotive, KPMG, Sunrise Banks, Best Vendors Management, Justin Cox Photography, Schatz Real Estate Minneapolis Office, Timberland Partners, Mytech Partners, Erst and Young, Donato's Floral, and Craig and Carrie Pratt. 



Make sure to save the date for May 7, 2019! Our 6th annual Building on Dreams breakfast will celebrate Avenues for Homeless Youth's 25th Anniversary. We can't celebrate without you! 


The Jewish Sheltering Home for Children, 1934 (now Minneapolis Avenues). Part of the Sharron and Oren Steinfeldt Photography Collection at the Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives (University of Minnesota, St. Paul)

100 Years Of History: Learn About Minneapolis Avenues At Our Upcoming Open House

On May 22, 2018 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. we'll be opening our Minneapolis Avenues shelter to the public! Please join us for refreshments and a tour of our North Minneapolis shelter, which is home to 20 young people. 

During the tour we'll talk about Avenues' programs and our shelter's unique history. In November 1918, the Orthodox Jewish community in North Minneapolis created a children's sheltering home for youth experiencing homelessness, sheltering 42 children. 

The original building was torn down and rebuilt in 1934 and Avenues took over the building in 1997, naming it Minneapolis Avenues.


Avenues has Endorsed Make Homes Happen, And YOU Can Too 

A grave lack of affordable housing is one of the important factors contributing to youth homelessness. For the past year Avenues has been a part of Make Homes Happen (MHH),  a grassroots coalition of organizations mobilizing for production and preservation of affordable housing, protection of tenants' rights, advocacy, and public policy reform.  Last fall, MHH hosted the City Council and Mayoral candidate forums on affordable housing and is now planning a new campaign.

Make Homes Happen is asking Minneapolis to commit $50 million annually, for a minimum of ten years (for a total minimum investment of $500 million), in new revenue to produce and preserve affordable housing and to improve tenant protections. These funds would be held in an affordable housing trust fund with expenditures being made with input from a community advisory committee that includes residents from low-wealth communities, communities of color, and other stakeholders.

Similar campaigns, although with a lesser monetary value, have already succeeded in a number of Minneapolis' peer cities, including Portland, Denver, Seattle, Austin, and Nashville. Now it is our turn. MHH has already met with one current City Council Member and the results of that meeting were promising, but we need everyone to stand up and tell our elected leaders that everyone deserves a home they can afford in their city.  Avenues and many other organizations have endorsed Make Home Happen, and you can too. 

Learn more about MHH by contacting Craig Freeman, 612-844-2005 or by email.