La Victoria Presented the 8th Ward Community Leadership Award

Elizabeth Glidden and La Victoria staff: Jorge Figueroa, Robyn Angulo, and Jessica Retamal

Friday, January 28th, La Victoria youth program was given the 8th Ward Community Leadership Award. Council member Elizabeth Glidden introduced us by recognizing that the City of Minneapolis is in need of programs that support the Latino population. La Victoria has been just such a program. La Victoria has made a difference by surrounding Latino youth with one-on-one and group mentoring programs. La Victoria has supported Urban Ventures’ mission to break the cycle of generational poverty this past year by providing caring adult mentors to over 150 Latino youth of South Minneapolis. We strive to empower these youth to walk forward in victory over their family situations, school struggles and community pressures. We are proud of so many of students who are realizing their potential and changing the community. La Victoria and Urban Ventures Leadership Foundation are honored to receive this recognition from the City Council of Minneapolis.

Thank you to all volunteers, supporters and community members that have continued to make La Victoria possible through encouragement, faith and support throughout the past years.

Blessings,

Robyn Angulo, La Victoria Coordinator

Colin Powell addresses poverty and education during visit to Urban Ventures

On June 23, Gen. Colin Powell visited Urban Ventures to talk to supporters and area CEOs about poverty and education. “Half of the country’s dropouts can be traced to just 2,000 high schools,” says Powell. “That’s 12 percent of all schools. We believe that by focusing attention on the communities surrounding these schools, and by looking closer at known dropout indicators like reading and math scores and absentee and truancy rates, we can have real impact.”

Gen. Powell praised the efforts of Urban Ventures and challenged his audience to have a hand in the educational success of America’s children through financial support and volunteer involvement. “We believe the nation is ready for action,” says Powell. “We know Americans want to do the hard work to save our kids, schools, communities and our country.”

Wooddale Church holds food drive for Urban Ventures

Lindsey Ross, PowerHouse youth worker, fills a grocery bag with food donated by members of Wooddale Church of Eden Prairie. The church hosted a food drive to benefit Urban Ventures and delivered enough items to fill nearly 250 bags for our participants. The bags will be distributed as part of a special Easter giveaway.

3000 participants, 3000 stories

Lori Miller (Volunteer Manager)

The father who lost both of his children in a car wreck but still takes parenting classes. The high school sophomore who goes to school against her mother’s wishes. The child who comes here for homework help because his reading skills are two years behind his peers.

Part of my job at Urban Ventures is to help people who want to volunteer get connected. I share our participants’ stories to describe the situations they face and help people see the need. Let’s just say my prayer life is a lot busier since joining this organization.

At the moment two of our kids have seized my attention. One is a young man who once raised money by selling CityKid Java to buy Christmas presents for needy families. He moved into a homeless shelter last November because his mother kicked him out of the house. Not because he’s a bad kid—he’s an amazing kid. His mother just didn’t want him around anymore. Now he’s trying hard to manage being on his own, get himself to school and work, and keep his eyes on his future.

The other is a 15-year-old girl who has an infant daughter. Our program staff lined up a job for her so she could support her baby. She wanted to work. She wanted to be different from her mother, a single mom who never had a job and lives on welfare. All the young woman had to do was show up for the interview. She didn’t show up because her mother told her not to, that she would lose her entitlements.

These are just two examples of the cycles of generational poverty we see at Urban Ventures every day. Poverty is economic—no jobs, hunger, substandard housing. It’s academic—the 40 percent graduation rate in this neighborhood is abysmal. It’s spiritual—parents whose lives are so dark that they block their children’s potential and start a new cycle of poverty. It’s a poverty of hope, evident in the teens who are on the fence between a dead-end life or a positive one.

We’re often asked how to overcome poverty. It’s simple and yet very hard: one person at a time, seeing beyond poverty to their potential, by loving our neighbors as ourselves. We cheer for the dad who decides he wants to be a better father and we walk the road with him. We cheer for the child who wants homework help and we walk the road with the child and the parents. We cheer for kid who decides to graduate from high school and walk the road with her.

If you’re interested in walking with someone, talk to me. You can have an influence on how a story turns out.

Powells campaign to keep kids in school and push for volunteers to help – ABC News

Watch the Good Morning America interview

Colin and Alma Powell talked to George Stephanopolous on Good Morning America about Grad Nation, a new initiative of America’s Promise. Their goal is for 90 percent of today’s fourth graders to graduate, calling it an economic and security risk if they do not. The current graduation rate is 70 percent nationwide; in the Phillips and Central neighborhoods that Urban Ventures serve the graduation rate is 25 percent for students of color and 30 percent for all others.

At about the 3-minute mark you’ll see a photo of Gen. Powell in the foyer of our Colin Powell Center with some of our Learning Lab kids. It’s at that point in the interview that Gen. Powell encourages people to volunteer in the neighborhoods of underperforming schools. Our schools certainly qualify.

Our Learning Lab students are usually a grade behind their peers. Our teachers and volunteers work together to teach the kids math, reading, and science, and help them develop the character traits they need to be successful. In 2009, nearly 70 percent of our Learning Lab students improved their math and reading scores.

You can invest in the lives of children by supporting Learning Lab through your gift of time or money. Contact Janine Westlund, Learning Lab director, to learn more about our needs for tutors, mentors, school supplies, and financial support.

In joyful remembrance of Ed Lucas

A recent photo of Ed at an Urban Ventures event.

I met Ed Lucas in 1996 when Urban Ventures and Kingdom Oil sponsored an event downtown featuring Bob Buford called From Success To Significance. At the time Ed had an outstanding accounting and technology career for 20 years with Pillsbury and General Mills. He was successful, now he was looking for significance. This was another piece in his faith journey.

His serious faith-quest started in 1980 when he joined St. Hubert’s Catholic Community, but it was solidified at a Cursillo weekend in 1989.

He became involved with Urban Ventures almost immediately in 1996 as a member of our Board of Directors. He also volunteered to oversee the start of a tutoring program for at-risk children, headed by Susana Espinoza. In 2002 he joined our staff as the COO. He articulated this move: “One reason I think God brought me here is to take some of my learnings and experience from the corporate world and apply them here.” He continued, “I try to help people to rise to the next level … to a more value-added role.”

Every morning in his office Ed Lucas prayed, “Lord Jesus, as I enter this workplace, I bring Your presence with me.” He began and ended meetings with prayer. Matt VonEnde, then the information systems manager at Urban Ventures whom Ed hired in 2003, said that he respected Ed’s “evenhanded” approach to decision-making. “I have gained from him the courage of my convictions. When I feel a tough decision had to be made, I tried to apply the same gentle, yet specific technique that Ed did.” He also saved our organization during the 2003 economic collapse.

John Turnipseed, Family Center Director, said, “Ed was the big brother I never had. He also was the COO and the janitor. He helped wire the Fathering Center for electricity and helped paint our 3041 headquarters building. Everything Ed did – bloomed!”

Ed brought in ZOOM groups to do service projects in our urban community. He networked all kinds of business people. Put a great operations team together that included Ted Giannobile, Ed Domenzain, Larry Stirtz, and of course Ed Lucas the connector – to work with Ralph Bruins, Pat Kaiser, Loretta Granum, Paul and Pat Turton, Ann Herron, and others. He helped coordinate and recruit many Cursillo weekends. He and Betty mentored and counseled couples and families – and many individual people. He networked church groups to come in, including his own St. Hubert Catholic Community, with service and work projects. He prayed with many people. His smile, his presence (and his passion for the University of Michigan) have left a legacy!

In 2005 he was awarded a great honor from The Catholic Spirit newspaper. He was a finalist in their “Leading with Faith” award and was featured in the September 15, 2005 edition.

Susana Espinosa de Sygulla, now the Director of Latino Outreach at Urban Ventures remembers Ed:

“I had the pleasure to be the first one to work with Ed at Urban Ventures. He came looking to volunteer and his first assignment was to be a part of the Management Committee group at the Learning Lab that I was directing almost 14 years ago. Ed became my mentor and also a good friend. I remember that when I met Warren who is now my husband, he offered to become our pre-marriage counselor with Betty. Warren and I really enjoyed knowing Ed and Betty better and we are very thankful that they took the time to guide us and give us the best advice for the foundation of our marriage. Ed always prayed for me and I still remember the joy that he expressed to me when he learned that I was expecting my first child. As you can imagine, working with Ed for all of these years many times we had great conversations, good agreements, and at times good disagreements as well. But Ed always had the last word. No matter if he agreed with me or not, his closing word in a conversation was…PEACE. Real peace is what he is experiencing now. Ed will be always missed by me and my family until we see him again in heaven.”

When Ed retired from Urban Ventures, he kept working and networking in the urban communities through a variety of different initiatives. His vision and passion, combined with his life experiences and corporate and technical training, continued to help nonprofits and ministries in their capacity-building efforts and needs.

Thank you for all you did, Ed.

We are confident and grateful that there is LIFE after life because of the work of Jesus Christ.  We will see you later…

Art Erickson
On behalf of Urban Ventures Leadership Foundation and Central Church

What we love around here

In honor of Valentine’s Day, we asked staff and participants to tell what we love around here. Some of their responses:

I love that Urban Ventures challenged me to change. Chip away at the weak foundation and replace each tattered piece with a solid new one. The biggest love I have for Urban Ventures is that they have helped me learn how to love myself.
Raymond, Father in our Family Time program

The food, Family Time, games, daycare, people, kids.
Ricky, a child in our Family Time program

Here is what I love about UV:
It is made of people who place the needs of others above their own
It is made up of people who want to make a difference
UV is all about finding solutions
UV is an organization which believes that Love changes things
Mark-Peter, vice president

Urban Ventures is just like a family to me. The people are so loving and real. They are always here with open arms no matter what the problem is.
Randy, Father in our Family Time program

I love all the UV staff who work tenaciously, unselfishly and with great vision on behalf of the people we serve.
Beth, grant writer

Urban Ventures has given me tools to be a better father and a better husband. Urban Ventures gives me the opportunity to give back to society, and has given me hope for the future.
Billy, Father in our Family Time program

I love that we love people
I love that we get to be in the lives of such extraordinary people
I love that when I was down and out Urban Ventures helped me
I Love my Team
I love the fact that we are dedicated to this area
I love the mission of breaking the cycle of generational poverty
I love the Colin Powell Center
John, Family Center director

 I love to tell people about the life-changing work that goes on at Urban Ventures. I also love receiving hugs from the Learning Lab elementary students.
Lori, volunteer manager

Beyond thirst: Water nourishes the neighborhood

Mark-Peter Lundquist (Vice President)

The north part of our property features two soccer fields and a community garden that includes fruit trees, raspberry bushes, and vegetable plots. The food grown in the community garden goes to our participants and neighbors as we try to teach good nutrition, gardening and ecology.

As you can imagine, these properties require a lot of water, but it is water that Urban Ventures uses that directly benefits the neighborhood:

Our two soccer fields require almost 3 million gallons of water per year; with those gallons of water we can:
- Provide a safe athletic program for more than 200 kids who cannot afford to pay…h2o refreshes
- Provide faith messages to the youth…h2o quenches spiritual thirst
- Provide caring coaches who act as mentors in their lives…h2o restores
- Provide a space for almost 2,000 games and practices over the last 10 years, without which we could not continue getting into the lives of neighborhood kids…h2o hydrates

Our community garden goes through 1.2 million gallons of water per year…the water enables us to:
- Provide organic fruits and vegetables at no cost to the neighborhood…h2o renews
- Provide organic vegetables and herbs for our Kids Café which provides after school meals to 350 kids per week…h2o nourishes
- Provide a teaching environment for our Learning Lab students…h2o equips
- Provide the ability to continue our efforts to reduce neighborhood obesity and type 2 diabetes…h2o heals

The homeless in our community use our community garden’s fountain to wash their body, brush their teeth and wash their clothes…h2o cleans

Thank you to Crossroads Church & Ripple Effect.

The fountain in the Urban Ventures community garden is beautiful and useful.