African American Health Special Emphasis Grant Programs

Paths to Black Health (PBH)

Paths to Black Health Grant Program

The goal of the program is to invest in community solutions to enhance the vibrant and thriving African American community in Minnesota. This will help reduce the health disparities arising from cumulative and historical discrimination and disadvantages in multiple systems, as well as historical trauma. The purposes of the program are to:  

• Identify disparities impacting African American health arising from cumulative and historical discrimination and disadvantages in multiple systems. These may include, but are not limited to, housing, education, employment, gun violence, incarceration, environmental factors, and health care discrimination.
• Develop community-driven solutions that incorporate a multisector approach to addressing identified disparities impacting African American health. 

2024-2027 PBH Grantees

1. Seeds Worth Sowing

   The Nurturing Homes Project is a comprehensive initiative uniquely designed to address the intrinsic connection between housing stability and maternal health challenges within U.S.-born African American communities. Through this program, pregnant and expecting parents will receive essential support to secure stable homes. At the same time, our community-based childbirth education workshops led by full spectrum doulas will offer empowerment and education to mothers they can implement for before, during, and after childbirth.

2. Snuggle House Foundation

   The Community Empowerment for Better Births project aims to mitigate maternal and infant mortality by granting black families access to essential birth support and childbirth education. Within this objective, there are two key aspects: training for community support persons, including doulas and IBCLC (International Board-Certified Lactation Consultants); and evidence-based educational training for birthing families, in the form of childbirth education classes, group sessions, and interactive online modules.

3. NorthPoint Health & Wellness Center

   The African American Men’s Project (AAMP) is one of NorthPoint’s unique community support programs. Like all of their services, it is designed to lift up the community by addressing underlying conditions that may contribute to personal challenges. The program serves African American men in the community, giving them a structured setting to focus on overcoming personal and systemic barriers to employment, housing, and generally moving forward toward their goals.

4. Guns Down, Love Up

   The Youth Council will work closely with local restorative justice programs, ensuring that those who have been impacted by gun violence have access to necessary support. The council will organize community healing events, which will provide collective spaces for families and communities impacted by gun violence to come together, grieve, and rebuild. The Guns Down, Love Up Youth Council will focus on prevention by developing and spreading powerful messages that raise awareness about the impact of gun violence on youth and their communities.

5. Community Partnership Collaborative 2.0

   Since Community Partnership Collaborative 2.0 (CPC 2.0) received funding, they have collected more than 400 Paths to Black Health surveys from the community at various events and by hosting and facilitating symposiums. The symposiums are designed to engage the community in informing CPC2.0 on their needs and challenges and what solutions they would like to see.

6. Food Trap Project Initiative

   The F.T.P Initiative began in 2019 as a community-based organization looking to combat food insecurity and diet-related illnesses within majority Black communities. Their current project is the F.T.P Bodega which is a resource hub that houses free plant-based foods in a central area where Black families can access them.

7. Health Equity Network dba Healthy Alliances Matter All

   Health Equity Network grows and distributes healthy, culturally-relevant produce to the African American community in Duluth.

8. Network for the Development of Children of African Descent

   Network for the Development of Children of African Descent (NdCAD) is a family literacy and education center.  They provide a range of culture-centered literacy programs and services that include academic/reading interventions for children, parent education courses and community engagement activities. To advance systems change, they provide professional development training and consulting services to organizations, schools and systems leaders, helping them build capacity to provide culturally responsive services.

9. The BrandLab

   The BrandLab’s mission is to change the face and voice of the marketing and advertising profession—by introducing, guiding, and preparing the next generation of creative problem solvers. Traditionally, marketing and advertising messages have been perpetuated by the dominant culture, making it easy for false narratives and stereotypes to persist. The BrandLab’s programs are bringing many more diverse voices to this work to provide equitable messaging, unique perspectives, and inclusive practices for employers.

10. 30,000K

    The Tech Geeks program propels youth into a path of high-earning career by providing practical computer science education and paid employment for teenagers living in poverty as Ramsey County’s justice involved juveniles. (St. Paul)

11. African American Survivor Services

    This organization uses navigation services to meet people who use drugs (PWUD) and those with substance use disorder (SUD) where they are at. Connecting them with the care options including harm reduction, medication-assisted treatment, hygiene, food resource, supportive housing, and women’s health services. (St. Paul)

12. Divine Konnections

    The Divine Haven project is committed to creating healing space for Black mothers under 24 years old. It integrates mental health support, education, recovery, wellness activities, advocacy, and community co-created strategies. (Duluth)

13. Morning Glory Montessori

    The Morning Glory Montessori school is dedicated to holistically nurturing African-American boys aged 3 years old to third grade, through circular confluence of faith through the ethos of liberation theology and nonviolent disciplines, Afrocentric culture and history and a high-fidelity Montessori pedagogy. (Twin Cities Metro)

14. Solid Roots

    This organization is working to reduce recidivism by providing supervised transitional housing in an agricultural setting for mothers with children. They partner with community providers to ensure mothers receive physical, mental, and emotional health care to provide wraparound support necessary for successful transition into community. (Twin Cities Metro)