In 2017, the Cedar Riverside Partnership and partner Minneapolis Youth Coordinating Board (YCB) took on the work of understanding the needs of and coordinating among youth services in Cedar Riverside.
Muna Mohamed
Partners and the YCB hired a dynamic, well-connected and engaging Youth Collaborative Worker, Muna Mohamed.
During 2017 and 2018, Mohamed worked to highlight areas of need in the programming and opportunities available for youth in Cedar Riverside to encourage more complete, better-connected youth services.
Mohamed is an Augsburg University graduate with a master’s degree in kinesiology from the University of Minnesota.
She spent 2017 and 2018 assessing youth programming in Cedar Riverside, connecting with the community about areas of need and opportunity, and identifying potential partnerships between youth-serving organizations in the neighborhood, including the Cedar Riverside Opportunity Center.
The Cedar Riverside Partnership, a public private partnership committed to investing strategically in the sustainable growth and development of the Cedar Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis, supported and received updates on Mohamed's work, and offered ongoing input based on partner connections and experiences in the community. The Partnership has long invested in youth engagement in Cedar Riverside, helping to establish the Cedar Riverside Opportunity Center, providing educational and workforce resources and a pipeline to good jobs.
A partner in the Youth Collaborative
Mohamed’s work built on that of the Cedar Riverside Youth Workers Collaborative, created in 2015 to provide youth workers a space to support each other and to better serve neighborhood youth.
Mohamed’s deep connections in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood drew her to the Youth Collaborative Worker position. “My family has lived in Cedar Riverside since 1992, and throughout high school I spent time mentoring and engaging in youth programming at the Brian Coyle Center,” says Mohamed. “I have a connection with a lot of youth in the community and know a lot of the families."
Giving back through connecting with community
Mohamed coaching an AAU team
Mohamed co-founded the Cedar Riverside Community Traveling Basketball program, one of the first Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) traveling programs to provide culturally-sensitive active wear, created through a community research project led by University of Minnesota researchers, for East African girls.
“I love giving back to my community and working with youth," says Mohamed.
Mohamed’s work through the Youth Collaborative, sponsored by partners including Augsburg University and Sherman Associates, took place in three phases. First, Mohamed gathered information to understand potential partnership areas, mapping youth serving organizations and services, and building relationships with youth workers and related professionals in Cedar Riverside. In her 2018 assessment of youth programs in the neighborhood, Mohamed found that about 38 programs served youth, down from approximately 50 programs in 2015.
Mohamed identified the following areas of need:
Counseling programs for at-risk youth
Safety and Crime Education programs
Early Childhood Education programs
Pre-K after-school programs
More K – 5 programming
Health education programs youth ages 5 - 17 years
Youth Development Training Programs
Programming for youth with lived experience of disability
In the second phase of her engagement, Mohamed interviewed youth workers in Cedar Riverside to learn about areas of strength and needs within youth-serving organizations. She also engaged with youth, helping strategize ways for them to lead youth efforts in the community.
The biggest reported areas of need were: lack of funding and resources to continue programming; facilities for physical education and physical activity; health education for youth; and employment opportunities for younger youth.
Organizing around youth needs
Mohamed’s final step in her project with the Youth Collaborative was to organize an initial convening of youth workers invested in Cedar Riverside and build trust across providers. The goal of this engagement session was to develop initial strategies to address the service gaps and barriers faced by youth in Cedar Riverside.
“Youth workers were invited to the table to identify what their needs are and how each organization can help close the overall programming gaps in Cedar Riverside,” explains Mohamed. “So far, the Opportunity Center has served youth in the neighborhood through academic and workforce development opportunities for youth, targeted mainly toward older young adults. There is great need among younger youth, 13-16, to engage in workforce and career preparation opportunities, as well as for youth development training programs and programming for youth with lived experience of disability. There is an important need for a youth council to carry the youth voice and allow youth to address their own needs as a collective.”
Mohamed also created a Cedar Riverside Youth Programming Assessment Report for the Cedar Riverside Youth Workers Collaborative that provided an overview of her findings and recommendations.
An ongoing vision for engaging youth
Mohamed, now a Social Responsibility Program Coordinator for the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx, sees opportunity for more work around youth needs in Cedar Riverside, including a larger community convening bringing together neighborhood partners and community members.
“We need to start the dialogue about how to engage with youth younger than 18 to find employment, and how organizations can support each other as they seek to best serve youth in Cedar Riverside,” says Mohamed. “A stronger support network will lead to sustainability in youth programming in this community.”
Mohamed’s vision is for a youth board that is led by youth in Cedar Riverside, advocating for youth needs and developing leadership skills to help better serve community youth.