Center for Leadership and Neighborhood Engagement

The Center for Leadership and Neighborhood (CLNE) was established in March of 2020 with the mission of mobilizing congregations and leaders as powerful, neighborhood-based agents for positive social change. Grounded in BIPOC leadership, CLNE began as a response to the frustration and awareness that marginalized communities such as North Minneapolis have suffered from stigmatization, abandonment, and disinvestment. The commitment of CLNE is to disrupt the cycle of misinformation and racism by lifting up and celebrating the giftedness that exists within communities that have been systematically marginalized. Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. pointed to this reality in his reference to the Beloved Community. The goal for CLNE is to actualize Beloved Community today, in real time. 

CLNE exists to facilitate the emergence and sustaining of Beloved Community through North Minneapolis and CLNE’s associated faith communities, acting as catalysts for mutual thriving in North Minneapolis and in the metropolitan region as a whole. Or, more simply, to organize Beloved Community throughout the Twin Cities region, so all are welcome, all are safe, and all belong.

A few examples of CLNE Programs and Initiatives include:

Come Together for Racial Justice

Come Together is a virtual convening for leaders to learn, share, and mobilize for racial justice.  The 90-minute session is centered in BIPOC voices and engaging in shared conversation to learn from each other and build connections that can create a movement.

Each month, Come Together for Racial Justice features one or more community-based leaders reflecting on themes like racial healing, faith and culture, leading in diverse contexts, asset-based community development and more. Our aim is to create a space for mutual learning and building relationships, being intentional about cultivating trust, welcome, safety, and a sense of belonging. 

View past Come Together reflections on CLNE's YouTube Channel.

Trainings and Communities of Practice

• Be the Work Learning Cohorts
• Embodied Antiracism Practice Groups
• Charity To Change Cohorts
• Asset-Based Community Development
• Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) & Guided Development

Asset-Based Community Organizing

CLNE works with North Minneapolis neighborhood partners to identify and amplify black and brown voices and visions. 

Triumphant Changemakers

CLNE's Triumphant Changemakers are BIPOC young adults pursuing their purpose by taking action in their personal and professional development through actionable goal-setting, forum, and mentorship in order to improve their lives and make a difference in their communities.

Internships 

CLNE guides students from in and beyond the neighborhoods to better understand their personal intercultural competency; become more aware of their own values, interests, skills and abilities; increase their knowledge and experience of public issues in North Minneapolis, and how different types of people and organizations contribute to community development, social impact, and social change.

Congregational Partnerships:

CLNE partners with local congregations to provide support that’s designed to strengthen and accelerate what congregational members, staff and other stakeholders aim to do and be. CLNE offerings include, but are not limited to:

• Anti-racism and equity training

• Intercultural competence assessment, planning and guided activities

• Workshops, forums, and other events

• Connecting congregations to immersion experiences for members or staff

Other Partnerships from CLNE's History:

CLNE Leadership Profile of Joe Davis

Healing Our City

In June 2020, CLNE received the invitation to partner with Don and Sondra Samuels in establishing two prayer tents along Broadway Avenue for the entire month of July 2020.  The prayer tents would serve as a rallying point and a visible witness that the murder of George Floyd, fires, and gun violence will not have the final say. 

In March 2021, the collaboration continued and the Healing Our City Virtual Prayer Tent began as a space where people come to listen to diverse voices, to spend time in silence and prayer, and to be encouraged in the ongoing work of justice and healing.  The trial of Derek Chauvin has been a source of stress and re-lived community trauma for many people in the city.  A daily time of listening, silence, and prayer has been a valuable source of compassionate community and spirit of hope and gratitude. Elements of music, spoken word, and visual arts are incorporated into the prayer time, deepening the experience.  

Our prayer tent is expansive and inclusive, including people of all faiths, denominations, races, and orientations. Because it is a virtual prayer tent, we include people from all over this nation and world. People who, like us, hunger for God’s healing in our city and everywhere.  From this tent we will go out into our neighborhoods and into the daily lives of people who long for welcome, safety, and belonging.