ver the past 15 years, the Franklin Avenue corridor — a 2.3-mile stretch of diverse homes, shops, restaurants, galleries, and cultural institutions between I-35W and the Mississippi River — has transformed itself. From an area struggling with crime, poverty, homelessness, and drug activity in the mid-1990s, it has changed into a community thriving economically, socially, and culturally.

Today, for the people who live and work there, Franklin Avenue is rich with opportunity.

In one notable reflection of progress, between 1999 and 2005, the Estimated Market Value (EMV) of real estate in the Franklin Avenue corridor rose from $640,000 to $1.4 million per acre, an increase of 118%. (This surpassed the city's 2005 overall average EMV of $1.1 million per acre.) And, as real estate values climbed, crime rates decreased dramatically: from 1998 to 2008, the incidence of violent crime dropped by 54%.

Distribution of McKnight's grantees along the Franklin Avenue corridor from I-35W to the Mississippi River.

Behind the numbers stand dedicated people and dozens of organizations. Because of their efforts, the story of the Franklin Avenue corridor is a case study in effective community development and neighborhood revitalization. It models a strategy McKnight tries to employ across all of our programs: tailoring quality investments to the unique intersections of people and place.

Positive changes — that sometimes appear to materialize seamlessly — are actually the result of a complex, interrelated network of people and organizations behind the scenes, rolling up their sleeves and doing the hard work of improving their community, together.

McKnight's investments

cKnight supports more than two dozen nonprofit service and program providers along the Franklin Avenue corridor. In one year, the Foundation typically distributes more than $2 million in grants along and around Franklin, often in the form of general operating support. Important investments come from the private and public sectors as well.

Each organization is unique, with its own history and mission. However, many share organizational values, working methods, and impacts. As responsible community members, these organizations listen to their neighbors. They engage citizens in improving their immediate surroundings. They foster local leadership. They also build capacity and skills in individuals. And — expressly or not — many work for social justice.

In McKnight's long history of community development work we have identified three elements that are key to the type of comprehensive revitalization that has happened on Franklin Avenue:

• Balanced support. Funding from multiple sectors — nonprofit, public, and private — is vital to generating and sustaining the resources needed to do this work.
• A tailored fit. Communities are unique. Development efforts must be tailored to the specific needs and strengths of the situation; a one-size-fits-all approach does not work.
• Commitment to the long haul. Investors and practitioners must be willing to make an ongoing, sustained commitment, and be willing to place their trust in community leaders.

Shared credit for Franklin Avenue's success story belongs to all the dozens of nonprofit organizations working on the avenue. A closer look at the work of a few of McKnight's grantees helps illustrate how a diversity of efforts and voices can help build and define a community. Just as McKnight tries to customize our approach depending on the issue, these organizations each bring something different to life on Franklin Avenue.

(Click here for a full list of McKnight-supported organizations in the Franklin Avenue corridor.)

Region & Communities: Seward Neighborhood Group

his work is opportunistic in many ways," says Sarah Hernandez, a program officer for McKnight's region and communities grantmaking. "It's all about investing in the right people in the right place at the right time."

The Seward Neighborhood Group (SNG) — one of the oldest neighborhood organizations in Minneapolis — is a perfect example of this dynamic at work. Established in 1960, it was founded as a volunteer-driven organization working to make Seward a better place to live, work, and play. With energy devoted to community development, crime and safety, the environment, and restorative justice, it is doing just that.

The Franklin Avenue Planning Initiative is a perfect example. The Riverside Market, a Seward neighborhood business anchor, closed in late 2005. Concerned about the potential negative impact on the Seward neighborhood of a shortsighted plan for the vacant site, SNG mobilized a task force composed of community members. Meeting twice a month for six months, the task force took great pains to solicit input from residents. Their community-based research culminated in the "Vision and Values for Development of the Former Riverside Market Site," a set of values, guidelines, and recommendations for all potential sites (not just the Riverside Market site) all along Franklin Avenue, from the LRT station to the river. This work gained even further relevance when the Seward Co-op, another business anchor, relocated to the former market site.

The standard of community involvement set by SNG through this initiative — as well as through the many other services it provides, such as housing consultations for property owners to improve home safety and energy efficiency, and youth training programs focusing on citizenship, democracy, public service, and restorative justice — is inspiring and rare.

Children & Families: Hope Community

n 1977 three Roman Catholic nuns founded a shelter for women and children in a two-story red Victorian house near the intersection of Franklin and Portland avenues, one of the most economically challenged areas of Minneapolis. At this moment Hope Community was born. (Although it was called St. Joseph's at the time.) Believing in the healing power of human relationships and true community, these compassionate individuals opted to live where they worked, and to empower their disadvantaged neighbors rather than pity them.

"This was atypical and ahead of its time," says Chris Ganzlin, McKnight's children and families program director. "Most service organizations were using a case management model. But from the beginning, Hope worked to give people support networks and help them feel less isolated."

More than three decades later, Hope Community has provided thousands of women, children, and families with compassionate shelter and a second chance. The organization's most ambitious project, the Hope Campus — which includes the Children's Village Center, pictured above — is a two-square block model of affordable, residential place-making, literally designed to foster community.

Beyond the physical development of community, Hope has remained true to its comprehensive vision of listening to the hopes and needs of the residents of the community and, as a result, developed an array of specialized services for their tenants. The effect on the neighborhood has been profound.

Arts: Ancient Traders Gallery

uality of life does not begin and end with bare necessities. In addition to shelter, food, and health care, to feel genuinely nurtured and valued, human beings need an outlet for the expression and the experience of creativity.

The organization Great Neighborhoods! Development Corporation (originally called American Indian Neighborhood Development Corporation) was established in 1975 to bring businesses and jobs to the Phillips neighborhood. In 1999 the organization opened the Ancient Traders Gallery, a visual arts exhibition space conceived as an economic development tool for the American Indian community. Ancient Traders has mounted 19 exhibits featuring American Indian artists from the Upper Midwest and Plains. The organization provides a venue for and awareness of American Indian artists, mounts workshops that engage artists in the Phillips neighborhood, and makes its space available free of charge between scheduled exhibitions as a staging gallery for local artists.

Ancient Traders honors and strengthens relationships between artists and audiences of all ethnic backgrounds, and between art and the soul of the neighborhood. The gallery's recent initiative Mitakuye Oyasin (from the Dakota language, meaning "all my relations") signifies the unifying American Indian belief in the connectedness of all things. In 2008, the leaders of the gallery decided to use the English translation to make clear to their Latino and Somali neighbors — indeed, to everyone — that "we are all related." Its impact has transcended simple aesthetics.

"These are some of the most generous and resourceful people in the world," says McKnight arts program director Vickie Benson, referring not just to the American Indian artists, but all the artists who live, work, and exhibit on Franklin Avenue.

In fact, this characterization applies to the entire system of organizations and people who have worked to make Franklin Avenue what it is today.

Change requires maintenance

enerosity is a highly valued principle in American Indian cultures. Traditionally, if an individual in the community enjoys a windfall — of money, food, or some other valuable resource — it is distributed among all community members. This is a way to ensure the benefits reach the greatest number of people. Likewise, the idea of sharing benefits is at the core of the revitalization of Franklin Avenue corridor.

As the stories of these three organizations show, valuing community is at the center of it all.

Despite the successes, however, the unfortunate reality is that some parts of the corridor continue to face challenges. There is an ebb and flow to this work, and real improvement takes time and sustained effort. While areas for improvement no doubt do remain, the story Franklin Avenue's renewal nonetheless serves as an inspiring model for other Twin Cities communities.

Although each story is unique, the Franklin Avenue corridor is not an isolated model. "The fact that this kind of renewal process is happening in multiple Twin Cities neighborhoods is the most exciting part," says Hernandez. The communities of East Lake Street in south Minneapolis, West Broadway in north Minneapolis, and the west side of St. Paul are areas where similar comprehensive, community-driven revitalization efforts are under way. In all, McKnight is looking to invest in smart ways to support the unique intersection of people and place.

Nowadays, while the value of just about everything seems to be dropping, the value of collaboration and cooperation is skyrocketing. Nothing can take the place of actual dollars — but Franklin Avenue shows how social capital, a powerful form of currency which has gone largely untapped for many years, is being rediscovered and put to work.

Related links

McKnight arts program
McKnight children & families program
McKnight region & communities program

McKnight grantees in the Franklin Avenue corridor

Alliance for Metro Stability
American Indian CDC
Center for Working Families
Centro Cultural Chicano
CommonBond Communities
EMERGE
Franklin Art Works
Great Neighborhoods!
Hope Community
Minneapolis American Indian Center
Native American Community Development Institute
Northern Clay Center
Organizing Apprenticeship Project
Playwright's Center
Project for Pride in Living
Seward Neighborhood Group
Seward Redesign
Twin Cities Media Alliance
Ventura Village