Greater Minnesota Collaboration

Coming Up: Greater Minnesota Racial Justice Resource Information Session – January 18th, 7 pm on Zoom

This information session will

  • Introduce FREC
  • Learn about mini-grant opportunities
  • Learn about previous grants and grant process
  • Learn about support available for Hosting a Satellite Overcoming Racism Conference scheduled for November 10 & 11
  • take time for Q & A

The Facilitating Racial Equity Collaborative (FREC) seeks ways to connect with and support organizations in Greater Minnesota working on racial justice and equity in their communities.  FREC follows the MN State Demographic Center definition for Greater Minnesota as “the area outside the seven counties of the Twin Cities region”.  Those counties within the Twin Cities metro region include  Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott and Washington.  All counties outside of those seven fall within the definition of Greater Minnesota.  Goals for FREC’s Greater Minnesota initiative are as follows:

  1. Help FREC learn about the issues and challenges of racial justice in different parts of the state.
  2. Help FREC build new relationships around the state.
  3. Support collaborative anti-racism/racial justice work around the state, including financial support
  4. Strengthen Minnesota’s anti-racism infrastructure.

To further these goals, since 2018, with the support of the Bush Foundation and the Blandin Foundation, FREC has provided mini-grants to support anti-racism/racial justice work in Greater Minnesota.

2019 Greater MN Grants Summary Read about great work folks did around the state in 2019 to overcome racism in their communities, including satellite Overcoming Racism conferences.

2018 Greater MN Grantee Projects.  Learn more about the powerful work folks are doing around the state to overcome racism in their communities.

Application for FREC Support

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In 2022 FREC is offering grants of up to $2000 to support organizations and community groups in Greater Minnesota working to address racial justice and equity in their community. Local partners would take the lead in planning and implementation. FREC would co-sponsor the event, which would include financial and logistical support.

Proposals will be evaluated on two primary criteria:

                    • Advancing racial just understanding and work
                    • Planning & implementation is collaborative, including representatives from multiple groups
  1. We accept applications on a rolling basis and review them once a month to be brought to the FREC Steering Committee for final approval. Applicants will be notified within 2 months of receipt of their proposal. For inquiries, please email info@overcomingracism.org.
FREC will begin reviewing the next round of Greater MN Grant applications in January 2022.

To apply, please fill out the online application.

Host a Satellite Conference

In 2019 FREC worked with local partners to host one-day satellite Overcoming Racism Conferences in Bemidji and Rochester. Each satellite conference featured a live broadcast of the Friday morning keynote presentations followed by afternoon workshops or activities organized by the local partners and relevant to their community. Building on this success, FREC is hoping to expand the satellite conference model to other communities in Greater MN where there is a desire and willingness to create local planning teams to make this happen.  If you are interested in exploring this possibility and want to learn more about hosting a satellite Overcoming Racism Conference in your region in 2022, please email info@overcomingracism.org.