The Northfield Healthy Community Initiative (HCI) has been awarded a Bush Foundation Community Innovation Grant to help with the launch of the Northfield Promise collective impact initiative.

“We are honored and humbled that Northfield Promise was selected for one of the Bush Foundation’s inaugural Community Innovation Grants,” said Zach Pruitt, HCI Director.  “We are excited about the community stakeholders who have committed to working collectively to help improve cradle-to-career outcomes for young people in Northfield.”

The Bush Foundation’s Community Innovation Grant program supports organizations working to create or implement an innovative solution to address a community need or opportunity. The innovation must be developed through community problem-solving – inclusive, collaborative processes focused on making the most of community assets – and be more effective, equitable or sustainable than existing approaches.  The program is part of the Bush Foundation’s effort to enable, inspire and reward community innovation.

“Community innovation occurs when people come together to think bigger and think differently about what is possible for their communities,” said Molly Matheson Gruen, the Bush Foundation’s community innovation manager. “Our inaugural Community Innovation Grant recipients are tackling a range of issues impacting quality of life in their communities.  And they are doing it in a way that ensures all voices are heard and that the solutions will endure.”

The Bush Foundation will award more than $4 million to 34 organizations in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and the 23 Native nations that share the same geography, through its Community Innovation Grant program. The Foundation received 618 Community Innovation Grant applications requesting more than $76 million.

The full list of Community Innovation Grant recipients can be found on the Bush Foundation website.