On a pristine September morning, Monsiou Dimerson and a cluster of cyclists leave NorthPoint Health and Wellness Center, cross Penn Avenue, and begin threading west through north Minneapolis. They’re a well-mixed bunch — young and old, ethnically diverse, and at […]Read More ›

On an August morning, Jared Walhowe, produce specialist for The Food Group Minnesota, commands a 4,800 square-foot “giving garden” on the front lawn of the non-profit’s headquarters in New Hope. A bevy of volunteers — most clad in flannel and […]Read More ›

For 30-year-old Jessica LaPoint, August 2014 was a pivotal month. That month she joined Rockler Companies, Inc., a Medina-based woodworking and hardware business headquartered in west Hennepin County. As soon as she joined, she immediately stepped up her physical fitness […]Read More ›

DeVon Nolen is on a mission — to improve the health of north Minneapolis residents. It’s a Friday afternoon at the West Broadway Farmers Market, and Nolen, the market manager, is using her bullhorn. “EBT SNAP cards are accepted here,” […]Read More ›

Part 1: Fifty-three-year-old Jon hit rock bottom on Wednesday, February 6, 2013. That day, Jon was an alcoholic with depression and bipolar disorder who worked and lived out of the side room of a car wash. The owners of the […]Read More ›

Lafonso Rollins’ Artwork This is a two-part series about Lafonso Rollins, who has been working with Hennepin Health since early 2015. Part 1: Childhood and Prison In 1994, 19-year-old Lafonso Rollins was sentenced to 75 years in prison for a […]Read More ›

On the afternoon of May 13, several Brooklyn Center Secondary School students gather in Room 224. They’re members of the school’s 21st Century Bike Club, an innovative partnership between Brooklyn Center Schools, Hennepin County Public Health and Public Works, Three […]Read More ›

Ellen Kennedy, the Executive Director of World Without Genocide, has long been committed to human rights, but a trip to Rwanda changed everything. The year was 2005, and over a decade had elapsed since the 1994 genocide — when a […]Read More ›

Sarah Kanan, a twenty-four year-old Iraqi American, feels pulled between two cultures. In America, where she’s lived most of her life, Sarah feels too Iraqi. But the two times she visited Iraq — the country her family fled during the […]Read More ›

In 2010, Joseph Desenclos quit his job in the private sector to become a street outreach worker at St. Stephen’s Human Services. Two years later, he was promoted to street outreach program manager. The career change was a long time […]Read More ›