Nonprofit Mission Award for

Advocacy

Healthy Legacy

Healthy Legacy is a statewide public health coalition dedicated to promoting a healthier Minnesota. The coalition has 31 partner organizations including service providers, advocacy groups, labor unions, faith groups and educators, through which it serves over 1.2 million Minnesotans. Their mission is Safe Products, Made Safely and they are seeking to protect all Minnesotans from unnecessary toxic exposure from cleaning supplies, children's toys, food and beverage packaging, and more.

Healthy Legacy has three objectives: responsible business, consumer education and protective policies. The coalition is currently working with Minnesota businesses, which will hopefully lead to a business-NGO partnership to examine the economic and health value of green chemistry in Minnesota. They continue to educate Minnesotans about the adverse health effects of chemical exposure and how they can protect themselves and their children. Healthy Legacy is also committed to changing state and federal policies to protect consumers from unnecessary toxic exposure.

In the past Legislative Session, because of Healthy Legacy’s lobbying, Governor Pawlenty signed into law the BPA Free Baby Products Bill (SF 247/HF 326), making Minnesota the first state in the nation and the third government entity in the world to place restrictions on the use of bisphenol A (BPA). BPA is a synthetic sex hormone in polycarbonate plastic, which is used in baby bottles, “sippy” cups and many other products. At very low doses, the chemical can disrupt the hormone system and has been linked to diabetes, reproductive disorders, breast and prostate cancer, learning disabilities and more. As a result, beginning January 1, 2011, Minnesotans will be able to purchase baby bottles and “sippy cups” without the fear that they may contain BPA.

Also as a result of the coalition’s lobbying efforts, the governor signed into law the Toxic Free Kids Act (SF 225/HF250), which gives authority to the Minnesota Department of Health to produce a list of hazardous chemicals used in children’s products and also sets money aside to accomplish this.

Healthy Legacy has helped Minnesota to lead the way in banning BPA from many products. While 93 percent of independently funded studies show BPA causes harm, 0 percent of industry funded studies show that it does. The industry also previously argued that the lack of regulatory action by governments around the world demonstrated the safety of the chemical. However, since Minnesota’s ban, Chicago and Connecticut have also applied bans, and the federal government is currently working on a bill that would ban BPA in all food storage containers.

Healthy Legacy Web site: www.healthylegacy.org

KOOTASCA Community Action

KOOTASCA Community Action Circles of Support of Itasca County is committed to eliminating poverty in Minnesota, with special focus on the Grand Rapids area. Their mission is to foster intentional relationships across race and class lines so as to help people in poverty get out of poverty, to change the community perception of people living in poverty, and to address policies and systems that make it hard for people to escape poverty. The Circles of Support community consists of about 70 individuals including working poor adults with children, adult volunteers and staff, who meet together every week to create a safe community to be able to support families in their journey out of poverty. Dinner and childcare are provided at these meetings and discussion topics include personal empowerment and fostering the hope that they can change their lives.

Circles of Support is based on the concept of community engagement, and bridging the gap between those who are financially stable, and those who aren’t. This is a community committed to empowering people to help themselves, instead of only providing them with services that may help them temporarily.

In order to participate, individuals must be able to search for and obtain full time employment, and not be facing an immediate crisis. Participants set goals for themselves in areas of income and budgeting, academics and training, and friends and meaning, and then work to accomplish these goals with the support of the community. Through these intentional relationships, Circles of Support seeks to break down barriers and lead advocacy efforts to eliminate policies and systems that make it hard to escape poverty.

In September 2007, the Legislative Commission to End Poverty, visited Circles of Support, where members shared what it is like to live in poverty in Itasca County. This meeting was the start of an 18 month process to advocate for people in poverty and the work of Circles of Support across Minnesota. In October 2008, Circles of Support hosted a community advocacy meeting called Surviving Poverty at School: How do you manage when you don't have the resources at home to fit into a system of peers that do? Many local school staff and administrators attended to hear parents talk about how they feel the financial pressures from school and how they help their children cope with this difficult situation.

Circles of Support has gone back to the roots of advocacy as they help people to advocate for themselves. As a result of their work, many discussions have opened up to examine what it is like to live in poverty and also, an anonymous community member has donated up to $40,000 for “Angel Grants” to help students in need.

KOOTASCA Community Action Web site: www.kootasca.org

National Alliance on Mental Illness of Minnesota

The National Alliance on Mental Illness of Minnesota (NAMI) is a nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of children and adults with mental illness, as well as their family members. NAMI seeks to eliminate the stigma of mental illness, effect positive changes in the mental health system, and increase the public and professional understanding of mental illness via education, support and advocacy. They provide education classes so people can begin to talk about mental illness, support groups so that people with mental illnesses can help one another in this journey and different opportunities to advocate and change the system so that people may find hope.

Over the past five years, NAMI has begun to advocate on behalf of people with mental illnesses and also to encourage them to advocate for themselves. They have taught members about the legislative process, assisted their members in the voter registration process and encouraged them to vote, educated state legislature candidates on issues of importance to the mental health community, informed members with weekly legislative updates and had members at the state capitol every Thursday to lobby legislators on a variety of issues.

As a result of their efforts, several key bills for the mental illness community were passed this session, including a bill that limits the use of seclusion and restraints in the schools. As part of this bill, students will no longer face being secluded or restrained for minor issues or as part of their behavior plan, but only in emergency situations by trained staff who will stop their use when the threat is passed. While this issue has already been raised on the national level, NAMI was able to formulate a compromise between advocates and school boards, leading to a significant improvement in Minnesota. NAMI also played a significant role on issues related to county redesign of human services and Maintenance of Effort to guarantee that redesign of human services was not done with the input of those who would be affected. Also, in these difficult economic times, NAMI was crucial in sparing many mental health services of funding cuts.

NAMI works on a variety of issues that affect the mental illness community including education, employment, housing, criminal justice and human services. Their victory on the Maintenance of Effort issue was a great accomplishment, and prevented almost a third of the funding for mental health services from being lost.

National Alliance on Mental Illness of Minnesota Web site: www.namihelps.org

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