A Quick Look

The Meadowbrook Collaborative was established in 1993 to address the quality of life issues such as crime, truancy and serious housing code violations and leverage resources to meet families’ needs in the Meadowbrook neighborhood in St. Louis Park. Programs have been developed with a focus on health, education and safety with the mission of enhancing the self-direction of the Meadowbrook residents toward the betterment of their lives.

Meadowbrook is part of a success story that is not over. This diversely populated neighborhood of 1200 people is still in transition and continues to need the support of our community partners, our programs, volunteers and funding.

Caring Adults
Children develop relationships with teachers, volunteers and neighbors.

Safe Places
In addition to feeling physically and emotionally safe, there is a healthy balance between structured, supervised activities and unstructured time.

A Healthy Start
Children develop healthy bodies, minds and habits. These result from preventative health care, good nutrition and exercise, healthy skills and knowledge, and good role models of physical and psychological health.

An Effective Education
Children are living in a qualitylearning environment, with challenging expectations and consistent guidance and mentoring.

Opportunities to Help
Families have opportunities to give back to their community, and a sense of personal responsibility to contribute to the larger society, and opportunities for volunteering, leadership

Organizational Structure

Meadowbrook Collaborative provides services to a diversely populated multi-family housing neighborhood of 1200 people. It was established in 1993 to address various quality of life issues, such as crime, truancy, and serious housing code violations, and to leverage resources to meet families’ needs.

Meadowbrook’s primary focus is on families and children, providing culturally relevant services and promoting human rights by eliminating barriers that prevent youth and their families from equal access to community resources. Programming provides academic support, enrichment, service learning, crime prevention and diversion activities, mentoring, leadership skills, positive role models, and life skills. Activities promote family stability and prepare youth to take a leadership role; the goal is that their involvement will ultimately lead to systemic change.

All Meadowbrook programs have clear and measurable goals, based on a logic model that measures the presence of developmental assets in youth, school performance, and neighborhood improvement.

Health

Park Nicollet Health Services has made it possible for families and children to more easily access preventative health care. Several programs piloted in the Meadowbrook neighborhood laid the groundwork for initiatives throughout Park Nicollet’s service area.

Safety

Working cooperatively with the St. Louis Park Police, City Inspections, and Public Works, a once violent neighborhood has been transformed into a safer place for families and children. Several citywide initiatives were piloted at Meadowbrook, such as Crime Free Multi-Housing and the creation of a city ordinance enforceable at all rental properties throughout St. Louis Park. Community oriented policing – a model brought to Meadowbrook from Mesa, Arizona in the mid-1990’s, is now rooted in the police department’s mission. Meadowbrook is the first site of several St. Louis Park police substations. District officers work with community partners to address and improve upon quality of life for families and children.

Education

The Meadowbrook Collaborative offers a variety of educational and enrichment opportunities, particularly for its youth, thanks to its stakeholders, committed donors and volunteers. Strong partnerships with many community organizations have greatly enriched our ability to offer structured, assetbuilding activities for youth.