Two North Side nonprofits get Bush awards for innovation

Six Upper Midwest nonprofits with bold missions to transform the communities they serve, including the Northside Achievement Zone in north Minneapolis, will divide up a nearly $2.4 million prize pot announced Tuesday by the Bush Foundation.

"Each year we lift up and invest in some of the region's most outstanding problem solving organizations," said Jennifer Ford Reedy, president of the Bush Foundation, in a written statement. "I hope people will get to know the newest Bush Prize winners and how they're transforming the region."

The 2016 Prize for Community Innovation winners include:

• The Northside Achievement Zone, Emerge in Minneapolis and the Plains Art Museum in Fargo, each of which will each receive a $500,000 grant;

• The South Dakota Symphony Orchestra in Sioux Falls $444,000;

• The De Smet Community Foundation in De Smet, S.D., $288,000;

• Men As Peacemakers in Duluth, $124,000.

The Bush Foundation was established in 1953 by a 3M executive and his wife.

Started in 2003 as the PEACE Foundation, the Northside Achievement Zone aims to close the gap in standardized test scores and graduation rates between white students and students of color and end generational poverty in north Minneapolis.

Emerge is a community development agency that helps teens and adults in north Minneapolis and the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood get jobs, financial coaching, supportive housing and other key services.