2020

GreenLight Fund’s expansion to the Twin Cities began much like previous sites, following a trusted and time-tested model. Minneapolis and Saint Paul were set to become the ninth site, guided by the best practices for expansion: establishing partnerships with grassroots and grasstops, bringing in eager investors, and developing a plan to hire a local leader and team. As things kicked off in January 2020, it looked to be smooth sailing for the newest GreenLight Fund city.

However, just two months after the official launch, COVID-19 brought the world to a standstill. Suddenly, everything changed—social distancing became the norm and working from home a necessity. We were all left scrambling to navigate an uncertain new reality. In the midst of the tumultuousness, May 25 arrived with a viral, gut-wrenching, and heartbreaking video: a Minneapolis police officer killing a Black man—later identified as George Floyd. Almost overnight, Minneapolis became the epicenter of a global uprising against police brutality and a rallying cry for racial equity. The feelings of uncertainty, fear, and grief were seeped in nearly every conversation. Public discourse laid bare the deep longstanding racial disparities—often described as the Minnesota Paradox— in health, education, housing, income, and beyond. It became clear that a new model for investment, trust, and transformation was urgently needed for Black and brown communities.

That August, Simone Hardeman-Jones was named the founding executive director of GreenLight Fund Twin Cities. A third-generation Minnesotan, she spent nearly two decades in Washington, D.C., working at the intersection of public policy and politics, including as a senior official in the U.S. Department of Education. She returned home to Minneapolis with a deep love for the community that raised her and a strong belief in the power of data and storytelling to drive meaningful change.

Simone stepped into her leadership role with humility, grounded in the belief that GreenLight Fund’s first responsibility is to listen deeply to the community and respond with care. But stepping into this work during a global pandemic—when racial justice dominated national headlines and tensions with police were boiling over—meant the GreenLight Twin Cities site was navigating extraordinary complexity. In a moment when words fell short, Simone listened. Day after day, she logged onto Zoom to connect with local leaders, partners, and residents—bearing witness to their grief, resilience and urgent calls for change. Across every conversation, a clear message emerged: the community needs people who not only listen, but act, because healing demands both.

True to the model, GreenLight Fund Twin Cities promised to invest in four innovative solutions by 2025, with the community leading the way. As part of that commitment, she began recruiting members for the Twin Cities Selection Advisory Council (SAC), a diverse and inclusive group of residents, experts, and local leaders across sectors. The SAC plays a central role in GreenLight’s community-driven process, helping guide decision-making and ensuring that each selection is grounded in local insight and lived experience.

2021

By the start of 2021, as vaccines rolled out and the uncertainty of the pandemic began to ease, GreenLight Twin Cities identified key focus areas to investigate, setting the direction for our first selection cycle. The team grew as Simone hired Diarra Brooks as the Program Associate, and together they began the process of narrowing down the first selection in partnership with the SAC. Many areas arose for GreenLight Twin Cities to investigate, with community safety, Black maternal health, and workforce development as the top contenders. 

GreenLight Fund Twin Cities was uniquely positioned to respond to the tragedy of George Floyd’s murder, which sparked international outrage and sustained media attention. As the Twin Cities team listened closely, a clear call emerged: the community wanted to reimagine public safety—centered on care, connection, and collective responsibility. People weren’t asking for fixes imposed from the top down. They were asking to be part of the solution: to support their neighbors, create alternatives to law enforcement, and build responses rooted in dignity, trust, and lived experience. Again and again, the same question arose: why must we rely on systems that so often fail us—when we know we can care for one another differently?

The first selection was filled with many learnings and lessons to guide the process moving forward. Ultimately, Let Everyone Advance with Dignity (LEAD) was selected as the first investment, a community safety program along the Lake Street Corridor to support individuals struggling with housing, addiction, employment, and many other social issues that impact the lives of many. The Lake Street Corridor is a hub of entrepreneurship and culture built and sustained by Black, Indigenous, LatinX and immigrant communities. This neighborhood was identified as an area where improvements in public safety can make a real difference through fewer unnecessary police interactions. LEAD’s approach is rooted in holistic case management to ensure all the basic needs of clients are met with dignity and respect. This deep support means that there is a limited number of people that can work with LEAD, but those that do see impressive results.

2022-2023

The next selection cycle involved even more listening and learning to narrow down our focus areas. Black maternal health quickly rose to the top once again, along with youth mental health. The urgent need became clear: in Minnesota, the maternal mortality crisis disproportionately impacts Black and brown birthing people. After months of searching the country for potential solutions, Irth (as in Birth, but they dropped the B for Bias) emerged as a strong contender due to its accessibility, community-involved approach, and hospital partnership model designed to increase transparency and confront bias at the source to improve outcomes for all. Irth was selected in September 2023 and officially launched in February 2024, beginning a partnership with Hennepin Healthcare, the largest safety net hospital in Minnesota.

Around the same time, the team grew to three with the addition of Jo Rutkiewicz as the Twin Cities Coordinator, and Diarra growing into her role as the Program Manager. Increasing capacity for the team meant GreenLight was positioned to expand GreenLight’s reach within the community, with additional bandwidth to expand our efforts and drive meaningful change.  

2024

At the start of 2024, Irth officially launched and started working in the community. At the same time, the Twin Cities team observed growing community needs as emergency COVID-era funding ended, leaving many residents without critical support. The community called for more action. Food shelf visits continued to rise across the state, schools faced persistent funding challenges, and affordable housing became increasingly inaccessible. In response, the Twin Cities team initiated the next selection cycle with an ambitious goal: to select two innovative organizations on an accelerated timeline thereby deepening GreenLight’s impact. The team committed  to executing the GreenLight Method with fidelity while identifying and selecting two organizations in just seven months—half the time typically dedicated to selecting one. rather than one organization in 12 months.

Youth mental health once again emerged as a critical unmet need in our community, alongside food security and affordable housing. Numerous conversations about the local context helped shape how potential organizations might operate in the Twin Cities and where they could make the quickest impact. Ensuring strong local fit is essential to the success of any organization selected to launch in a GreenLight city. 

After a competitive selection process, the Twin Cities GreenLight team in partnership with the SAC ultimately selected Food Connect and Inner Explorer. 

2025

Food Connect’s mission is to bridge the gaps in service in local food ecosystems to build healthier communities. Food Connect’s model capitalizes on the reach technology enables while hiring a local team to work with Twin Cities organization partners, ensuring food rescue and redistribution efforts are both effective and sustainable. They provide customized logistics and delivery services to streamline meal distribution, ensuring more young people get the nutrition they need to thrive.

Inner Explorer is bringing mindfulness to schools and day programs to improve the mental health and well-being of youth. Its evidence-based model makes daily mindfulness practices accessible for all school communities, equipping educators, students, and families with valuable social-emotional skills that foster human potential and help inoculate against stress and poverty. The program includes 5–10-minute daily audio-guided exercises, tailored for ages from preschool through high school, teaching breathing, relaxation, emotional understanding, empathy, and self-regulation. In the Twin Cities, youth, especially students of color, face significant challenges related to social-emotional well-being, including systemic barriers and a lack of access to culturally responsive care.

From the beginnings amid the upheaval of COVID-19 and the urgent calls for racial justice, GreenLight Fund Twin Cities has been driven by a clear and unwavering mission: to ignite meaningful, lasting impact where it’s needed most. Those early moments of crisis revealed deep-rooted challenges and sparked a collective determination to listen deeply, act boldly, and center the voices of our community.

Over the past five years, this commitment has shaped all we do—transforming data into action and hope into tangible change. Through intentional partnerships and a relentless focus on equity, we’ve built programs that reflect the real, interconnected needs of our neighborhoods.

Together, these programs tell a powerful story of healing community safety, supporting Black and brown mothers, ending childhood hunger, and expanding youth mental health access. These challenges are interconnected—when families are nourished and supported, communities grow stronger and cycles of trauma can be broken.

GreenLight’s community-chosen investments are meeting these needs, but the work continues. Looking ahead, we are committed to deepening impact, expanding opportunities, and building a future where every family in the Twin Cities can thrive.