Twin Cities Rising

Niniijaanis seeks to address early childhood disparities in Native communities across Minnesota through educational redesign and equity.

We create, sell, and give away culturally-relevant learning materials and curriculum, and fundraise with our one-of-a-kind handmade items. Currently, we sell online but we are ready to hit the road - literally by pairing our products with statewide educational services through our Niniijaanis War Pony! We launched a crowdfunding campaign to purchase and refurbish a van / mini bus, our "War Pony," to transform into a dual purpose mobile learning environment / store so we can directly serve families and communities.

Our target market consists of early childhood educators and families throughout Minnesota, especially those working with Native populations. Products can be used in the home, in early childhood settings, at schools, on the go, etc. We know there is a need for us to expand beyond our products by pairing them with additional educational services including home visits, family nests, curriculum consultations, teacher trainings and arts-educational workshops to teach how we make some of our products.

We are a grassroots collective that established ourselves as an LLC after our pilot grant sunset. We measure our success through a traditional Anishinaabe cultural practice with our Niniijaanis giveaways. We track our sales and fundraising efforts to donate as many Niniijaanis items as we sell in order to create access to culturally relevant learning materials.

There is a reading crisis among Black children. On national tests last year, only 18% of Black fourth-graders scored proficient or above in reading. Fourth-grade students who are not reading at grade level are four times more likely to drop out of school. Nearly nine-in-ten (85%) children in the juvenile justice system are illiterate.

PPGJ Books addresses the reading crisis among Black children and the failure of the industry to support BIPOC authors on two fronts: PPGJ Bookstore provides Black children books that help them discover joy in reading. PPGJ Publishing focuses on working with diverse authors and training the next generation of publishing professionals. PPGJ Books specializes in the creation, promotion, and distribution of books written by BIPOC authors.

The bookstore gathers, merchandises, promotes, sells, and distributes books by BIPOC authors to Black young readers through their families, schools, libraries, and community members committed to supporting literacy among children of color. The bookstore, its authors, and titles are promoted on its website, through its e-newsletter, and on social media. We also are an affiliate of Bookshop where we share monthly top book picks.

We have spent the past three years raising awareness about the importance of Black books, advocating to end the literacy gap, building partnerships, and gaining national brand recognition. We have had 5,491 unique visits to our website and e-commerce site (2020-21), 5 published books in our PPGJ exclusive collection, and 10 Black authors have been supported. We have partnered with 17 retail partners to increase sales and customer engagement. In 2020, we opened a physical store in partnership with a local barbershop and community hub, Gideon CC.

I'm addressing the lack of coaching, training, and consulting services for the Spanish-speaking community of the Twin Cities.

By providing bilingual (English / Spanish) services in a unique and holistic approach to health and wellness, I am addressing the needs of the Spanish-speaking population (individuals / businesses) who are interested in transforming their lives and the lives of those around them through education, coaching, personal development workshops, and corporate wellness days.

I am mainly serving small business / community health organizations such as libraries, community agencies, and schools (80% of my clients are women; many of my clients are parents; and almost all speak Spanish or are bilingual (English / Spanish). Although I started with a brick-and-mortar location, I now provide most of my services online and it’s going better than ever. Most of my clients are word-of-mouth or referral-based.

In the last two years, I have earned the trust and confidence of many organizations for which I’ve had the honor of working with. (Waukegan Public Library, Highwood Public Library, Del Valle Migrant Head Start, Vista Cancer Center, among others). Most recently, I was invited to submit a proposal for a mental health educational project in the Spanish-speaking community, and I was granted the opportunity to do a needs analysis, create the curriculum, and present via Facebook Live weekly topics on mental health and wellness. I’m growing my social media presence by sharing quality information (social media is an area that I’m still working on). My goal is to increase my revenue to at least $60K in the next two years.