Join Kellen and Marie on Monday at 5:00 to decorate antique skeleton keys! We will be sending these to kind humans that have donated to the Key.

Then, on Thursday, come on down to make a birdhouse. Hopefully Kellen and I will have all of the lumber cut, all you need to do is come down, assemble the house, and paint! Everything will be provided and (as always) will be free.

I think they'll look like this... we'll see what Kellen has to say about that.

We made curry and it was delicious.
Danny Dobrow is head of cooking class, which takes place about once a month at Emmaus.

The Northfield Union of Youth teamed up with Twin Cities rapper and spoken word artist Kristoff Krane for a special educational workshop for participants of the Summer Plus program. Summer PLUS is a summer-long academic and recreational program for elementary and middle school students and part of the PRIMEtime Collaborative. Kristoff Krane led two one hour sessions, loosely titled “So you Wanna be a Rapper,” but was more focused on finding the passion to write for oneself and how to do so. About 10 members of the The Key came along to assist Kristoff in his endeavors. Many youth spoke and rapped their final piece (or their work in progress) in front of the others or had staff and members of the Key perform their pieces for them. A huge thanks to Jenny Kramm and Tim Hollinger for being such a big help in making this happen. For more photos click here.

The Northfield News published a great story in Saturday’s (April 11) paper about the Youth Micro-Grant program that HCI funds and supports with the Northfield Union of Youth. If you missed it, check it out by clicking here.

Applications are accepted on an ongoing basis for the Youth Micro-Grant program. Any young person interested in starting a small business is encouraged to apply! Click here for more information — to apply, complete and submit “Application – Step 1″ on the right side of the page.

If you have any questions, call Josh Hinnenkamp (507-663-0715 ) or HCI (507-664-3524).

An example of a beautiful creation that came out of a recent Youth Micro-Grant!

The PRIMEtime Collaborative, including members of the Northfield Union of Youth (The Key), headed up to the Water Park of America in Bloomington, the world’s largest indoor water park. I was unable to attend so will post photos when I can. A whole busload of youth attended the trip with five members of The Key along as chaperones and participants. It was a very popular trip and all had a wonderful time. The trip was done as part of PRIMEtime’s goal of offering programming and activities to K-12 students on days when school is not in session. Sounds like a fun Spring break trip.

This trip was made possible by an “After School Community Learning Program” grant from the Minnesota Department of Education.

The last time the Key’s Art Project did tape sculptures, the organization got a lot of compliments from local businesses and townspeople. The creations made it about a month before all of them were stolen, though you would see them popping up here and there all over the downtown area. Well, the Key has done tape sculptures again and my guess is that the results will be much the same. So keep a look out for the life-sized clear creations. They might just end up on your yard.

After a few schedule changes Cooking Class finally met again at Emmaus Church. On Thursday March 19th about 10 youth learned how to make crepes from youth chef extraordinaire Danny Dobrow. I wasn’t able to stay and make the food but the kids who went spoke very highly of Danny and the food.

Members of the Northfield PRIMEtime Collaborative, which includes after school enrichment programs from the Northfield Middle School Youth Center, the high school, elementary schools, and The Key, attended the Rally for Minnesota Youth Day at the Capitol on Thursday March 5th. This was an all-day event created so that hundreds of participants from dozens of youth service organizations throughout MN could come together to rally behind common issues, including homelessness, mentoring, out-of-school time programming, workforce development, and youth intervention.

Members of the PRIMEtime Collaborative took an early bus up to St. Paul and all members participated in a kick-off at the Kelly Inn, a march to the Capitol, meetings with State Senator Kevin Dahle and State House Representative David Bly, and a giant youth rally in the rotunda of the Capitol. Three members of the PRIMEtime Collaborative gave testimony to a committee debating a bill for after school funding. After the testimonies, the weary warriors for youth funding headed home to Northfield.

The testimonies given by Northfield High School Assistant Principal Marnie Thompson, Northfield High School senior and NUY Youth Board President Ruth Amerman, and Middle School Youth Center participant and leader Champange Eiklenborg were powerful presentations given during deliberation of an upcoming early education bill (HF203) by the Early Childhood Finance and Policy Division Committee. A big shout out to The Key’s Ruth Amerman for her especially gut-wrenching testimony.

The PRIMEtime Collaborative was given an “After School Community Learning Program” grant of $299,295.31 for a two-year period through the Minnesota Department of Education in the Fall of 2007. The Collaborative was at the Capitol to advocate for future funding of this kind. The Northfield Union of Youth (The Key) is also funded by, and advocated for future funding for, the Office of Justice “Youth Intervention Program.” YIPA (Minnesota Youth Intervention Programs Association), a youth advocacy group of which the NUY is a member, has a future bill (HF972 & SF741) that is trying to keep the Youth Intervention Program from having its funding cut. These bills should be heard in the Public Safety Finance/Budget Committees of both the House and Senate later this month.

FOR MORE PHOTOS PLEASE CLICK HERE.