Heartland Democracy
Category: News
Addressing All Types of Violence with Peace
Bjorn Ihler’s talk tonight, his final appearance during the week he spent as Heartland’s guest in Minnesota, circled back to the role that civil society organizations like Heartland Democracy can and will have in leading top-level conversations between people in…
Read MoreModeling More for Our Youth
In collaboration with Hamline University, Heartland recently hosted the first of two events featuring Bjorn Ihler. Mr Ihler is an academic, activist, technologist and storyteller working to end extremism. He is influenced by his experiences as a survivor of the…
Read MoreLetter from Executive Director Mary McKinley
Heartland Democracy applied for a federal grant in 2016 to continue and expand our work on education, civic engagement, and community resilience, and we are dedicated to serve the students, parents, immigrants, and refugees who participate in our programs. Our…
Read MoreTeaching the True Story of MLK
Melinda Anderson, writing for The Atlantic, offers an excellent perspective on the teaching social justice. She states, As the country observes the federal holiday named in King’s honor, it seems that schools are increasingly coming under sharp criticism from educators…
Read MoreFrom Board Chair Sara Evans
2015 was a breakthrough year for Heartland Democracy and our work creating new models for civic engagement that can begin to address some of the most pressing issues of our time. As the year is coming to a close, I…
Read MoreRecent Report Debunks Common Immigration Myths
According to a recently published study by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, immigrants are healthier, learning English faster than ever, and less likely to commit crime than native born Americans. In a summary article, Think Progress‘s immigration reporter Esther Yu-Hsi…
Read MoreEmpowering U Part of Groundbreaking Experiment
Heartland Democracy has been asked to participate in a groundbreaking experiment in the Twin Cities. Empowering U will be the key program for a young Somali-American man as he is released from custody pending his trial. Judge Michael Davis has…
Read MoreHeartland Democracy in the News
We’ve had some great media coverage of our efforts and our methodology: On Sunday, April 29, Heartland Democracy was featured on the front page of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, in an article about our work and our coach, high school teacher Ahmed…
Read MoreMcKinley Named Executive Director
Mary McKinley has been named executive director of Heartland Democracy. She has been involved with the organization since it was founded by Tom Vellenga almost 9 years ago, first as a member of the Advisory Board and then as a…
Read More
Heartland Democracy 