The District Council Coordinator is available to district council staff and board members for technical assistance including organizational management coaching, resource navigation and connecting to city staff. Additionally, there are a number of organizations who provide technical assistance in areas related to district council operations.
Community Engagement
Dispute Resolution Center
The Dispute Resolution Center (DRC) is a Saint Paul-based non-profit that provides mediation, facilitation and restorative justice services and trainings.
International Association of Public Participation
The International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) offers trainings to public participation practitioners internationally. You can learn more about the IAP2 3 Pillars--Core Values, Ethics and Spectrum--of Public Participation here.
National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation
The National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD) is a network of thousands of practitioners, scholars, activists, public officials, non-profit leaders and more sharing learnings and best-practices in the field of public engagement. Their extensive Resource Center contains 3,100 curated items to reference.
Nexus Community Partners
Nexus Community Partners is a Saint Paul-based non-profit involved in capacity-building, convening and resource alignment among stakeholders in the the Twin Cities to support strong, equitable and just communities. Their Community Engagement Institute provides trainings and other resources to community engagement practitioners to promote equitable engagement.
Building Leaders
Amherst H. Wilder Foundation
The Amherst H. Wilder Foundation is one of the oldest social service organizations in Saint Paul. They offer a variety of community leadership trainings, including the Neighborhood Leadership Program. This cohort based program brings together groups of individuals interested in contributing to their neighborhoods over a 7 month period for in-depth learning and mentorship.
Center for Urban & Regional Affairs
The Center for Urban & Regional Affairs (CURA) is the community-based research program at the University of Minnesota. CURA performs a variety of research projects related to public policy and social science in the Twin Cities region while collaborating with community partners to build residents' and organizations' capacity for transformation. The Neighborhood Organizing and Leadership Program offers organizer training and helps build strategic partners between organizations involved in place-based neighborhood organizing in the Twin Cities. They have a set of helpful organizer reference documents on their website. Additionally, CURA's Neighborhood Partnership Initiative makes technical assistance and small grants of up to $10,000 available to community-based, neighborhood or other place-based organizations located in communities of color and low-income communities in the Twin Cities.
League of Women Voters Minnesota
The League of Women Voters Minnesota is the state chapter of the national organization committed to voter engagement. The League of Women Voters Minnesota can support district councils in need of volunteers to administer elections at their annual meetings.
District Planning
Department of Planning & Economic Development, City of Saint Paul
The Department of Planning & Economic Development has created a set of resources for district councils to successfully create district plans.
The Alliance
The Alliance is a coalition of community-based organizations and advocacy groups building shared power to advance strategic campaigns around the intersections of racial justice, economic justice, environmental justice, and health equity. Our mission is to advance justice and equity in economic growth and land development in the Twin Cities region. The Alliance facilitated the development of the Equitable Development Principles & Scorecard, which helps communities ensure that the principles and practices of equitable development, environmental justice, and affordability are available to all residents.
Nonprofit Management
Minnesota Council of Nonprofits
The Minnesota Council of Nonprofits (MCN) is the primary organization for supporting and advocating on behalf of nonprofits in the state. The council offers an wide range of resources and services. Their Principles & Practices of Nonprofit Excellence (pdf) is a useful guide for understanding how to be successful in operating a nonprofit organization. MCN also provides a range of resources on their web page. Finally, MCN offers a number of in-person and webinar trainings on nonprofit management topics on a regular basis.
Office of the Minnesota Attorney General
Members of nonprofit boards of directors have a set of legal obligations under state and federal law. The Office of the Minnesota Attorney General has published a Guide for Charity Board Members (pdf) as an informal guide to these legal obligations.
Propel Nonprofits
Propel Nonprofits is the major management support organization for nonprofit organizations in the Twin Cities. Along with providing strategic consulting services and transitional lending, the organization also offers a number of training programs. Propel also has a resource page with templates and guides addressing Board/Governance, Finance and Strategy Planning topics that are relevant to district councils.
