NAZ History

NAZ began in 2003 as the PEACE Foundation, which built a grassroots movement across race, class and geography toward the common goal of significantly reducing violence in North Minneapolis. Desperate for real change and inspired by the results of the Harlem Children’s Zone, North Minneapolis community organizations and residents pulled together in 2008 to explore solutions to seemingly intractable issues that plagued the neighborhood. Together we developed an achievement-focused model that creates a permanent solution to the “cradle to prison/grave pipeline”—and builds a roadmap for sustainable community transformation.

Today, NAZ leads a collaboration of schools and nonprofit partners that work together on the single goal to end multigenerational poverty through education.

NAZ was awarded a five-year Promise Neighborhood Implementation grant by the U.S. Department of Education in 2012. This seed money is supporting the scale up of our programs and exponentially increasing family enrollment.