Hurston Institute for Learning & Development

About Us

Named after Zora Neale Hurston for her dedication to educating communities of color rooted in authenticity and truth, the Hurston Institute for Learning & Development  (HILD) provides child, youth, and adult learning and development programming and individualized services that combat low academic achievement, low retention, and high unemployment across the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul community.

Our goal is to build a culture of high achievement for low-income, non-dominant (L1ND) communities in North & South Minneapolis and East Metro St. Paul. We are driven to combat the systemic inequities that have resulted in low academic achievement, low workplace retention, and high unemployment for African Americans by:

• Designing and implementing Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) learning opportunities based on community interests, needs, and assets.

• Bringing educators and mentors into communities that have historically lacked equitable learning opportunities.

• Helping educators incorporate culturally-responsive teaching and learning into classroom, community, and workplace practices.

• Conducting research to identify best practices for youth and family engagement and learning.

HILD’s culturally-rooted, assets-based, wraparound approach and programming targets the North and South Minneapolis African American community, whose:

• Family members experience the trauma and extraordinary daily needs created by systemic racism and economic exclusion.

• Children have academic and social talents that are often dismissed within or denigrated by educational systems and who, thus, are labelled academically “low-performing” because of factors such as poor attendance, low levels of engagement in class, and behaviors related to anxiety or stress.

• Adults are caring and concerned, but often characterized as “hard to employ” or job insecure and view themselves as oppositional within provider/service recipient dynamics,

• Cultural assets have historically been viewed as deficits within education and employment systems and whose persistent exclusion contributes to Minnesota’s systems-level inequities and disparate academic and socio-economic outcomes.