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Hope Grows in a Troubled Inner City Neighborhood

March 30, 2008 | by Jay Walljasper

Hope Community Mural Project: L to R, Ben Wooley, Rick Cavey, Jordan Hamilton, Chaka Mkali (staff) and Elijah Benson. Photo by Scott Streble.

Fifteen years ago, many people had given up on the Phillips neighborhood in Minneapolis — an economically struggling Native American/African-American/white neighborhood with drug problems. What many people didn’t see then was the difference that could be made by the Hope Community, a non-profit organization working to provide affordable housing and a sense of common possibility.

Hope Community Mural Project: L to R, Ben Wooley, Rick Cavey, Jordan Hamilton, Chaka Mkali (staff) and Elijah Benson. Photo by Scott Streble.