Love First


OUR MISSION:
Building a school to success pipeline by dismantling barriers for youth, connecting them to community resources and creating safe, culturally centered spaces and events to cultivate joy and purposeĀ 

Created in 2020, Love First Community Engagement is rooted in decades of community organizing, building up local leaders, and activism guided by the leadership and ingenuity of Saint Paulite, Chauntyll Allen.

Love First envisions abundant pathways and strong villages for liberated youth to grow, thrive and achieve lifelong success. We are building a school to success pipeline by dismantling barriers for youth, connecting them to community resources and creating safe, culturally centered spaces and events to cultivate joy and purpose.

Our values:Ā 

    • We believe that when Black youth are liberated, all youth will be liberated.
    • We engage in trauma informed approaches.Ā 
    • We support the self-directed identity and goals of young people.Ā 
    • We work with a racial justice lens.
    • We cultivate a village response to systemic injustice.

Current work

Black youth in St. Paul experience some of the highest levels of poverty and unstable housing, and lowest rates of graduation. Traditional non-profit programming, governmental control, and common distribution methods serve to oppress rather than liberate our communities.

Our programs tap into youthsā€™ brilliant and resilient lineages, bridge broken connections with family members and honor the cultural principles that galvanize our young people to discover their unique course, not just to the livable wages and personal healing needed to acquire and attain stable housing, but to make contributions to our community.

Read our 2022 Annual Report!

Continue reading “Current work”

Events

To bring joy and hope to our young people, we hold a free community events focused on art, activism and healing, bringing our community together with food, music, dancing and give-aways. We partner with Black and BIPOC vendors and entrepreneurs to invest in our economic development and integrate local healers and organizations like Irreducible Grace.

Learn more about our approach in this recent article from the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder!

Upcoming events

MLK Solidarity Community Dinner

Join Love First to celebrate and reflect on Rev Martin Luther King Jrā€™s radical legacy of solidarity with free food, activities for youth and a discussion about MLKā€™s Poor Peopleā€™s Campaign ā€” and how we can bring lessons from history into the present political moment. Register here!

Stay tuned to Instagram and Facebook for updates!

Past events

June Revive & Thrive Training and Community DinnerĀ 
June 6 | Lutheran Church of the Redeemer
Watch a video reel from the event!

May Community Dinner & Conversation
May 19 | Indigenous Roots

April Community Dinner
April 12 | Lutheran Church of the Redeemer
Watch a video reel from the event!

February Community Dinner
February 18 | Lutheran Church of the Redeemer

MLK Day Community Dinner
Jan 14, 2024 | Indigenous Roots Cultural Arts Center

In honor of MLK Day, Love First hosted a Community Dinner with free food, fellowship and a showing of theĀ biopic “Rustin.” Following the film, we had a discussion about the film and how to organize with our youth facilitated by civil rights leader and youth advocate, Chauntyll Allen.

Get Support

A core operating principle of Love First is that community is capable of identifying and mobilizing to meet immediate needs and solve entrenched problems. We know that our Black and brown youth possess hidden or emerging skills and abilities that have been buried or actively undermined by the stress and trauma of being immersed in systems of structural and institutional racism. If you are a young person, aged 16-24, in St. Paul and need support, please fill out this form.

Click here to view our Resource List.

Continue reading “Get Support”

Get Involved

Love First is a community movement, a network of people who care about our youth and are committed to justice and liberation. We need your support!

Get involved by:

    • Joining our email list to get updates and announcements about events, actions and volunteer opportunities
    • Donating to make this work possible
    • Getting in touch and letting us know how you’d like to partner or work together at [email protected]