Reclaim the Block is a

grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...

organization founded in 2018 and based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The group organized protest and started petitions to pressure the

Minneapolis City Council The Minneapolis City Council is the lawmaking body of Minneapolis. It consists of 13 members, elected from separate wards to four-year terms, via a ranked-choice method. The council structure has been in place since the 1950s. In recent elections ...

to divest money from the

Minneapolis Police Department The Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) is the primary law enforcement agency in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It is also the largest police department in Minnesota. Formed in 1867, it is the second-oldest police department in Minnesot ...

to be spent instead on

subsidized housing Subsidized housing is government sponsored economic assistance aimed towards alleviating housing costs and expenses for impoverished people with low to moderate incomes. In the United States, subsidized housing is often called "affordable housin ...

, addiction resources, youth homelessness causes and crime prevention programs. They also invest in these causes. Instead of the police department, the group support community-based safety initiatives. In some cases, the group has been partially successful in its lobbying for divestment of the police department's budget. In December 2018, $1million planned for the police department was instead allocated to violence prevention programs, including youth violence prevention programs and support for survivors of domestic violence. However, Reclaim the Block had advocated a $9million divestment. After global protests beginning in late May 2020 following the murder of George Floyd, the Minneapolis City Council announced at a rally jointly held by Reclaim the Block and the

Black Visions Collective Black Visions Collective (BLVC) is an American nonprofit organization for black liberation based in Minnesota, founded in December 2017. The group intersects with transgender and LGBTQ communities. Active in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropoli ...

their intent to disband the Minneapolis Police Department. After a surge in donations, the

Minnesota Freedom Fund The Minnesota Freedom Fund is a non-profit organization that operates a bail fund. It was founded in 2016 and is based in the U.S. city of Minneapolis. The organization pays bail for people who have been arrested and are awaiting trial. Initially ...

recommended Reclaim the Block on June 2, 2020 as an alternate organization to donate to.

References

External links

Official website

Reclaim The Block Organizer On Protests In Minneapolis
''Here & Now''. WBUR-FM. Organizations established in 2018 Organizations based in Minneapolis Police oversight organizations

See also

References

Further reading

External links