About | Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain

child's hands facing up to rainbow painting

The Community Engagement & Education (CEEd) Hub

The CEEd hub facilitates community engagement with MIDB by connecting the community with cutting-edge clinical trials, and highlighting research, programs, and individual stories to inform our local and national communities of the benefits and services offered at the University of Minnesota. Listening deeply to the needs of the community enables us to shape our work in a way that sparks novel understandings of the brain and more effectively advances crucial policy and advocacy

Aims of the hub

The hub aims to foster bidirectional communication with the community in order to relay the community’s identified gaps and concerns regarding neurodevelopment, in order to mold programs and services offered at MIDB. This will enable us to fast-track interventions to the community, and develop the next generation of underrepresented minorities (URM) leaders in science, technology, engineering, agriculture and mathematics (STEAM).

In pursuit of our Mission, we will:

Advance our knowledge of the health needs of our community
Collaborate with our community to leverage collective strengths to co-create innovative and inclusive approaches to clinical care, research, education, and training.
Honor the intersectionality of lived experiences and perspectives in our community members and ensure our work is responsive, sensitive, and constantly evolving
Improve the accessibility to services, research, and funding for our community, specifically for URM, refugee, and BIPOC individuals
Empower URM youth through STEAM initiatives, seminars, workshops, and research.
Visualize a better future for the next generation, and believe that it is possible
Educate our communities and ourselves, understanding that all forms of healthy development require constant responsiveness and willingness to change and improve

Land Acknowledgment

Community Engagement & Education (CEEd) Hub collectively acknowledges that the University of Minnesota Twin Cities is located on the stolen traditional, ancestral, and contemporary lands of the Dakhóta people. It is important to acknowledge the peoples on whose land we live, learn, and work as we seek to improve and strengthen our relations with our tribal nations.

We also acknowledge that words are not enough. We must ensure that our institution provides support, resources, and programs that increase access to all aspects of higher education for our American Indian students, staff, faculty, and community members. We recognize, continually support and advocate for the sovereignty of the Native nations in this territory and beyond. By offering this land acknowledgment, we affirm tribal sovereignty and will work to hold ourselves and affiliations accountable to American Indian peoples and Nations.

Learn more about land acknowledgments and why they’re so important.