Who We Are
Our Mission
Seeds Worth Sowing (SWS) is a culturally specific, African American–led nonprofit organization based in South Minneapolis, dedicated to strengthening families intergenerationally through trauma-informed, culturally grounded services.
Every program we run is an expression of the Community Welfare System™ (CWS), the framework we built from six years of direct field work. CWS guides how we design, deliver, and measure every service under our roof, from housing assistance to maternal health to community navigation.
Everyone deserves access to a system where they feel seen, safe, represented, and nurtured.
How We Work: The Community Welfare System
The Community Welfare System (CWS) is not a separate initiative. It is the operating framework underneath everything Seeds Worth Sowing does. Every program, from the Nurturing Homes Project to Housing For The Homies, is built using the same CWS principles: meet people where they are, remove bureaucratic barriers, and build infrastructure that outlasts any single crisis or funding cycle.
We developed CWS because we kept seeing the same gap across our work: families navigating fragmented systems that were never designed to communicate with each other. CWS is our answer to that fragmentation, a shared structure that lets housing support, maternal health, benefit navigation, and community care work together instead of in silos.
We believe in building a sense of community for underserved parents and caregivers where collectively we belong and have the freedom to thrive.
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The Root: Our Story
From the outset, the organization has offered services that honor African American caregiving traditions and community‐centered healing. Programs include support for stable housing, benefit navigation, direct financial assistance, maternal health education, and reentry assistance for parents returning from incarceration. These services are delivered through relational, non‐invasive approaches that prioritize dignity, trust, and collaboration, avoiding deficit‐based models and reflecting both cultural history and current family challenges.
Seeds Worth Sowing has coordinated multi‐component programs that integrate culturally responsive mental health supports, parent coaching, housing, benefit navigation, and culturally grounded activities. Implementation emphasizes coordination across service areas, so families receive comprehensive, aligned support rather than fragmented interventions.
Since 2020, the organization has supported more than 400 families across Minnesota, including 35 parents who reunited with their children after incarceration.
Our Focal Values
1. Radical Accessibility
We believe that care should not be a hurdle. We work to dismantle the barriers—bureaucratic, financial, and social—that prevent marginalized families from accessing housing stability and maternal health equity.
2. Mutual Stewardship
We aren’t a "charity" providing "services." We are neighbors practicing stewardship. We believe in horizontal power, where resources flow to where they are needed most, rooted in mutual respect and shared dignity.
3. Sustainable Infrastructure
Crisis-response is vital, but permanence is the goal. We are committed to building a "skeleton" of care—systems and networks that are resilient enough to weather political storms and economic shifts.
4. Centering the Margin
We focus our energy on those who have been historically and systematically pushed to the edges. By centering those at the margins— low-income workers, and those navigating housing instability—we create a blueprint for a more just Minnesota for everyone.
We are interested in being a trusted fixture in the community. We are building the soil so that every seed planted in our neighborhood has the chance to thrive. Find images of our space and learn how to get involved here.
“The concept of mutual aid does not only need to be in response to emergencies.”
Zedé Harut, Founder