About Engage Winona
Engage Winona is a 501c3 nonprofit cultivating stronger communities in southeast Minnesota by reigniting community participation through dialogue, support, and training. Our programs bring people together, spark ideas, and cultivate the conditions for a community where we all belong, connect, and contribute.
Engage Winona was founded in 2017 to meet an expressed need for an organization that could train, support, and amplify community members to get involved in making a positive local impact, and drive systems change on multiple levels.
Engage Winona has operated for 8 years in Winona County and has built deep, trusting relationships across the county and region, from local businesses to multi-county agencies.
Our ongoing work of civic engagement and community-building has shifted the culture of how people come together to envision the community’s future and stay together to create it. Our programming is highly relational and place-based. It is tailored to the community we serve, because we are working to co-create a Southeast Minnesota where we can all contribute, connect and belong.
MISSION
Engage Winona drives equitable civic action and social change by working to ensure everyone has access, voice and power in community planning, decision-making and changemaking.
VISION
Our vision is of a community where everyone is welcomed, heard and included; sees themselves as community leaders and changemakers; and has the tools and resources to create change that supports a resilient, inclusive community.
Our Programs
The Winona Area Kitchen Table is a cohort of local community members who have faced housing instability or homelessness. The team brings their own lived experience and invites cross-sector stakeholders to work together on solutions to housing issues.
This cohort leadership program trains and supports local residents with leadership skill-building, training and workshops on civic engagement, and mentorship to support their individual leadership goals and vision for community transformation.
Engage Winona facilitates this collaborative coalition of more than 40 organizations and 200 individuals working to build a resilient, trauma-informed community. The group’s work is focused on healing and addressing the causes of individual and community trauma through education, advocacy, and elevating voices.
In the summer of 2024, Engage Winona and community partners hosted a series of three block parties that offered pathways for civic participation and community participation, as well as opportunities to have fun, eat, and play with friends and neighbors!
Winona Together is a series of fun, free gatherings aimed at advancing civic participation for all, well-being, and mental health resilience in Winona County. Winona Together covers topics that community members identify as important to them.
Community Member Testimonial
Sarah Johnson of The Joy Labs shares how Engage Winona fosters community, connection, and belonging.
