Basketball players return to Minneapolis' north side to give back to their community
MINNEAPOLIS -- Part of rebuilding Minneapolis' north side is leaning on the people who grew up there to come back. That's what a pair of former basketball players are doing -- living and working in the community they love.
Mia Johnson is a police officer on the north side, and that means she is back home.
"I still feel it's a part of home, right? I know the area -- all the demographics. I know some of the history," Johnson said.
This is where it started for her -- a star at Minneapolis North High School.
"I had some really good people I would consider my village that helped raise me and I was able to use basketball as a tool to pave my way," Johnson said.
Johnson went on to play at Michigan State.
"Michigan State, the Michigan State -- I loved it. It's a lot of tradition there, lot of great people. I got the opportunity to earn my degree," Johnson said.
She coached college and high school and is now coaching her 10-year-old daughter's teams on the north side.
That's why it's important to her -- because she knows that these times are tense.
"To see my city, especially the area in which I grew up in, in the state that it's in right now, it's tough. It's tough to watch," Johnson said.
Al Nolen was a star at Minneapolis Henry high school and for the Gophers.
He's now got an after-school program at Folwell Park, where kids can seek a safe haven and do the things they love to do after school.
It is about programs for kids after school and in the summer, but the problems extend to the entire city.
"Post George Floyd's murder, as well as the pandemic, there's a lot of trauma in the community and neighborhood that's not being addressed. And I think it's trickling down across the city," Nolen said.
But in this space, the youth gather and they are secure.
"I feel safe when I'm here," one girl attending the after-school program told WCCO.
"There can never be enough programming. You know, and I've heard that from a lot of my mentors in the space that are still currently doing great work now. So there can never be enough. We need to offer more services for our kids and for our community," Nolen said.
That's what Johnson believes, and that safety starts with interaction -- officers in the community.
Because this is her home and this is where she wants to be to participate to raise her daughter and to remind Minnesota that the north side has got a lot going for it.
"There's still like I said, there's still a lot of good things still happening here in North Minneapolis. For me, I was a product of my environment and I believe that there is a lot of good, there still is a lot of good here," Johnson said.
