Our Purpose

BridgeLink exists to collaborate with other organizations in mobilizing people and other assets to meet the community needs of Anoka County, Minnesota.

 

Just as a bridge links people on two separate land masses, BridgeLink seeks to form collaborative relationships between  Support Organizations , such as area businesses and the faith community,   and non profit Service Providers, all for the purpose of solving community needs:

 

We sincerely believe that those in need of physical, emotional, financial, and social support  will be best served when we work together. To that end, BridgeLink identifies programs and events led by our Service Providers and communicates the resources needed for them to our Support Organizations. We then also coordinate the mobilization of those resources for these programs and events. This saves our Support Organizations time and funding and helps facilitate the mission of our Service Providers. More importantly, more community needs are met than would be otherwise.

 

Our Values

We are guided by the following Collaboration Values as we seek to accomplish our purpose:

Long-Term effective relationships

Safe and secure programs

Being financially accountable

Balancing meeting daily needs with long-term change 

Celebrating the win-win of collaborative efforts

 

Our Current Focus

We are currently focusing on building collaborative relationships with both businesses and faith communities to support our existing eight non profit Service Providers. If you would like to collaborate with us, click here for Businesses , or here for Faith Communities. We will also add other Service Providers after careful consideration.

 

Our History

In 2005, BridgeLink was founded by Constance Free Church in Andover, Minnesota out of a desire to practice love and good deeds beyond the walls of the church. We are a separate legal entity from the church with a distinct purpose from the church. We were granted 501(c)(3) status that same year.

Parallel to the establishment of BridgeLink, Business Leadership Forum was developed to bring leadership concepts and life balance skills to the business community.

During 2006, collaborative relationships were established with our Service Providers and over 250 volunteers were mobilized. Business Leadership Forum also incorporated business collaboration into its programming and area businesses began to collaborate.

Late in 2007, BridgeLink participated in the national Make a Difference Day, making it the first of what will be bi-annual concentrated days of service, called Serve Days. During this same time period and up to the present, BridgeLink has been actively forming collaborative relationships with several area faith communities to prepare for Serve Day, April 19, 2008.

 

The BridgeLink Board

As a Minnesota non profit, BridgeLink is overseen by a Board of Directors as follows:

 

Jim Barber, President and Treasurer                            Jill Discher, Vice President

Therese Hamel, Vice President                                    Natalie Hare, Secretary

Jim Scott, Board Member                                                                     

 

BridgeLink expects to add board members in the coming months after Serve Day, April 19,2008.