{"id":14,"date":"2017-10-24T18:35:08","date_gmt":"2017-10-24T18:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/riversidehub\/?page_id=14"},"modified":"2026-06-17T14:43:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T14:43:54","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/riversidehub\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Minneapolis<\/p>\n

Why do we exist?<\/h2>\n

The Riverside Innovation Hub exists to accompany, equip and activate people in loving their neighbors better – relationally, interdependently, and collaboratively, towards the mending of the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This work is rooted in a belief that relationships are everything.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our Growing Sphere of Influence<\/h2>\n

While our foundation is built on supporting faith communities in their vital neighborhood work, this moment on the clock of the world requires a bold, unconventional approach to leadership.<\/span><\/p>\n

We are expanding our circle and setting a bigger table. By creating collaborations between congregations, the Augsburg University community, and national changemakers, we are cultivating a diverse network of 21st-century leaders. Together, we are shedding old systems, embracing our deep interdependence with one another, and mending our little corners of the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

OUr Context<\/h2>\n

We live in a time of profound upheaval and uncertainty. The threats to our thriving as a people and as a planet have grown out of a thwarted understanding of relationship – one shaped by white supremacy, systems of exploitation and extraction, and a belief in fierce independence. These ideas have generated a distorted harmful narrative that thriving can only happen in isolation and\/or at the expense of others. The Riverside Innovation Hub aims to expose the heresy of this narrative, grieve what has been lost as this old story disconnected us, and in doing so remember our collective deeper truth…\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Hub is rooted in a <\/span>\u201cRe-membering\u201d<\/span><\/i> of this truth of our generous connection to one another, to the land and to all of creation. Our work with congregations and 21st century leaders is focused on <\/span>repairing<\/span><\/i> the network of interdependent relationships, <\/span>restoring<\/span><\/i> our capacities to commit towards a vision of mutual thriving, and <\/span>re-membering <\/span><\/i>ways to be in relationship that sow seeds of flourishing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026<\/b>We are here to interrupt the forgetting and accompany one another back to right relationship with each other, with our neighbors, and with the world we are called to help mend.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Our specific geographic context of the Twin Cities has lived out the tension of these two different narratives quite publicly in recent years. From the uprisings that followed that murder of George Floyd by local police to the recent attack from the federal government on our immigrant neighbors through Metro Surge, our communities have been challenged to make some pivotal choices. Which narrative will we invest in? One rooted in false notions of hierarchy that breeds exploitation and violence? Or one rooted in interdependence, honoring the need for healthy relationships across all parts of creation?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For several cold months, with the world watching, Minnesotans remembered their shared humanity. They demonstrated how loving our neighbors isn\u2019t complicated. But it can be risky. However, the risks of NOT standing up and showing up to love one another, is far riskier.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is in this evolving ecosystem that we are committed to accompanying three vital groups:<\/span><\/p>\n