UC + We Educate Brilliant Minds
Opening doors to college, career, and culture—empowering the next generation to thrive.
We partner with schools, families, and communities to remove barriers and create real opportunities for young people.
Learn MoreHow We Make an Impact
ESTABLISHED 2005 · MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA
Safety is the start.
Freedom is the future.
UC provides community violence intervention, youth and family development, housing and support navigation, education and workforce pathways, and credible-messenger training.
THAT MOVE
YOU FORWARD
WHY URBAN
We meet people where they are—and refuse to leave them there.
OUR MISSION
To serve at-risk communities and reduce recidivism and violence through mediation, housing, and employment.
For more than 20 years, The Urban Conservation has helped connect community members to safety, opportunity and support. Our work is grounded in lived experience, accountability and the belief that every person deserves a future bigger than their hardest chapter.
THE URBAN CONSERVATION
It started with youth.
It grew with you.
Young people became adults. Participants became parents, mentors, referrers and partners. UC continued to serve the people around them—and many now help pour into others because someone first poured into them.
See how the story grewTHE SIGNATURE PROGRAM
SAFE. ALIVE. FREE.
INSTITUTE™
A relationship-based, six-month development experience for youth and adults, with a focused practitioner-training track.
Explore the InstituteFOR COMMUNITIES & SYSTEM PARTNERS
You have the local relationships.
We help make the response work.
SAFE. ALIVE. FREE.™ Community Response pairs local knowledge with UC’s lived-experience leadership, credible-messenger practice, training, operating tools and implementation support.
Explore Community Response“People do not change because we handed them a program. They change when relationship, accountability and opportunity finally show up together.”
FEROME BROWN · FOUNDER & LEAD FACILITATOR
The Urban Conservation program steers kids from gang life
An early report on UC’s gang-diversion work and the lived experience behind its approach.
Read the original coverage
Trauma and crime: The hidden epidemic
FOX 9 coverage featuring Ferome Brown, Project LIFE and trauma-informed violence intervention.
Read the original coverage
Renting can be tough for reformed gang members
Reporting on housing barriers, reentry and the need for credible community support.
Read the original coverageTAKE THE NEXT STEP