Yesterday, a committee of the Minneapolis City Council unanimously passed a resolution that acknowledges institutional racism and pushes Minneapolis to adopt tools to increase equity in employment. Specifically, Minneapolis will be creating and implementing a racial equity assessment to analyze its budgets, policies and programs. HIRE Minnesota has been urging Minneapolis to break down the silos and…
The newest Economic Policy Institute report illustrates that while the unemployment rate in the African American community in the Twin Cities fell in 2011, the disparity between black and white unemployment in the Twin Cities remains the worst in the nation. Read about how HIRE is closing the unemployment gap > Read the EPI report…
Over the last several years, HIRE Minnesota has been working to ensure that everyone in the Twin Cities is working together to reduce our racial disparities in employment. To that end, the Minnesota Department of Human Rights recently raised the hiring goal for people of color on publicly funded projects from 11 percent to 32 percent in both Ramsey and Hennepin…
by Owen Duckworth, coalition organizer Nathaniel Smith of Partnership for Southern Equity (PSE) got up in front of a room full of Minnesota’s equity leaders last week and stated, “Equity is not a tactic; it’s a way of life.” Smith was speaking to the leaders who came together to form EquityNow Twin Cities, a group…
Huge Victory for HIRE Minnesota! The Minnesota Department of Human Rights just announced its new workforce goals for people of color on state construction projects: 32 percent in Hennepin and Ramsey Counties and 22 percent for the rest of the region. Read more about this victory >
On December 11, 2011, Lisa Garcia, Senior Advisor on Environmental Justice to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Jackson, presented the Stops for Us coalition with a National Achievements in Environmental Justice award. This award highlighted the significance of the coalition’s success in securing light rail stations at Western Avenue, Victoria Street, and Hamline Avenue to provide…
Alliance staffer Tracy Babler wrote this article for Shelterforce, a national affordable housing magazine, on the incredible work of the Stops for Us coalition to secure three missing stations for communities of color along the Central Corridor LRT. Read the article in Shelterforce >
The Alliance joined our partners in the HIRE Minnesota coalition today for a public action to call on our leaders to end the shutdown and put Minnesotans back to work. Dozens of unemployed construction workers, carpentry students, people representing faith-based groups and employment advocates rallied at the abandoned construction site at the interchange between Highway…
Alliance Associate Director and Summit Academy OIC CEO Louis King write that with Minnesota’s nation-leading racial economic disparities, now is not the time to dismantle policies and programs that protect women and people of color in the workplace. Read the letter to the editor >
We are honored to announce that the Stops for Us coalition, which the Alliance is a member of, is the winner of an Environmental Protection Agency National Achievements in Environmental Justice Award for 2010. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson made the announcement yesterday at the first-ever White House Environmental Justice Forum, convened to…