Our Work

The Alliance provides leadership to the following initiatives.

Actualizing Equity Event Series 

The Actualizing Equity event series creates space for organizers throughout the region to build relationships, share knowledge and strategize together in our shared work to change the policies and systems that influence racial, economic, environmental, and health equity.

Affordable & Equitable Housing

The Alliance is elevating awareness about our region’s affordable housing crisis and moving public officials to discuss important policies and investments. We have organized this work under 5 Pillars of Affordable Housing Policy: power of renters and communities most impacted to have lasting influence on decision-making processes, placement of housing to ensure access to essential daily needs, protection of tenants from housing instability and displacement, preservation of existing affordable housing at truly affordable levels in good condition, and production of new housing units at a diversity of affordability levels.

Blue Line Coalition

The Alliance convenes the Blue Line Coalition, which is focused on building community-based power to advance local and regional equity and community health by securing community benefits, changing policies and systems to support the creation of wealth and well-being of historic communities of color, immigrant/refugees, migrants, people living with disabilities and low-income communities along the Blue Line Extension Corridor.

Business Resource Collective

The Business Resource Collective is a coalition of more than 20 cultural and place-based community organizations in the Twin Cities and statewide focused on centering the needs and growth of Black, Indigenous, immigrant, and people of color owned (BIPOC) businesses. The BRC envisions a Minnesota with a thriving small business landscape in every community, where small businesses create living wage jobs for neighborhood residents, and businesses are community-nurturing gathering spaces that generate economic opportunity.

Equitable Development Principles & Scorecard

The Alliance partnered with the Harrison Neighborhood Association, Umoja Community Development Corporation, and members of the Community Engagement Steering Committee to create the Equitable Development Principles & Scorecard, which helps communities ensure that the principles and practices of equitable development, environmental justice, and affordability are available to all residents. We are now working with local communities of color and low-income communities to pilot the tool to advance equitable development in the region. A Scorecard Enthusiasts group has come together to provide resources that make the Scorecard more accessible.

Equity in Place

Equity in Place is a diverse group of strategic partners from place-based, housing, and advocacy organizations that believe that everyone in the Twin Cities region deserves to live where they want to live and have access to opportunity. Equity in Place influences planning and investments that will shape the future of the Twin Cities region. The coalition is convened by the Alliance and the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs at the University of Minnesota.

HIRE Minnesota

The Alliance provides core staff and strategy support to HIRE Minnesota, a campaign to end employment disparities in Minnesota. Minnesota is home to some of the worst employment disparities in the country. But HIRE Minnesota has set an ambitious goal: to bring our state from worst to first in employment equity.

Housing Justice League

The Alliance provides leadership within Housing Justice League, a group of community based organizations advocating for policy change and building grassroots support for housing justice in Minneapolis. Together, HJL is advocating for a strong Tenant Opportunity to Purchase policy that would give all renters the first right to purchase their building when it goes for sale, or transfer that right to a buyer of their choosing.

Our AREA: Alliance Regional Equity Agenda

Our AREA: The Alliance Regional Equity Agenda is a strategic document centered around the needs and aspirations of people of color, indigenous, immigrant, and low-income communities. It highlights the strategies Alliance members and partners are using and calls for further collective action to heal communities, stimulate regenerative power, dismantle structural racism, and end the displacement and gentrification of our communities.

Southwest LRT Equity Commitments

The Alliance supports a network of community-based organizations focused on how communities of color can benefit from the Southwest LRT project. We have developed targeted strategies that will create wealth and economic opportunity. This transitway is a critical opportunity to increase economic prosperity and advance racial equity in North Minneapolis, as well as across the greater city and region.