HIRE Minnesota is committed to ending racial employment disparities in the Twin Cities. You can help us close the gap and make sure every person who lives in our region has a fair chance at a job.

Sign up to receive HIRE Minnesota emails and we’ll contact you periodically to let you know how you can help secure well paying jobs for people of color. Together, we bring Minnesota from worst to first in hiring equity.

HIRE Minnesota Coalition Meeting
Thursday, February 7
6 – 8 p.m.
Frogtown Square/ Kings Crossing Apartments
500 Dale Street
St. Paul, MN
*Street parking is available on Dale and Sherburne. Please do not park in the parking lot.

2012 was an exciting year for HIRE Minnesota.

One of our major goals was to ensure that the Central Corridor LRT project met its hiring goals for women and people of color. We worked all year to ensure that by the end of major construction 18 percent of the construction hours would be performed by people of color and 6 percent by women.

As construction winds down, we are thrilled to say that the actual hiring on the Central Corridor LRT has exceeded both those numbers. People of color have worked more than 19 percent of the hours on the project and women have worked just under 7 percent. This is a tremendous success and something to celebrate! The Central Corridor LRT project is one of the largest projects in the state to ever achieve its hiring goals for women and people of color.

Now that 2013 is here, we must continue to build on this success, and there are plenty of opportunities to do so. Construction on the new football stadium in Minneapolis and the new ballpark in Saint Paul will both begin this year. There are also significant new development projects taking place across the region, including two major bridge projects. All of these projects will be subject to new, higher state hiring goals, making our work even more important.

We want to make sure that we all take time to celebrate and learn from our experiences so that we can carry our work forward. Join us for our next coalition meeting to celebrate our success in 2012 and to discuss how we can seize the opportunities of 2013.

The event is free but registration is required. Dinner will be provided.

In late August, the Minneapolis City Council unanimously passed a resolution that acknowledges institutional racism and pushes Minneapolis to adopt tools to increase equity in employment. During the hearings on this resolution and in the last few weeks, HIRE Minnesota has heard a great deal from city officials about the importance of employment equity to the city, but we want to know more about how they are going to achieve it. City staff has already started to gather data on the city’s current workforce and is putting together a racial equity toolkit to analyze the city’s budgets, policies, and programs.

At our next coalition meeting, we will hear from several city officials about how they will implement this resolution in their work. We will also find out about steps that we can take to help shape the equity movement in Minneapolis moving forward. We have made progress in our push to have Minneapolis break down the silos and ensure that employment equity principles are part of all its work. This is an opportunity for us to hear about the actual ways the city sees that happening.

Be sure to join us at our next meeting and work with us to move Minnesota from worst to first in employment equity:

HIRE Minnesota Coalition Meeting
Thursday, October 11
6 – 8 p.m.
University of Minnesota Urban Research and Outreach-Engagement Center
2001 Plymouth Ave N
Minneapolis, MN

The event is free but registration is required. Dinner will also be provided.

This week, the Minnesota legislature passed a bill that contains strong employment equity provisions. The Vikings stadium legislation requires that at least 32 percent people of color will be hired to build the stadium, and calls for the Vikings and all contractors and vendors to make extra efforts to hire people of color. It also says that the state agency that operates the stadium must establish a program to recruit, hire and retain people of color on the permanent jobs created by the stadium.

HIRE Minnesota worked with the Minneapolis City Council and state legislators to ensure that any Vikings stadium bill reflect these important hiring equity principles. This is a significant achievement in ensuring that major developments in the Twin Cities contribute to reducing our region’s racial employment disparities.

At our next coalition meeting, HIRE Minnesota will publicly thank all of the champions for equity  – public officials and community members – who helped make this happen. Join us on Wednesday, May 30 to thank these leaders in person and to hear more about how we will continue this work.

HIRE Minnesota Coalition Meeting
Wednesday, May 30
6 – 8 p.m.
North Commons Recreation Center
1801 James Ave N
Minneapolis, MN  55411

Please make sure to register so that we know you are coming.

Hope to see you there!

Come join HIRE Minnesota for a gathering to celebrate our successes and to launch our new campaigns!

On February 21, HIRE Minnesota will be joined by Human Rights Commissioner Kevin Lindsey as we celebrate our accomplishments on minority hiring on MnDOT and CCLRT construction in 2011.

We will also be discussing what you can do to ensure that employment equity is a component of all development in Minneapolis and to start moving forward with broader campaigns for employment equity.

HIRE Minnesota: Moving Minnesota from Worst to First in Racial Equity

Tuesday, February 21, 6–8pm
621 Elwood Avenue North
Minneapolis, MN 55411-3995 (map)