HIRE Minnesota is working to ensure that public investments in infrastructure and renewable energy help lift people out of poverty, reduce racial disparities and contribute to healthier communities for all of us. HIRE brings people together with a vision of a new economy that works for all members of our community. Minnesota's unemployment rate is at an alarming 6.9 percent, and the unemployment rates in low-income communities and communities of color are much higher. And while our public institutions are making unprecedented investments to reverse those trends, they display a troubling pattern of failure to meet their goals for including people of color.
However, we are in an important historic moment – a moment in which we have the opportunity to change business as usual and ensure all communities experience economic recovery equitably.
With this vision, HIRE Minnesota has united more than 70 community organizations in a broad and powerful coalition to change the way our public investments are made so that they benefit our environment, our economy and our communities. We believe our public investments should not only jump-start our ailing economy, they should provide access for all people to jobs, training and family-supporting wages. In addition, HIRE Minnesota promotes public investments that can contribute to our communities in other ways, such as rebuilding our infrastructure and reducing the harmful effects of climate change.
HIRE Minnesota's success is rooted in our ability to unite people to work across racial, cultural, geographic and issue boundaries. Since late 2008, we have engaged thousands of people through town hall meetings, rallies, community gatherings and hearings at the State Capitol to demand green jobs and fair hiring. We continue to call on our leaders to make decisions that benefit all members of our community by:
• Ensuring publicly funded green jobs and training opportunities reach low-income people and people of color.
• Ensuring agencies in charge of public infrastructure investments
meet their women and minority hiring, contracting and training
goals.
• Ensuring that our government is accountable and transparent in
its processes and reporting.
We believe our country is at a turning point. We have an opportunity to leverage real change and rebuild a sustainable economy that works for everyone. Will public investments reinforce the status quo and benefit only a few? Or will we turn away from the failed policies of the past and design our public policies to benefit all Minnesotans? HIRE Minnesota believes that by working together, we can create a sustainable future for every member of our community.
