| 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. |
Campaign Accomplishments:
$2.5 Million Secured for Green Jobs Training and Energy Efficiency Outreach
After months of organizing, outreach and education, the HIRE Minnesota coalition achieved a major victory when the energy programs bill was signed into law by Governor Tim Pawlenty with $2.5 million for green jobs training for low-income people and outreach programs. The bill also contains strong reporting requirements, which means state agencies that administer the funds will have to frequently report to the community on their progress toward training and hiring low-income people and people of color.
In total, the bill allocates $200 million in federal stimulus funding to weatherize low-income homes and public buildings and to invest in other renewable energy and energy efficiency programs. Weatherization will make low-income homes and public buildings more energy efficient, reduce utility bills and help to ease the climate crisis.
These outcomes are critical in a legislative session that resulted in cutbacks to many programs serving low-income communities.
The bill is also a big win for the environment. It allocates 13 times more funding to state weatherization programs than they typically receive in a year. Weatherization can reduce the energy required to heat and cool a home by 20 to 30 percent annually, dramatically decreasing a household's contribution to climate change.
To read more details about HIRE Minnesota's accomplishments in the Energy Programs Act click here
To read the full text of the bill click here
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|  | Partner Organizations: | HIRE Minnesota is a coalition of community organizations, led by Summit Academy OIC and the Will Steger Foundation, that is seeking public investments that grow our economy, provide living wages to low-income people and people of color, and promote healthy communities.
Participating organizations include:
African American Action Committee
African American Men Project
Alliance for Metropolitan Stability
Alliance for Sustainability
ALANA Green
ARC Greater Twin Cities
ARISE
American Indian OIC
Anishinabe OIC
Asian Pacific American Housing Consortium
Catholic Charities Office for Social Justice
Chicano Latino Affairs Council
Children's Hope International
Cultural Wellness Center
East Metro OIC
East Side Neighborhood Development Company
EJSC
EMERGE
Environmental Justice Advocates of Minnesota
Family & Children's Service
Goodwill/Easter Seals
Green Water Energy
HHELPnet
Hmong American Mutual Assistance Association
Hope Community
House Green
HUBBS Center for Lifelong Learning
Indigenous People's Green Jobs Coalition
ISAIAH
Jewish Community Action
Lao Assistance Center
Lao Family Community of Minnesota
League of Young Voters
L.I.F.T.
LISC
Lutheran Coalition for Public Policy in Minnesota
LVY Foundation
MACC Alliance of Connected Communities
Minneapolis Urban League
Minnesota Acorn
Minneapolis American Indian Center
Minnesota Baptist Convention
Minnesota Civic Engagement Table
Minnesota OIC State Council
Minnesota Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Alliance
NEON
NPAC
OneMN.org
Peace Coffee
Phyllis Wheatley Community Center
Pillsbury United Communities
The Public Policy Project
R & R Family Centers
Sabathani Community Center
Stairstep
Substance
United Cambodian Association of Minnesota
Urban Embassy
Vietnamese Social Services of Minnesota
West Side Citizens Organization
Women's Environmental Institute |
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