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Government Alliance on Race and Equity

The Government Alliance on Race and Equity is a national network working to achieve racial equity and advance opportunities for all.

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Home>Minneapolis, Minnesota

MidwestMinnesota 2018Core Member

Minneapolis, Minnesota

The City of Minneapolis’ racial equity work has evolved from several fronts. The Department of Civil Rights was one of the first departments to explicitly tackle equity as it began assessing how to address structural racial disparities throughout the city. At the same time, the Minneapolis City Council was similarly promoting more equitable practices within local government by issuing specific directions to government staff, primarily focused on workforce and economic policies.

As a result of these combined efforts, the city’s emerging equity strategy from 2003 to 2007 had 3 main goals: (1) to improve supplier diversity through procurement, (2) to make the government workforce more diverse through more equitable recruitment, hiring and retention supports, and (3) to make local boards and commission more representative of the city’s residents. City Council members initiated all of these one-off efforts through specific staff directions to different departments, and in in more recent years, a fourth goal of developing a racial equity assessment tool has been added.

In 2014, the city’s efforts were bolstered as Mayor Betsy Hodges and a slew of new councilmembers were elected on campaigns to promote equity within city government. With this new political leadership in place supporting existing equity champions, the city grew its equity efforts more robustly. One of the council’s first steps was to request help from the City Coordinator’s Office in developing a specific racial equity vision and definition. As a result, the City Council approved the definition racial equity in July of 2014 as “the development of policies, practices and strategic investments to reverse racial disparity trends, eliminate institutional racism, and ensure that outcomes and opportunities for all people are no longer predictable by race.” This public affirmation of a definition for racial equity prioritized and normalized racial equity as an overarching goal of the city.

Minneapolis is also taking action to establish institutional accountability and to operationalize the city’s equity efforts. In 2012, an internal group formed within the Department of Civil Rights in partnership with representatives from other city departments began developing an equity assessment toolkit (or a racial equity tool) to inform city budget, policy and program decisions. In 2014, the City Council approved two positions in the City Coordinator’s Office to be dedicated to addressing racial equity efforts within the city and also charged the City Coordinator’s Office to develop a broad and inclusive racial equity plan, including the development of a broad racial equity framework that can ensure the sustainability of this initiative across departments.

The City of Minneapolis has a variety of teams already in motion that hold different pieces of the city’s equity work, but importantly, the City Coordinator has unified these to form a comprehensive team within a newly formed Equity and Inclusion program.  One of the 2 dedicated Managers of Equity and Inclusion is focused internally on the work the city performs across the enterprise.  The other Manager of Equity and Inclusion is focused externally in community, and specifically honed in on the city’s work within the federally designated Promise Zone, an area  with extremely prevalent economic, employment and housing disparities. The third prong of this equity team is the City’s Innovation Team – a team inititally funded through Bloomberg Philanthropies and focused on promoting equitable city outcomes. All three prongs rely and build on existing work being performed across the enterprise. Another component of this work has been the support stemming from City Council offices.  In 2015, an informal group was formed by 2 members of the City Council in partnership with several city departments to identify opportunities to lift up the work that was being done within the enterprise, and help design and launch a city-wide Lunch and Learn series to discuss issues of racial equity. All of these efforts serve to fold in existing work into larger framework with a dedicated, centralized team that can ensure consistency and sustainability throughout the city, which in turn support the local government’s own capacity to advance equity within the region.

It’s also worth noting that like many cities, the internal infrastructure of the city’s equity approach has evolved over time. From the pioneering work developed initially within the Department of Civil Rights, including the creation of an internal Equitable Solutions team that sought to bring in other departmental partners, to the more robust and comprehensive framework being developed within the City Coordinator’s Office as equity work has become a clearer city-wide priority – the evolution of the city’s work highlights the importance of strategically positioning equity work within a city’s particular infrastructure in a way that will maximize advancement of its goals and efforts.

Minneapolis is participating in the 2017 Minnesota Advancing Racial Equity cohort, Advanced Implementation track.

News from Minneapolis, Minnesota


March 12, 2019

Raising the Equity Bar for Minneapolis Neighborhoods

David Rubedor, Director, Neighborhood and Community Relations Department, City of Minneapolis Over the past few years, the City of Minneapolis has been working to dismantle systems that create inequity and exclusion. Major City initiatives to this end include new policies such as a higher citywide minimum wage, paid safe and sick time and Municipal IDREAD MORE > Read More


January 23, 2018

Moving from Rhetoric to Results: Minneapolis Creates Division of Race and Equity

By Elizabeth Glidden, Former Ward 8 City Council Member for the City of Minneapolis. Elizabeth Glidden served Council Member for the City of Minneapolis from 2006-17, including as Council Vice President from 2013-17.  Elizabeth championed racial and economic justice during her Council tenure, including authoring a $15 municipal minimum wage law, safe and sick time law,READ MORE > Read More


February 21, 2017

Artists as Change Agents in City of Minneapolis Government

Artists are playing a critical role in shaping how the City of Minneapolis approaches its work advancing racial equity and inclusion. As part of the Creative CityMaking initiative, city leaders are tapping the insights of artists who are helping the city enterprise embrace new ways of thinking and find ways to connect to communities historicallyREAD MORE > Read More


February 9, 2017

The People Behind the Movement: Joy Marsh Stephens

Who are the people leading the movement for racial equity within government? Over the past few months, we interviewed practitioners across the country who are working to advance more racially equitable governance in their own communities. What are their motivations and their challenges? What accomplishments are they proud of? This Racial Equity Leadership Profile seriesREAD MORE > Read More


January 3, 2017

[Webinar] Contracting for Equity

In 2016, GARE partnered with Bay Area Health Inequities Initiatives (BAHII) on a series of webinars on racial equity and government. In this webinar, GARE and BAHII discuss contracting for equity. In this webinar, GARE and BAHII discuss workforce equity: Listen to the recording here. Download the PowerPoint here. Read GARE’s report on contracting forREAD MORE > Read More


August 18, 2015

The Twin Cities Boards and Commissions Leadership Institute: Using Board and Commission Appointments to Advance Racial Equity

A unique partnership between the City of Minneapolis and Nexus Community Partners works to improve racial equity in board and commission membership, which in turn influences major policy decisions toward more equitable outcomes. Read More


July 25, 2015

The Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights: Best Practices in Business and Workforce Inclusion Roundtable

On Wednesday June 24, 2015 subject matter experts and practitioners from across the Twin Cities Metro gathered inside the Minneapolis Convention Center for an interactive discussion on the successes and challenges of their work on business and workforce inclusion. Read More


June 2, 2015

The Metropolitan Council: Advancing Racial Equity in Parks Through Community Voice

Picnics, walking, fishing, playing on the playground. These are just a few of the activities that Minneapolis-Saint Paul region park-goers enjoy when visiting the Regional Parks System’s 54,000 acres of parkland and 340 miles of trails. Read More


August 28, 2014

Video: The Convening on Racial Equity

Watch the video: Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges and Saint Paul Mayor Chris Coleman co-hosted a convening of government and community leaders from throughout the country in Minneapolis on August 5 to strategize on advancing racial equity. Read More


August 7, 2014

#RacialEquityMN: The Convening on Racial Equity

Social media highlights from The Convening on Racial Equity in August 2014. Read More


Primary Sidebar

Participating Jurisdictions: Minneapolis, MinnesotaBegan Racial Equity Work: 2000 – 2005 Population: Medium (100,001–500,000) Region: Midwest Number of Employees: 1001 – 4000Form of Government: City


Demographics

White:244,086
African American: 71,098
Asian: 21,553
Hispanic: 40,073
American Indian & Alaska Native: 7,601
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander: 179
Multi-Racial: 16,687
Total Population: 382,578


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GARE is a joint project of the new Race Forward and the Haas Institute for a Fair & Inclusive Society.© 2023 Government Alliance on Race and Equity

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