Metro Organizer

Equitable Development Updates

Event I HIRE Minnesota Community Gathering

Event I Surly Brewing Company's Disc Golf Tournament Benefitting the Alliance

Resource I Organizer Roundtable Resource: Considerations for Creating Advocacy Stories

Resource I Race and Recession: How Inequity Rigged the Economy and How to Change the Rules

Resource I Case Studies For Transit-Oriented Development

Resource I Minnesota Recovery Act Watchdog Site

Article I Minnesota's Future: Maintain Our Roads While Expanding Transit

Job Opportunity I Green Jobs Youth Pipeline Coordinator –- Community Design Center of Minnesota

Event I HIRE Minnesota Community Gathering

6:30 - 8:30 pm
Tuesday, June 2
Sabathani Community Center, Minneapolis

The HIRE Minnesota Community Gathering will be a chance for the community to learn about the progress we've made so far, celebrate our successes and discuss our priorities for the future.

There will be a lot to discuss and celebrate. HIRE Minnesota passed a significant milestone at the legislature last week when the energy programs bill was signed into law with $2.5 million for green jobs training for low-income people and  for energy efficiency outreach programs. The bill will ensure hundreds of low-income people will be trained for green jobs and thousands of low-income homes will be weatherized -- putting people to work, reducing utility bills and decreasing global warming pollution! Visit the HIRE Minnesota web site to read more about this victory.

We invite you to participate in this community discussion about the difference we've made in putting Minnesota's investments to work for everyone. Please register to let us know you'll be there!

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Event I Surly Brewing Company's Disc Golf Tournament Benefitting the Alliance

Saturday, June 13
Blue Ribbon Pines Golf Course, East Bethel

You are invited to join the Alliance at the Surly Brewing Company's 3rd annual Surly Open Disc Golf Tournament. Spend the day outdoors enjoying 27 holes of disc golf, Surly beer and swag, and dinner by Divine Swine catering -- all while supporting the Alliance! Proceeds from sales at the event will support our work.

You must register in advance to join in on the fun. Visit Surly's web site to register or learn more about the event.

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Resource I Organizer Roundtable Resource: Considerations for Creating Advocacy Stories

Earlier this month, the Alliance brought organizers together from around the metropolitan region to learn techniques to make storytelling a more effective part of their organizing strategy. This Organizer Roundtable featured Loren Niemi of the Public Policy Project presenting “The Power of a Story.” Niemi says:

With 40 years of organizing and 30 plus years of having identified myself as a storyteller, I understand why Hollywood Producer Peter Guber says in Harvard Business Review “Storytelling ... is one of the most powerful tools for achieving astonishing results. It is action oriented – a force for turning dreams into goals and then into results.”

Stories are fundamental to the organizer’s role in helping individuals and communities to identify their dreams, hopes, fears and experience to harness them in service of building identity, common ground and change. The question is not whether stories have a role in your work but how can you be intentional and culturally responsive about the stories you tell.  A good story touches the heart, engages the imagination and invites participation in arriving at “happily ever after.” It makes the complex easier to understand by anchoring in our human experience. It gives voice to the lives of those most impacted by issues. It can create powerful metaphors that frame our understanding of challenges and solutions.

How do you create powerful advocacy stories? First you listen. Then you tell and retell what you heard to distill the essence of the story. You test it with a variety of audiences. You repeat the process again recognizing that it is the embodiment of what Paul Costello says: “We story our lives into meaning and that meaning shapes our values and actions.” 

Get some practice telling your story by entering the We Change Together storytelling contest sponsored by the Headwaters Foundation for Justice and six other local foundations. The group started the We Change Together blog to provide an example of how organizations can use new web 2.0 tools to create an online organizing community. You are invited to submit a 150-word story telling us how community organizing has positively impacted your community - for a chance to win a Flip digital video camera!

Visit the Alliance web site to find a variety of resources from past Organizer Roundtables, including Loren Niemi's handout on Considerations for Creating Advocacy Stories.

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Resource I Race and Recession: How Inequity Rigged the Economy and How to Change the Rules

All Americans are worrying about economic insecurity during our current crisis, but its most damaging effects have been unevenly distributed. People of color are unemployed, hungry, homeless and without health care at alarming rates. Many have already fallen through the widening cracks in the social safety net, and countless more are about to go under.

The Applied Research Center has released a new report on the relationship between racial inequality and the recession. The Race and Recession report examines the root causes of long-term racial inequities that fed into the economic crisis, and proposes structural solutions to change a system that threatens future generations.

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Resource I Case Studies for Transit-Oriented Development

Good transit-oriented development can provide all the benefits associated with livable communities: a mix of uses that makes it possible to get around without a car, a greater mix of housing types and transportation choices, an increased sense of community among residents, a heightened sense of place, all while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Case Studies for Transit-Oriented Development report from the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) shares the best and most relevant strategies for creating effective transit-oriented development and healthier communities.

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Resource I Minnesota Recovery Act Watchdog Site

Good Jobs First has launched a comprehensive resource web site designed to promote accountability and transparency in the implementation of the federal stimulus package. The site contains important information about each state's recovery plans, including:

• An evaluation of the state's American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) web site, especially with regard to disclosure of contractor information.
• Details on ARRA oversight policies and structures.
• A synopsis of policy debates on ARRA issues occurring in the state.
• Key data such as total ARRA funding the state is expected to receive.
• Listings of watchdog organizations, their ARRA publications and other resources.

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Article I Minnesota's Future: Maintain Our Roads While Expanding Transit

In 2008, the average American drove the same distance as in 1998, recording the largest annualized drops in total vehicle miles traveled and per capita vehicle miles traveled since World War II. Minnesotans put in 21 million fewer miles behind the wheel in February 2009 than in February 2008, reaching a low point not seen in at least five years.

This historic drop in driving began before fuel prices spiked and has persisted despite their sharp fall since early July 2008. Part of the reason is rising unemployment and reduced shopping and leisure travel in the current recession. But some experts predict the trend won't reverse when the economy improves. Read more from Minnesota 2020. 

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Job Opportunity I Green Jobs Youth Pipeline Coordinator – Community Design Center of Minnesota

The Green Jobs Youth Pipeline Coordinator (an Americorps/VISTA position) will help the Community Design Center to develop green work training opportunities and resources for youth. The position aims to synchronize the Community Design Center's youth internship program with education and work opportunities that will inspire youth and enable them to thrive in the green economy.

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To contribute a news item for the next Metro Organizer, please contact Tracy Nordquist Babler at tracy@metrostability.org.

Alliance for Metropolitan Stability I 2525 Franklin Ave E, Suite 200 I Minneapolis, MN 55406 I 612-332-4471