Thread by @uptakemn

Senate Jobs and Economic Growth Finance Policy Committee will be starting shortly.

Agenda: S.F. 2150 (Champion) Workforce training and entrepreneurship investments intended to help close the state's opportunity gaps for Minnesotans of color appropriation. #mnleg

Meeting has begun. Chair Senator Eric R. Pratt said quorum is present.

SF 2150 - A2 author's amendment moved by Senator Champion.

Senator Champion: this bill funds workforce training and business dev organizations with focus on BIPOC. Others as well but there's specific focus for a reason.

Since 2016 I've carried this legislation for organizations uniquely adept at reaching these communities. While inequities have been created in MN, the gulf btwn white and BIPOC has diverged, esp economically. These inequities apparent in our everyday lives.

Senator Champion: Only Milwaukee and some others cities are worse than the Minnesota white-black gap in median household income.

MN has 2nd biggest income inequality gap btwn whites+blacks in the country. Only DC is worst.

Before covid, black unemployment was historical low but still double the white rate. According to most recent census data, Black poverty rate in Twin Cities was 25.4% which is over 4x white poverty rate of 5.9%.

TC Black poverty rate is higher than national poverty rate of 22%, while white poverty rate is 9%.

We had a discussion on the floor today, education ties into these things as well. Some of the initiatives you'll hear also are around education.

Important to know that MN has the nation's worst education achievement gap. In 2019 it ranked 50th in racial disparities in high school graduation rates. It's for these reasons I've put as a context to help us understand why state's investment in these organizations means so much

Many organizations presented today. First is Neighborhood Development Center (NDC).

Chair Pratt, we'll do three organizations then do questions, then three more orgs, etc.

Renay Dossman, President of Neighborhood Development Center (NDC) - NDC believes in building communities+economies via:

1. entrepreneur trainings
2. technical assistance (help with marketing, communications, website development)

3. CDFI lender based on character, not your credit score

This year we've done $7.5 million in loans and grants, we typically do 75 loans a year, this year we've done 625 loans and grants

4. Incubators, property development & management.

Our largest incubator space is the Midtown Global Market. Building a new incubator with your support on corner of Univ Avenue and Dale (St. Paul)

Of our clients: 87% are bipoc, 81% are extremely low income at time of intake, 50% are women.

We align our entrepreneurs with therapists for the Mindset Reset Program

We've done 52 PPP loans totaling $1.7 million

In partnership w/ Lakestreet Council we launched Money Matters program. We heard from business owners (after the protests+fires last summer) they need help

Greater MN - trainings in Duluth, Brainerd, Lower Sioux Indian Community, St. Cloud. The Constellation Fund selected us for one of their grants. [According to] Wilder Research we're the highest rating ROI out of any discipline they looked at.

Testifying now with NDC: Destiny Shelby. Just finished their entrepreneur program, working on opening my first cafe in Midtown Global Market. Coming as someone who was low income I really needed their resources. They found me b/c I'm the founder of Black Entrepreneurs State Fair.

Gaye Adams Massey - Chief Executive Officer, YWCA St. Paul

Career Pathways Program. Our mission is to eliminate racism+empower women. We've served our community in St. Paul and focus on employment, housing, achievement.

Our programs equip people with sklls+credentials for higher income and employment. We help un/underemployed people attain a living wage. Our programs help employers secure the workers they need.

What makes our program work is we focus on helping individuals with job search+placement, and 18 months of coaching and support for job retention.
We teach financial literacy, time management, conflict resolution skills.

Our program offers the path to commercial driver's license, certified nusing assistant, will be offering digital skills training. We received support in 2019, with that funding we offered Class A & B licenses for the CDL program. There's a high demand for this and construction.

We focused on this area b/c of high demand and starting wages are $21/hr, potential of up to $65/hr, usually include benefits and advancement opportunities. Those who complete the program gain employment within a matter of few weeks.

We serve the 7 county area but mostly Ramsey. Majority of those we serve are low in come, 98% were BIPOC, mostly Black.

Introduced the manager of Career Pathways at YWCA St. Paul, Pierre Rhodes. Sharing about someone who did the program but he couldn't log in to share his experience today so I'll be sharing it for him.

He was able to enroll to get his CDL training and license. The training was flexible for him because of his health issues, they worked with him. He received his license. Job starting at $26/hr, full benefits with potential of getting to $28/hr in a month.

Roger Cummings, cofounder at Juxtaposition Arts in North Minneapolis. We started Juxta in an arts studio in the projects in 1994 as an afterschool project. Now we employ over 70 young people in 5 microbusinesses which we call labs.

50% of our apprentices are from Northside. 50% from anywhere from Arden Hills, Eden Prairie, Stillwater.

Those 7 original artists we worked with are now making a living fulltime out of art.

Gabrielle Grier - Managing Director at Juxtaposition Arts - Art is no longer boxed into to 2D or 3D. It transcends into strategic planning, leadership, building relationships. With the plan to build a $14 million building, an extension of that is to invest in young people.

50 % of our young people are form N Mpls, making income for themselves and households. Support for siblings, paying bills. So it's great we can pay $11-13. Our goals is to increase that to minimum wage of $15/hr, hold and retain our young people and increase them to $21-25/hr.

It's a direct investment into our young people, that's the goal. We can't do this work w/out capital investment. We can't invest in the future of economy w/out these dollars. Strategically planning to have an investment that is financial, for young people, families & communities

Chair Pratt - are you requesting additional funds other than this?
NDC representative - We have also requested for $3 million for loans.
Chair Pratt- how do you expect to use the increase in funding you're seeking?
NDC - This is similar to what we've requested in the past.

NDC - There's an increased need for services in what we offer. We want to expand our Mindset Reset program, do additional training, do more things for the community now that people are getting out getting vaccinated. We're looking at acquiring property on Lake and Chicago.

Chair Pratt - Your CDL program was booked out several classes in advance, are you seeing that demand? How has the pandemic hit your trainings? (to YWCA)

YWCA- We're still booked out. we have 60+ qualified participants for the program, but out of funding. They're waiting.

COVID has affected our training partners. St. Paul college had to restructure their service, we had to restructure our intakes. We're now have a solid structure and partners ready to go, things opening up and people can get to the DMC quicker than before. Waitlist is increasing.

Chair Pratt - what about a pay for performance model, where you'd qualify for reimbursement or funding based on a metric that was assessed, instead of grants? Have you given that model any thought?

YWCA CEO - We'd be glad to look at that. We've worked hard to improve our evaluation process. Worked with Wilder Research to help us improve how we gather data to use that for continuous improvement.

Chair Pratt - Juxta, have you received this level of state funding in the past? You're paying $11-13/hr for an apprentice, how many apprentices can you serve with current request?

Juxtaposition Arts - We have not received this level of state funding before.

...We employ youth as teaching artists, activists, organizers... yes we pay them $11-13/hr now, the goal is to increase them to $15/hr. Pre-covid we served 140 apprentices, we made a decision before covid in order to really see impact, maintaining 70 apprentices is our goal.

Average person stays in our program two years, they develop a portfolio which gives them an opportunity to step directly into the career field. We have people who have owned gallery spaces, partnerships with larger spaces, it speeds up the process than a college prep program.

They have access to master artists, who serve as mentors, cultural relevance, direct access to developing skills sets at an accelerated rate.

Chair Pratt- What previous state grants have you received? How'd you use this funding differently?

Juxtaposition arts: We've had to get creative in our funding. Raised from every major foundation, both national and local. Received funding from DEED, our workforce dev training. That's the extent, primarily just operational but ...

never was able to cover extent of our full youth program structure. This would be the first opportunity to do that.

Senator Champion: Juxtaposition has multiple labs, this is just one of the labs. These $ they're asking for will not cover the artist residency, the other staff.

Annually we spend $640K on young people, with increase of $15/hr our wages for young people will increase to $875,000. That's the portion we're talking about that will cover just the wages covered through our apprenticeship program.

Next speaker: Ruby Lee, President of CLUES. MN's largest Latino-led organization. We exist to advance social and economic equity of Latinos in MN. We serve close to 30K people annually through bilingual and cultural tailored services, holistically, multigenerationally.

MN Latinos workforce has one of highest participation rates in the state however experiencing one of the highest poverty rates in MN. Most Latinos hold 2-3 jobs to make ends meet. Their economic stability and wellbeing continues to be vulnerable with low skills and lower wages.

Our workforce & skills training programs at CLUES are a main vehicle for building econ. prosperity & breaking generational cycles of poverty. Provide access to training for competitive jobs, good benefits and opportunities.

75% of Latinos in MN are under age of 20. They're the workers of tomorrow, our investment in them is investment in MN's future econ growth. We provide training and certification in high demand fields including CNAs, CDL, welding, customer service, etc.

State funding for CLUES workforce initiative, included paying for training, uniforms, books etc. Half of our state funding also makes possible our work to be in Greater MN.

Alfredo Martel, President and CEO of MEDA.

MEDA is a BIPOC business development nonprofit and also a CDFI. SF 2150 urgency cannot be understated. The unmet credit need for bipoc communities in MN was $645 million. A capital gap that has surely grown in the last 12 months.

In our latest client survey (Oct 2020), 72% of our clients said access to capital would play a critical role in recovery. Notably technical assistance and specialized services. We help them navigate the funding opportunities that state and private funders deploy.

Help them engage in sustainable business recovery processes. We seek to expand our capacity, leverage technology to grow our impact into the Greater MN region.

Financial solutions, 10:1 capital leverage. We derisk our capital by raising and combining state and capital grants, leveraging DEED, so we ensure maximum impact.

Our current capacity is nowhere near meeting needs of BIPOC communities.

Rhona Conn, acting director of Northwest Indian Community Development Center, in Bemidji: we provide training and educational opportunities to American Indian and low income families 50 mile radius of Bemidji. We meet the specific needs of Indigenous people and families.

The people we serve tell us what they need, that informs our work. The bill will allow continuation of our ABE program. We serve 150 participants/year. Provides them with skills they need to enter the workforce, computer basics, communications in the workplace. GED, OSHA training

...CDL training, etc. We work with American Indian OIC. we have individuals from the metro area who come up here, shared system where people can continue their work.

A representative from American Indian OIC - we've had 75 employment placements this year, additional 24 that received educational assistance. Despite the dangers of the pandemic, our community which has been disproportionately impacted by COVID, they seek our services...

for meaningful wages. When we look at the amount of folks in unemployment insurance roles, the volume is staggering. Our partnership for NWICDC enables us to get people off the government roll and onto payrolls.

Question from a committee member: I read online that MEDA hosted a business competition and the winners included 3 businesses from California, 1 from Baltimore, 1 from Washington DC. Why is MEDA using funds to help businesses outside of MN?

MEDA - Those are funds that are part of the Million Dollar challenge, different program than the one I referenced. It's an equity investment in those businesses. We're lucky to have private funders who provide capital for those investments and we deployed them for a competition.

It was a national competition but local BIPOC communities also had access to those funds.

Question follow up: so the funds that go to the Million Dollar challenge are private funds? No state funds that go to it?

MEDA: Correct. The original funder was JP Morgan Chase.

Chair Pratt: you're investing in these businesses in an ownership role?

MEDA - Yes, we invest in convertible notes. They start as equity investments then they convert as the business thrives and grows. It's a way for business to have an injection of capital without...+

interest. It injects capital without burdening them with a loan servicing protocol.

Chair Pratt: But they eventually convert to a loan, correct?

MEDA: Yes, They've successfully so far all paid the entire amount. That's the point, to get them to the next level.

Chair: So when you've got resources and assets available to you like that, why do you need a state appropriation?

MEDA : For our operations and our loan fund, two different operations in terms of how we deploy our capital. The convertible nodes is a different pool...

The lending pool is a much broader and more in demand pipeline of loans.

Chair: The convertible equity is an interesting strategy. Seems you could use that to fund your loan fund operations as well.

MEDA : We don't have enough of it. We only have what we have every year.

A grant would be their first shot, the loan would be their second shot. Grant gives you immediate liquidity with no repayment, a loan provides liquidity and support. The important thing about lending is that when we think about lending, having those loans be repaid ensures:

..We see businesses pay attention to their fundamentals. They see the importance of paying back that loan to the lendee -- ie, us (MEDA). We're the tech assistance driver=we make sure their fundamentals are working so they don't have to continue on our loan, they can go to a bank

But in this case, lending allows us to provide capital, ensure business fundamentals, and then recoup that money and lend it again. That's where leverage comes in; you can use the same funds over and over.

Chair: My concern is the funds, we don't understand how you'd be able to separate those (private vs state funded) funds.

MEDA: Happy to go over those structures with you.

Hmong American Partnership President and CEO Bao Vang: Our mission is to help our communities embrace their culture, reach their potential, move from poverty to self sufficiency. HAP is the largest Hmong and Asian-led organization in MN, serving 25K people annually.

In pandemic we've doubled this # to over 50K in 2020. Before COVID, the Hmong and SE Asian pop was already experiencing highest rate of un/under employment including highest dropout rates in post secondary education.

Most vulnerable in workforce has been our young adults of color, single moms wit children, those with no high school degree or post-sec education, and those with low proficiency in English.

Today we face a crisis in the labor market. The employment to population ratio has declined since June 2020. Reasons include: lack of job opportunities that don't meet cultural, linguistic needs of Hmong and SE Asian population who are primarily English learner population.

More reasons: Significant increase in caregiver responsibilities. Childcare centers closed+schools in distance learning, or taking care of family members. Many of our Hmong + SE Asian communities live in multigenerational households where younger are expected to care for elders.

The Hmong population experienced higher rates of COVID19 positive tests and higher levels of deaths in Ramsey county than any other BIPOC community.

18% of Ramsey county COVID cases are Asian.

16% covid deaths in the county are Asian.

Due to the Atlanta shootings last week that targeted the AAPI community and increased the rise of anti Asian crimes, many of our community members are afraid to go out into the community, fear potential workforce violence and hate crimes.

We have done a lot to pivot our services and programs. In 2020 we served over 2K individuals, provided over $100K in basic needs like bus vouchers, clothing, and more. We connected 200 job seekers with digital resources that included free laptops, internet, hotspot.

We serve 424 participants included 177 students enrolled in job trainings programs like IT, CNA, and Class B CDL.

These labor market changes will be permanent challenges. HAP has been a trusted messenger in our community for over 30 years. SF 2150 will ensure MN can recover from this pandemic and get our community members back to work.

Otis Zander - President and CEO of Ujamaa Place. Ujamaa Place serves marginalized Black men experiencing racism and poverty. Our goal is to stabilize their lives so they can pursue transformation.

Our logic model is called the Theory of Transformation, geared towards men aged 13-30.

Ujamaa offers 37 services. Core pillars, health, wellness, education, housing, employment, racial and social justice advocacy.

In 2020, we had a successive enrollment of 1,206 men, which avg'ed 302 unique participants each quarter. The Theory of Transformation is a stabilizer for Ujamaa men. We currently provide stable housing for 45 men, 121 men enrolled in our housing program,

which means the men not in housing are living in unstable situation such as homeless shelters, encampments, couch surfing with relatives, anywhere they can find shelter. It's impossible to maintain employment without stable housing.

In 2020, 212 men completed certification training. Out of 412 men enrolled in that training program. The equity fund provided basic needs services for the men to focus on employment training and to help them secure employment.

3M partnership program, St Paul College certificate program, State Fair -- some of the orgs that help us with our employment program.

Our Ujamaa coaches track all activities to analyze performance outcomes.

We know that Ujamaa men are homeless, unemployed, connected to criminal justice system. There's a direct connection w/ education + homelessness. 21% of the men at Ujamaa place don't have a high school diploma or equivalent. 100% enter with basic skills deficiency.

17% were in the foster care system.
Increasing our capacity is critical to help us reduce rates of recidivism. With more funding we can help more men with health, housing, employment, skills, education which would limit contact with criminal justice system.

Center of Economic Inclusion, Tony Tolliver, Director of Partnership and Impact. We are the nation's first organization dedicated exclusively for creating an economy that works for everyone.

Tools and resources to disrupt systems + structures that create disparities. Our work involves working with participants 25+ , African American who've been chronically unemployed. Many spent in incarceration and homelessness. We have unique partnership with several comm'ty orgs.

Many of our folks have training certificates, gotten to work but weren't able to stay. We recognize importance of working with employers to create cultures that are accepting and allow our folks to thrive when they come to work.

Makram El-Amin, Executive Director of Al Maa'uun, partnership with Center for Economic Inclusion to talk more about the program. The Center creates pathways for men who have been trained but have difficulty navigating employer space b/c culture, environment not receptive to them.

North at Work is focused on African American men of 25 years+. Navigating homelessness, unemployment, chemical dependency. Al Maa'uun provides services for the men of North at Work: food insecurity, mentoring, affordable housing.

These are all key components to developing an ecosystem that supports the whole person and allows men to navigate getting a job, support them beyond getting a job to allow them to have success as they move down the pathway to self sufficiency.

Lamar came to us with a criminal background, we helped him navigate his criminal challenges. Court allowed him to come into our program. We were able to help him get stabilized, now he's working with our partner Minneapolis Public Schools through custodial apprenticeship program.

Henry Jimenez, executive director of Latino Economic Development Center. For 20 years, LEDC has served hundreds of Latinos start/expand their businesses. 2/3 of our clients are in metro, 1/3 are in Greater MN.

We have 4 depts, including lending program, biz development, workforce training, agriculture.

Agriculture dept: face to face interactions with farmers across the state. We've helped many start farms.

At end of last year, we assisted Dept of Agriculture assist CARES Act funding to 42 producers. WE did this in a matter of a couple weeks. Our biz development dept helped hundreds of entrepreneurs with tech assistance.

Last year we pivoted. Last year was making sure the hundreds of businesses we've helped in the last 20 years stayed in business. Help them access local and private and state funds.

I see this as an investment in LEDC. Last year we worked with 49 businesses through Small Businesses Emergency Loan and was about $1.3 million. We supported 300 businesses thru Small Business Relief Grant. Helped folks access PPP funding. 15 businesses accessed $1/2 million

This was not the type of work we were doing before 2020. We're not just asking state for money, we want to make sure we're preparing our clients to be ready to access state and federal funding.

Helped 400-500 businesses access $12 million. The investment would be substantial. We worked on COVID housing assistance program. $100 million was designated to support MNans across the state. We're not a housing org, but we felt we needed to support the state with this.

We're on route to be the #1 administrator of this housing effort, over 6,000 houses are being accessed. Allowed us to contract 40 contractors to be employed. Over $24 million was provided to MNans b/c of work of LEDC.

Kevin Robinson, Executive Director of 30,000 Feet — (St. Paul After-School Support & Arts Program). Youth program focusing on summer learning and after school. We have a new program called Take Geeks. 15-25 at $15/hr, 15 hours/week.

Focus on taking youth out of delinquency system.

Goals of program is lower recidivism rate, get young people computer science jobs, and to disrupt poverty.

Devonn - young student who is a participant in the program. I've been in the program for a year now.

Apologies, we misspelled his name, it's spelled Divyne*

Center for Hmong Arts and Talent (CHAT) - Steve Thao, executive director. We teach art and emphasize youth development. Even though we primarily serve Hmong, we work with other Asian and Black communities in Frogtown.

Art, culture, social justice, education and workforce development

2020, we had a cohort of young people aged from 14-24. Careers, resume building, networking, holistic approach to a successful life.

We helped them find successful employment, 100% said they'd come back to program, felt they'd advocate and support this program. Our school systems have so much on their plate, we want to be partners in providing enrichment programs for young people to succeed.

Hmong and SE Asian students are among lowest and poverty rate is among highest in MN. Less than 59% of Lao, Hmong and Cambodian students were proficient in reading and math. That's something we need to rectify.

Some of the causes are cultural identity, lack of parental support, and feeling of discomfort in school settings. (CHAT) can provide safe space for youth to learn about their culture, feel empowered, provide tools to achieve academically and career wise

Marcus Pope, VP of YouthPrise. We have worked closely with the East African community to identify needs and technical assistance to partner organizations. In 2017 we worked with comm'ty leaders to support securing state funding for EA community.

Mentoring, education and language support, placement etc. Funding went to 17 orgs across MN. Many small organizations. Workforce assistance needed now more than ever. The recipients of these grant funds provided career exploration and planning for 300 East African youth.

The South Sudanese Foundation in Moorhead provided job placement, transportation and interpreting. Youths were able to take forklifting class and working at a warehouse.

Islamic Civic Society of Minneapolis developed a service learning model connecting youth to comm'ty leaders.

+ Many of these grantees are small orgs. Youthprise provides tech assistance to help them access and navigate funding

Thank you to Senator Champion for including the East African Workforce Development Grants in his bill.

Tom Streitz, CEO of Twin Cities RISE, we have a 25 year relationship with the state of MN. We mostly help people who have a criminal history get a high paying job with benefits.
Pay for performance -- we were the pioneer for the formula. Helped thousands of people get jobs.

We believe best answer to poverty is a job. Partners: Target, EcoLab, Bremmer Bank...
Since May 2020 we've been online. We have more people participating in our job trainings than ever, allowed us to expand beyond metro area. Ability to train from home has made a big difference.

It was two bus rides to get between StP and Mpls. Moms can do this and have more time. In the future we'll go back to physical training but we've been successful with this format. People get hired the day they leave our program.

Question from Chair Pratt to CHAT- It looks like this is your first time requesting funding. How have you gotten funding in the past and what are you looking for from state funds?

CHAT -
Our funding has come from foundations, art centers. We're a small nonprofit but very impactful in #s and people we reach. We'd like to use this $ for more staff and expand our capabilities.

Senator Champion, closing comments: the fiscal impact would be $24.85 million in the biennium. We know that about $11 million will come from Workforce Dev Fund, some general fund impact.

Sen Champion - The amount of money is an investment to improve quality of life of many MNans across the state. You've seen thru the testimony there's a return on that investment. This bill has geographical balance.

Folks from Greater MN, suburbs, urban, rural. It has gender and race balance. everything we need to lift as many folks as possible to make a quality ROI.

SF 2150 Bill laid over for possible inclusion. Meeting adjourned. Meet again Wednesday 3pm.