PROMOTE ECONOMIC VITALITY FOCUS AREA

KEY RESULTS & FUNDABLE ACTIVITIES

It is critical to develop pathways to help all Minnesotans move out of poverty and into active participation in our community, which will improve the overall health and vitality of our region.

1) Stable Families

The security of a home enables us to be productive workers and students and form the attachments to neighbors and neighborhood that are the fabric of a supportive community. Housing is one of the essential underpinnings on which family stability and economic self-sufficiency is built. For most American families, their home is their greatest source of wealth. 

Key Result: Individuals and families have stable and affordable housing and are on the path to self-sufficiency.

Fundable activities:

• Innovative approaches that help end homelessness and strengthen family stability and support the implementation of recommendations from Heading Home Hennepin.
• Efforts to prevent foreclosure.
• Efforts to support a continuum of affordable and stable housing ownership in under-served communities.
• Efforts to educate the public and advocate for policy change to promote affordable housing and end homelessness.
  

2) Prepared Workforce

Projected job growth in Minnesota shows that more jobs will require higher levels of education and training.  Most avenues toward higher paying employment require some kind of post-secondary education or training.

Key Result: A trained workforce exists to meet the demands of the economy.

Fundable activities:

• Implementation of new career pathways and innovative living wage job training programs designed to meet future workforce needs for the chronically unemployed and underemployed (e.g. youth, immigrants and ex-offenders).
• Participation of the chronically unemployed and underemployed (e.g. youth, immigrants and ex-offenders) in green and next-generation jobs.
• Initiatives to increase the success in post-secondary education and post-secondary training of underrepresented students of color (i.e. community colleges, professional certification programs, etc.).
  
• Research and advocacy to encourage policy and systemic improvements in the workforce.
  

3) Community Wealth

Both income and wealth are necessary for economic prosperity. Wealth -- the ownership of assets and resources that have value -- enables people and communities to take control of their lives. In the past 25 years, at a time when income poverty declined, asset poverty rose.

Key Result: Job and small business creation is promoted.

Fundable activities:

• Existing community-based networks providing technical assistance, establishing business incubators and expanding alternative financing options.
• Comprehensive community projects linking job creation, low-cost transit, new business development, and minority entrepreneurship to assure family stability and wealth creation.
• Research and advocacy to encourage policy and systemic improvements in job and small business creation.