Why it Matters

Our ability to compete as a 21st century city and an economic engine for the state depends on everyone fully participating in our workforce and benefiting from our shared quality of life. Yet Minneapolis faces costly racial disparities in education, jobs, housing, political representation, and other critical areas, according to data The Minneapolis Foundation commissioned from Wilder Research. Since “what gets measured, gets done,” we created OneMinneapolis to help our community better understand, track, and improve how all of our neighbors are faring.

One Minneapolis is a new platform for promoting racial equity in our community. In each of the 24 community indicators outlined in the OneMinneapolis report, we’re seeing deep racial disparities across some of the most fundamental measures of a decent, healthy and productive life. Individually, these gaps are concerning, but collectively they place our entire community at risk.

Our future depends on OneMinneapolis

Our demographics are changing and the workforce of our future will look very different from the one we have today. If we don’t close the gaps now, we’ll be hard pressed to fill jobs, spark and invest in new businesses, sustain a sufficient tax base for basic services and a good quality of life, let alone compete globally. This is a pivotal moment for our community.

We’re at risk of creating a two-tiered society and losing billions in wealth, resources, and potential. You might be shocked to learn that only 22% of low-income households in Minneapolis have affordable housing, leaving many of our neighbors vulnerable to homelessness. Yet when you compare the average one-time expense of $650 to prevent a family from becoming homeless with the $2,700 cost per month to house a family in a shelter, it’s obvious that helping individuals and families stabilize their lives before it reaches a crisis is the smarter and more sustainable investment.

But beyond the financial cost, we need to look hard at the statistics and see if this is the Minneapolis we know and love. Or if we’ll choose to share what’s great about this city with everyone who lives here.

Creating a vision for our city's success

This data provides a baseline: we’ll update the community each year, not only to report on how we’re faring, but also to share what strategies are showing results. We’ll use it to inform The Minneapolis Foundation’s community investments, which are focused on transforming education, promoting economic vitality, and building social capital in order to achieve greater equity. We know we’re not alone in recognizing and seeking to close these gaps. OneMinneapolis builds on great work by the City, the County, the school district, the business community, and so many nonprofits, funders, policymakers, and individual Minneapolis residents. We hope this data and approach to measuring inequities will be a useful tool to all of these partners and will complement and bolster their efforts.

You have a role in shaping our city’s success. Let’s create OneMinneapolis.