[Recommended reading] MN Next: Thinking differently about diversity

Minnesota Rising friend, Alfonso Wenker, was recently featured on the MPR for MN Next: Thinking differently about diversity. He highlights recent findings from the "Our Minnesota" Cascading Conversations Tour and reflects on the implications of our state's diversifying demographics. Give it a listen and enjoy some laughs along the way!

MN Next: Thinking differently about diversity

January 15, 2015

1. LISTEN 11: Thinking about diversity differently

   45min 4sec

The word is frequently used when people talk about Minnesota's demographic transformation. And, Millennials offer a more encompassing view of the term's meaning.In this episode, host Maddy Mahon takes on the topic of diversity and what it means for the future.

Mahon's conversation with Alfonso Wenker, the director of diversity, equity and inclusion at the Minnesota Council on Foundations, explores the walls of segregation and how they can be broken down.

The TCB 100: "100 People to Know in 2015"

I was honored to be included in Twin Cities Business Magazine's list of "100 People to Know in 2015," which makes helpful mention of Minnesota Rising. Check out the list below of Next-Gen Leaders: individuals who are leading organizations and causes to help improve the world that we, as well as future generations, will live in. Hats off to all those who are doing just that, regardless of whether they or their organizations are mentioned below!

Next-Gen Leaders

Individuals who are leading organizations and causes to help improve the world that we, as well as future generations, will live in.

November 14, 2014

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Abou Amara
Committee administrator
DFL Caucus, Minnesota House of Representatives

Abou Amara only completed his master of public policy degree a few years ago, but he has already served on advisory boards, advocacy groups and as a committee administrator for the Minnesota House of Representatives. His keen interest in politics has landed him on several DFL political campaigns. In many ways, Amara represents the new face of the party: young, a person of color, and steeped in social justice. He just finished a stint as deputy political director for Al Franken’s reelection campaign against Mike McFadden.

Alberto Monserrate
CEO and co-founder
Latino Communications Network

Puerto Rican by birth, Alberto Monserrate is deeply passionate about the Latino community. His Latino Communications Network is a tour de force in marketing to Spanish and bilingual speakers across print, radio and other formats. He’s working on diversity and equity issues at Hiawatha Leadership Academy and is the first Latino on the Minneapolis School Board.

Dan Buettner
Founder and CEO
Blue Zones

Dan Buettner works to transform the health of America. The Minnesota native coined the concept of “blue zones,” areas where residents live incredibly long lives. In 2009, he helped Albert Lea apply blue-zone principles that slashed city worker health claims. Since then, he’s taken that model to other cities, written a best-selling book and been featured in a TED talk. Buettner clearly won’t stop until everyone is living longer.

Diane Tran
Senior project manager
Grassroots Solutions

Besides her work at Grassroots Solutions, a consulting firm that works with grassroots organizations, Tran directs Minnesota field activities for the Pew Charitable Trust’s program to advance federal clean energy policies, and serves on several nonprofit boards. In addition, the self-described “practical optimist” founded Minnesota Rising, an emerging-leader network. In short, she’s one of those high-energy people who don’t seem to need much sleep.

Dr. Tara Watson
Owner
Watson Chiropractic, Exceptional Home Health

Tara Watson’s career can be summed up in a simple formula: boldness + resilience = brilliance. Few chiropractors have had to make so many adjustments. A month after purchasing a building on West Broadway to house her chiropractic and home health care business, a flood ruined it; with no insurance, she rebuilt. A year later, a tornado wrecked it; again she rebuilt, opening an Anytime Fitness franchise in the process. Why? It’s elementary, says Watson: “When everything’s been taken away, you might as well keep going, because there’s at least some hope in that.

Jamie Millard
Co-executive director
Pollen

One might wonder when Jamie Millard has time to breathe: Just five years out of college, she has launched and runs the literary magazine Paper Darts, doles out social media advice at conferences, engages social sector workers through the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network and sits at the helm of Pollen, an online community of more than 4,000 that shares civic-minded ideas and opportunities in Minnesota. Millard has plenty on her plate, but she keeps taking on more. Her next challenge? Building better-connected communities through sharing stories, opportunities and events.

Jennifer Ford Reedy
President
Bush Foundation

Since arriving in 2012, Reedy has been an energetic innovator who has raised the profile of the Bush Foundation, which supports organizations and individuals developing new ideas to improve their communities. Before 2012, Reedy worked for Minnesota Philanthropy Partners, where she led the creation of innovative giving programs GiveMN.org and Give to the Max Day, as well as the development of the Minnesota Idea Open.

Jonathan Weinhagen
Vice president
St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce

Once a rather sleepy group, the St. Paul Area Chamber seems far more energetic these days. Weinhagen’s a big reason why. He loves his city, loves what he does and he’s well-connected. He has served on scads of boards (education is one of his big interests), and built a reputation as a dynamic communicator and consensus. You’ll be seeing him around.

Karl Florida
Managing director of small law firms and consumer
Thomson Reuters

Under Karl Florida’s watch, FindLaw—an Eagan-based consumer legal website and attorney directory—extended its lead on the competition. Florida was promoted to president of FindLaw in 2010 after serving as the business’ vice president of strategy and development. A Thomson Reuters subsidiary, FindLaw reached a milestone of 8 million monthly visitors in 2014. Florida continued climbing the ladder in 2012, when Thomson Reuters named him managing director of the company’s business segment for small law firms.

Kristin Pardue and Brad von Bank
Co-founders
Rêve Consulting / Rêve Academy

Kristin Pardue left corporate America to found Rêve Consulting, a business strategy consulting firm, in 2009. Brad von Bank joined a year later after leaving Target Corp. In 2012, the husband-and-wife team launched Rêve Academy and have been drawing rave reviews. The program, offered after school or in the summer, teaches kids digital marketing skills. Rêve is based in north Minneapolis, a corner of the city in need of fresh energy and revitalization. In a sign of the interest, funding partners for Rêve Academy include big names: the Pohlad Family Foundation, JP Morgan Chase & Co., Carlson Family Foundation, Best Buy Children’s Foundation and the General Mills Foundation.

Mohamud Noor
Director
Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education

Mohamud Noor demonstrated his ability to marshal the electoral power of the Somali community in his DFL primary contest against Rep. Phyllis Kahn. Although he lost the August election, it was competitive, drew statewide attention and gave him an opportunity to raise Somali concerns to a broad audience. As a member of the Minneapolis school board, Noor is in a pivotal position to advocate for policies and approaches to improve educational outcomes of Somalis and other minorities in a district with a serious racial achievement gap.

Scott Litman
Co-founder
Magnet 360, Minnesota Cup

Scott Litman knows a thing or two about entrepreneurship. Alongside longtime business partner Dan Mallin, Litman co-founded Imaginet in the early 1990s and St. Louis Park-based Magnet 360 in 2008. His marketing technology consultancy has a 95 percent retention rate since 2012 and has been named one of the nation’s fastest-growing companies, with $28 million in revenue expected for 2014. Litman is also a founder of the Minnesota Cup, which has become the largest statewide contest for business startups in the country.

Sondra Samuels
CEO / President
Northside Achievement Zone

Samuels wants to craft better futures. Samuels aims to replicate the success of the Harlem Children’s Zone, but on Minneapolis’s North Side, working with a $28 million federal grant and schools, parents, and partners such as the University of Minnesota’s Center for Early Education and Development. The Newark, N.J., native’s goal: to prepare 2,500 low-income North Minneapolis children to graduate from high school ready for college. What drives her? In part, the loss of many friends and family to neighborhood violence.

Steve Flagg
President
Quality Bicycle Products

Flagg didn’t turn the Twin Cities into one of the top bicycling regions in the country on his own, of course. But he’s certainly been one of the big wheels. QBP is one of the country’s biggest suppliers of parts; it’s also home to innovative bicycle brands Surly, Salsa, All-City and Civia. Locally, Flagg’s longtime work advocating for bicycling has encouraged more trails and easier bike commuting. At age 63, he’s taking more time out from his workload to take some cycling trips.

[Recommended Reading] 6 surprising trends about Minnesota’s millennials

Minnesota's Millennials are on the rise, and Minnesota Compass has all the details. In their Buzzfeed-esque report below, find "6 surprising trends about Minnesota's Millennials!"

6 surprising trends about Minnesota’s millennials

by Craig Helmstetter and Jane Tigan, Compass Project

The millennial generation (currently age 14-33), also known as generation Y or the echo boomers, has become the subject of a lot of media attention and broad generalizations. So, for our Minnesota Compass Annual Meeting we dug into the data and pulled out some trends related specifically to this age group in Minnesota. We found some interesting surprises we share with you here.

1. Numbering 1.5 million, millennials outnumber boomers

Millennials are the largest in both numbers and share of Minnesota’s population. Baby boomers (age 50-68) come in next, at 1.3 million (25 percent), followed by generation Xers (age 34-49), who number 1.1 million and make up 21 percent of the population. The digital generation (age 13 and younger) already makes up 14 percent of the state’s population, and the silent and greatest generations (age 69+) together make up the remaining 12 percent of Minnesota’s population.

2. 1 in 4 millennials in Minnesota is a person of color

Every generation in Minnesota is more diverse than the generation that preceded it: Only about 5 percent of the silent/greatest generation is made up of persons of color, compared with 9 percent of baby boomers, 19 percent of generation Xers, and 24 percent of millennials. So far about 29 percent of the digital generation is made up of persons of color, and if that trend lasts another few years, it is likely that nearly one-third Minnesota’s digitals will be people of color, since the birth rate is higher among Minnesota’s populations of color than it is among non-Hispanic whites.

Immigration is another measure of diversity. Eight percent of Minnesota’s millennial generation is foreign born, second only to generation X, at 13 percent. We also know that another 8 percent of younger millennials (those age 15-19) are themselves children of immigrants. That means an “immigrant experience” has pretty direct impacts on at least 1 in 6 of Minnesota’s millennials.

3. Millennials continue Minnesota’s tradition for ranking high in educational attainment

With nearly 40 percent of Minnesotans age 25-34 having earned a bachelor’s degree or higher, we rank 7th nationally in educational attainment.

For the Twin Cities region, we rank 5th compared with the nation’s 25 largest metropolitan areas. These national comparisons are among the older half of the millennial generation, who have made their way through most of their formal education.

4. The Great Recession was hard on millennials

Poverty rates are markedly higher for millennials today than was the case for young baby boomers back in 1980 and generation Xers in 2000.

Additionally, once you control for inflation, the income of millennials age 16-24 in 2012 is over 20 percent lower than the income of baby boomers in that age group in 1980. Note that this income loss is NOT a broader trend; overall household income is up by 18 percent in Minnesota since 1980, including a 25 percent increase among those age 55-64 today (boomers).

It is important to note though, that the overall employment rate for Minnesotans age 16-34 has not changed substantially from 1980 although today’s job market is much more inviting for young women (especially those age 25-34) than was the case for the boomers in 1980. But young men today are slightly less likely to be employed than were young boomers and gen Xers, and we see this drop especially among entry-level young men age 16-24.

5. Millennials are not immune from racial gaps, but some progress is being seen

Despite the good marks overall on educational attainment, Minnesota’s millennials aren’t immune from the racial gap that plagues Minnesotans of all ages across employment, home ownership, and even disability rates. Among those age 25-34, for example, while non-Hispanic white Minnesotans are more likely to have at least a bachelor’s degree than are their national counterparts, young adults who are Asian, black, and American Indian in Minnesota are less likely to have a degree than is the case for the U.S. as a whole.

There is some good news in terms of gaps, however. The high school graduation rate among students of color has increased by 19 percentage points, from 43 percent in 2003 to 62 percent in 2013, and the white-of color gap has narrowed from 36 percentage points to 23 points. There is still room a lot of for improvement, but this is a definite move in the right direction.

6. Minnesota’s millennials are carrying on Minnesota’s nation-leading tradition of civic engagement

While young adults are typically among those least likely to involve themselves involunteering and voting, and Minnesota is no exception to this, Minnesota’s young adults compare very favorably to their same-age peers in other states. Minnesota’s millennials rank sixth in volunteering and second in voter turnout.

Combined with the relatively good news in education, Minnesota’s millennials appear poised to maintain Minnesota’s generally high quality of life – and might even be the generation to figure out how to more effectively open opportunities to extend that relative prosperity for an even broader array of communities here in Minnesota.

RELATED ARTICLES ON COMPASS:

Minnesota now: Millennials, leaders and the information economy by Diane Tran, founder of Minnesota Rising, and Eriks Dunens, University of Minnesota Extension.

Supporting the next generation of STEM stars by Lisa Peterson de la Cueva, Community Empowerment Technology Project (CTEP) AmeriCorps, SPPN

Don’t just scare, inspire by Chris Oien, Minnesota Council on Foundations

Craig Helmstetter, a senior research manager at Wilder Research manages the Compass project. Jane Tigan, research associate, Wilder Research, works on Minnesota Compass projects and gives Compass-related presentations to corporate, government, and nonprofit groups.

Who Cares About Minnesota?

Who cares about Minnesota?

I do.

Not only was I born here, I grew up, went to college, met my wife, got married, and started a family here.  My roots go deep.

Before you begin to think "Of course, he would care, he's never left the state...", I should also mention that as an adult I've also lived for years in other notable places, such as Florida, California, Hong Kong, and in the shadow of the Himalayas in India.

You see, I like to travel...alot.

How much?  In a 12 month period, I traveled enough miles to circle the globe at the equator - 3 times.  With 44 states and 21 countries under my belt, I've been a few places I could also consider home.

Why so braggadocious? I don't really care if you consider that a lot or little, but what I do care about is Minnesota, and so I needed to lay a backdrop to explain that my interest in Minnesota isn't for lack of options.

You see, as is true in any great love story, love is a choice (this interestingly holds true for poor excuses for love, like The Bachelor, but I digress).  The bottomline: I keep coming back to Minnesota because I choose to.

So whether you grew up or moved to Minnesota at some point (or in my case, both, multiple times), you have made a choice to live in Minnesota.  And don't give me the excuse that you can't move away due to family, work, etc. Because the truth is you can leave (unless you have a court order), but whether it was intentional like mine, or more implicit, you made a choice to live in Minnesota. And it is your choice which makes all the difference.

So if you and I both chose to live in Minnesota, it stands to reason that what affects Minnesota, also affects us to some degree.  How do you figure?  Well, let's take a look at your life for a moment: Do you eat? Do you live somewhere? Do you work? Do you like spending time with your family?  Or with your worship community? As the world changes, do you plan on continuing your education or educating your children for that matter? Do you want to stay healthy (diet/exercise/air quality/sanity) and find quality health care when you aren't well?  Do you enjoy the great outdoors (or even the little outdoor park down the street)? What about the arts?  And the elephant in the room: could decisions made in government affect any of the above?

I could keep going, but I hope I've made my point: Whatever is important to you, depends not only on you, but on the choices of many other people, businesses, non-profits, worship communities, health care, educational & government institutions. You could just keep doing what you do, and allow others to make decisions that affect your life, and then complain when things don't end up your way, or you can get involved, and be a part of creating the future you want to enjoy.

Minnesota could use a few more passionate souls who truly care.

We are the ones we've been waiting for.

Jeffrey Miller, Strategist, C3Digital.co

Linkback: http://richfield.me/who-cares-about-minnesota/

About Jeffrey:
As a Son, Brother, Husband, Father, Adventurer, Entrepreneur, Revivalist, Strategist, Gardener, & Friend, I love spending time with amazing people, enjoying the great (or little) outdoors, building businesses, making my clients successful, worshiping God, and dreaming about the future.

Feel free to get in touch:
C3Digital.co - C3Consulting.co - C3Photography.co -
Richfield.me (blog) - Twitter - LinkedIn