The Work

The work of A Minnesota Without Poverty falls into five categories:

Public Will

The first part of the work is the most important. If we have the public will to do something, we can accomplish anything. So, building the momentum and a movement to end poverty is critical for accomplishing our goal of ending poverty by 2020.

Public Policy

We are working to promote public policies to end poverty and we support the recommendations of the Legislative Commission to End Poverty in Minnesota by 2020:

· Restore work as a way out of poverty.

· Refocus public assistance to streamline services and support everyone’s capacity and potential.

· Help Minnesotans build and maintain financial assets.

· Revitalize our communities through infrastructure and person-to-person support.

· Modernize our system of education to build the best workforce in the nation.

· Develop an ongoing structure to monitor Minnesota’s efforts to end poverty.

Public Leadership

We have identified eight sectors of society that are needed to help in the work to end poverty. We need people from the faith community, from government, business and employers, people in poverty, communities of color, education, foundations, nonprofits,—all working together to end poverty in Minnesota. It will take all of us.

Public Accountability

We need benchmarks and measures to monitor the progress toward ending poverty. The Legislative Commission to End Poverty includes overarching and specific benchmarks. A Minnesota Without Poverty has sponsored and will continue to sponsor an annual statewide gathering to report on the progress toward ending poverty in our state.

Public Access

All people need access to economic well-being. We are creating alliances and opportunities for people experiencing poverty to participate in and benefit from community action and public policies that help put an end to poverty. One key component to this work is to further develop micro-loan funding programs in rural and/or immigrant communities, as well as in communities of color.

COLLABORATION

A Minnesota Without Poverty collaborates with many other organizations, individuals and groups in Minnesota working together to end poverty. We are also one of the partners to Half in Ten (www.halfinten.org), the national campaign to cut U.S. poverty in half in ten years.

Please join the statewide movement to end poverty in Minnesota by 2020 and the national campaign to cut U.S. poverty in half by 2020. We look forward to collaborating with you.

Together we can end poverty.