Alliance for Metropolitan Stability

“The board's executive committee reviews the form 990 for approval. Once approved, the 990 is signed and submitted.”

“Each year, board members are required to fill out the conflict of interest forms. Key staff members in positions of making spending or contracting decisions also fill them out. The staff collects the forms and keeps them on file at the direction of the executive committee of the board.”

“The executive committee of the board oversees the annual review of the executive director and asks all staff, board members and key coalition member representatives and allied organization representatives to fill out an evaluation form. The executive committee then meets with the director to discuss the collective evaluation form, compares the executive director's performance with annual work plan goal and outcomes, sets new goals and work plan outcomes for the coming year, and makes decisions on compensation and salary adjustments.”

“The executive director supervises the associate director and performs a similar evaluation of her efforts and makes decisions about her compensation and salary adjustments.”

“The organization makes its governing documents, conflict of interest policy and financial statements available to the public upon request.”

“The alliance for metropolitan stability (ams) was incorporated as a nonprofit organization under the laws of minnesota in 2000. Ams is a coalition of organizations advocating for public policies that promote equity in land use. Our mission is to support grassroots coalitions in campaigns for racial, economic and environmental justice in economic growth and land development decisions in the twin cities region. Ams was formed by a group of organizations that recognized that true stability for the twin cities could only be achieved through a comprehensive approach to regional problems. We have 32 member groups and dozens of allied organizations that unite under the recognition that our region's people, places and issues are interconnected, and that we can build more power by working together toward our shared goals.”

“The alliance for metropolitan stability is a coalition of advocacy and community organizing groups formed in 1994. We work together to advance racial, economic and environmental justice in urban growth and development in the twin cities region. The twin cities region is rich with resources. We want all people to be able to access them, and we believe everyone in our region will benefit when all communities have access to opportunity. We believe the people and places of our region are deeply connected and interdependent. We work to ensure that our regional investments like housing, transit and economic development benefit everyone - especially low-wealth communities and communities of color, people who are often left behind when resources are allocated. These communities have been historically excluded from land-use and project decision making tables, and we are working with public sector leaders to change that. The alliance brings grassroots organizations together to build more power and create a region that allows everyone in the twin cities region to thrive. In addition, we play a broader role in the regional landscape of advocacy and community-based groups by offering activities that help build the capacity of individuals and organizations that work for regional equity. For example, in 2014 we: convened monthly organizer roundtable forums that offered shared learning and cross-sector networking opportunities 342 community residents, leaders and staff attended these lively forums produced a bi-weekly e-newsletter, the link, and published semi-annual print newsletters that offer the latest information and analysis on racial, environmental and economic equity issues promoted the use of community benefits agreements to link public investment directly to community needs our grassroots organizing, public education presentations, capacity-building and technical assistance work has helped twin cities organizations to take a larger role in local development decisions worked with community based organizations to create the twin cities equitable development principles and scorecard to ensure that the principles and practices of equitable development, environmental justice, and affordability are applied in all communities as they plan for economic development and wealth creation that benefits everyone. Our primary campaigns and projects in 2014 include: 1. Hire minnesota: the alliance provides core staff support to hire minnesota, a campaign to end employment disparities in minnesota. Minnesota has some of the worst racial disparities in employment in the country. But hire minnesota has set an ambitious goal: to bring our state from worst to first in employment equity. Hire minnesota has helped large public agencies like the minnesota department of transportation and the metropolitan council increase the number of people of color in the workforce that builds our states roads, bridges and transitways. The campaign has targeted other major publicly funded projects, for example, it: successfully advocated for a stadium equity plan that will ensure hiring goals are met on the construction of the minnesota sports facility authority stadium. The goal is for at least 32 percent of all construction work hours to be performed by people of color. With the help of our advocacy and tools, as of december, 2014, the project had 38 percent of work hours performed by persons of color generating an estimated 9.5 million in wages for those workers.”

“2. Transit equity: our transit equity work is driven by the goal of including community-based leadership in regional planning, project design and infrastructure investment decisions. Organizing efforts have had both a west metro and east metro focus and promote strategies to improve and expand our regional transit and active transportation systems. This work includes: corridors of opportunity community engagement team (cet): the alliance partnered with the mn center for neighborhood organizing and nexus community partners to create a community-based granting program that by 2014 had funded over 22 community organizing projects along eight corridors totaling nearly 1,000,000 in project support, and provided technical and organizing assistance to grantees and other organizations working along our regional transitways. We also provide staffing support to the community engagement steering committee that is advising the metropolitan council on its regional engagement practices these conversations have led to the council creating a new equity committee and passing a strong public engagement plan. Corridors of opportunity transitioned to the partnership for regional opportunity in 2014, and we have maintained our involvement on several sub-committees. Southwest lrt equity: the alliance brought a network of organizations together in 2014 to ensure community benefits, transit system reforms, regular route bus improvements and equitable development outcomes are at the center of the planning and public discussion about the southwest lrt line. Equity commitments coalition partners believe that the sw lrt line can be an investment that increases economic opportunity and advances racial equity across throughout the project corridor. Coalition members were instrumental in producing a large report identifying where corridor agencies could embed equitable development outcomes and generating hundreds of attendees and resident testimony at multiple municipal consent hearings. North minneapolis greenway: the alliance supported north minneapolis leaders in working with the city of minneapolis to explore the potential of a greenway concept that would provide a safe pathway for bicyclists and pedestrians. The alliance provided technical and organizing support to the northside greenway council, a coalition of community groups and local leaders working to strengthen community engagement efforts in north minneapolis around the proposed bike/pedestrian greenway trail and linear park concept. The alliance designed a community driven, targeted grant program that distributed 41,000 in small micro-grants to local community groups interested in creating strong engagement activities along the proposed route and more broadly on the north side. If implemented, the project could benefit users by safely connecting them to trails, parkways, community gardens, commercial corridors, schools, social service agencies, cultural institutions, the mississippi river and the northern suburbs. Movemn: the alliance played a lead role in founding movemn, a large coalition of organizations dedicated to securing a comprehensive transportation and transit funding solution in our state. These efforts evolved out of our public education work with the transit for a stronger economy coalition in early 2014. Movemn asked state and local leaders to join transit advocates, communities of color, businesses, labor unions and other local officials to fashion a long-term solution to fix our crumbling roads and bridges, build out a world-class transit system, and ensure that every minnesotan has reliable and affordable access to reach critical destinations like work, school, health care, shopping and recreation. Our organizing efforts in this campaign sought to grow our regions bus system, expand our rail transit infrastructure, connect workers of color to construction jobs, spur economic development opportunities and make other improvements that would benefit our regions low-wealth, commun”

“3. Equity in place: working with the center for urban and regional affairs, the alliance co-convened the equity in place coalition table, a collection of organizations representative of and led by communities of color that are coordinating efforts with the metropolitan council to identify and engage community efforts to increase economic and social opportunities in the region. Equity in place is a diverse group of strategic partners from place-based, housing, and advocacy organizations. We believe that everyone in the twin cities region deserves to live where they wish to live and have access to opportunity. Our region benefits from many assets, but we continue to be unable to translate these benefits to everyone, specifically to communities of color. Equity in place engages community-based organizations in influencing planning and investments that will shape the future of the twin cities region. Over the past year, we helped shift what would have been a status quo government process called the fair housing and equity assessment (fhea) into a powerful opportunity for low-income communities and communities of color to shape the futures of our communities. Together we are now designing a series of public engagement sessions to support communities of color throughout the region in developing comprehensive blueprints for intensive, equity-driven investments and policies. The process will prioritize the wisdom of low-income communities and communities of color in shaping the future vision of their own communities.”

“4. Capacity building: the alliance augments the work of our allies and partners by distributing tools, resources and strategic communications to amplify the collective voice calling for equity. We also take part in strategic partnerships beyond our campaign tables to convene equity leaders across sectors and to devise innovative ways to advance the field. 5. Regional equity project: economic growth, urban reinvestment, planning and land-development decisions are critical to the vibrancy of the twin cities region. They are also deeply interconnected, each one profoundly affecting the others. The alliance's core programmatic work elevates the connections between our region's people, places and issues, and helps ensure that our policies, institutions and systems contribute to a more equitable twin cities region. The three key issues that form the primary elements of our regional equity project are: transit equity: the alliance brings together place-based organizations, advocacy groups, government agencies and public officials in campaigns that secure funding and development of a multimodal transportation system that provides access to housing, jobs and other essential resources. Employment equity: the alliance unites with allies in workforce training, faith-based and advocacy organizations and the public sector to bring minnesota from worst to first in employment equity. Geographies of opportunity: we join with nonprofit and public sector allies to align policies and funding to advance sustainable, equitable and effective investments throughout our region. 6. East metro transit equity: the alliance made the east metro area a strategic focus for targeted community engagement and transit equity advocacy in 2014. Our allies and partners in this project worked to expand equitable mobility choices for east metro residents and to ensure that transportation investments reflect the vision of low-income people living in the east metro.”