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 audited 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 34 member groups and dozens of allied organizations that unite under the recognition that our regions 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 2015 we: o shared learning: convened monthly organizer roundtable forums that offered shared learning and cross-sector networking opportunities over 300 community residents, leaders and staff attended these lively forums o communicating best practices: 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 o building the field: prompted by the alliance, local funders supported building the capacity of a twin cities delegation to attend policylinks national equity summit, a process that we organized and administered. We increased the capacity of two dozen delegates who needed assistance to attend, partnered for the first time with the met council (who brought three dozen staff members to the conference) to engage delegates before/during/after the conference, and attracted more than 170 attendees from minnesota. Alliance staff presented at the summit on race and disaggregating data, and were invited upon return to minnesota to give the presentation to the minneapolis civil rights department. O funding for grassroots organizations: working with our allied partner groups, the alliance has been successful in persuading public agencies to invest more deeply in community engagement by providing funds directly to community-based groups. We have secured multiple new funding streams that will encourage innovative partnerships between community groups and local or regional agencies, including: 256,000 from the metropolitan council for engagement in regional planning; 97,000 for north minneapolis greenway engagement; and 229,000 for engagement around bus stop improvements. Government entities are turning to grassroots community-based organizations as a source of knowledge for equitable development practices and building more authentic partnerships at the regional level. Our primary campaigns and projects in 2015 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 and women in the workforce that builds our states roads, bridges and transitways and other .major construction and infrastructure projects in the state. Hiring goals on public projects: on the vikings stadium, hire minnesota, the”

“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 metropolitan level planning, expand our regional transit and active transportation systems, and create an unprecedented network of connectivity to economic and social opportunity. This work includes: bus transit infrastructure improvements: in coordination with metro transit and our two allied partner groups (nexus community partners; cura), the alliance helped to launch the better bus stops initiative, a community engagement processes that will impact decisions to add shelters to eligible bus stops, explore broader transit equity issues and implement concrete ways to improve the bus rider experience. Using a community-led proposal review process, community-based organizations were invited to submit proposals for transit shelter/transit service plan community engagement. The micro-contracts will ensure that local communities and bus riders shape and define plans for the equitable distribution of 275+ new bus stop shelters and to provide significant input into metro transit's transit service plan. The alliance is part of a three organizational collaboration, the community engagement team (cet), which convenes the cohort quarterly, and works to help build relationships between funded organizations and metro transit staff. Community engagement steering committee and the metropolitan council: our work with the met council over the past year is a good example of the system-wide changes that will have a big impact on our region. Early last year, the met council was updating its public participation plan, required by the u.s. Dot. The community engagement steering committee (cesc), which the alliance provides staff support to, worked with the met council to develop an unprecedented public engagement plan, which will now apply to all of the met council's work, not just transportation planning. It also includes an implementation guide for municipalities, with information on how to better engage community. We hope this will elevate the met council's leadership on public community engagement in our region. The public engagement plan is one way we are ensuring communities have a voice in public decision-making. The cesc also worked with met council leadership to establish an equity advisory committee, which will review the equity impact of all of the met council's work. The committee includes met council members, geographic representatives, and community-based leaders to ensure that it reflects the region's diversity. More than 100 people were interviewed for those positions. The cesc secured community seats on the interview committee, including a representative from the equity in place coalition, the cesc, the swlrt equity commitments coalition, and the blue line coalition. The alliance helped persuade the mpca to create a similar environmental justice advisory committee. Equitable development scorecard: the cesc also created an equitable development principles and scorecard tool to help communities evaluate current and future development in their communities using an equity lens. We heard that the value of this tool for communities is to provide them with a starting point to secure predictable community benefits. We heard from government there is value in having specific indicators of equitable development. We heard from developers that it is good to have specific targets to aim for when the community or public sector asks for equitable development. The metropolitan council has adopted the scorecard into the workplan for the office of transit-oriented development and included it in its toolkit for local planning. Agencies like metro transit and the city of saint paul planning and economic development department are evaluating the use of the scorecard in thei”

“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. The goal of this effort is to shape equity- driven investments, policies and plans; and we are working to change the dynamics of community engagement by leading with community voices and with a race and class analysis. 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. Throughout 2015, the alliance partnered with community-based organizations to work directly in low-wealth communities of color in several geographic locations: brooklyn park and brooklyn center; the east and west sides of st. Paul, the frogtown/rondo neighborhoods of st. Paul; and the north minneapolis neighborhoods. In collaboration with these community groups, we prepared plans for a series of community meetings with the met council to identify strategic equitable investments and policies that align with the community's visions for how best to alleviate poverty, build wealth, and create healthier communities. Equity in place leaders have met with federal hud staff and local officials to discuss concerns with recent fair housing complaints and to make sure that the perspective of actual tenants and community members are heard and considered. The community leaders working with equity in place intend to be a part of the decision making process and resolution of the complaints. Campaign members also participated in a community forum in minneapolis where over 200 people turned out to discuss gentrification concerns. In the next year, we are also being asked to complete a new area of work with hud that may be of interest to other regions nationally. Hud is asking the twin cities to re-do its regional analysis of impediments (rai), finding that the one most recently submitted failed to adequately address rcaps, segregation and access to opportunity. Alliance staff and other equity in place members have been working with local and regional hud staff about this process as well as other aspects of the fair housing complaints filed last year. Hud is trying to construct a new rai process here that emphasizes inclusive community engagement and can serve as a national model. The agency has offered equity in place 4 (of 12) seats on an advisory committee of stakeholders for this process, and minnesota housing partnership will receive a technical assistance grant to staff this table. Equity in place is negotiating with hud to define the details of this new process, our terms of participation and what resources might be found for engagement. The goal is to have a new rai by april 2017, and tie the results to local comprehensive plans.”

“These programs are funded largely by contributions from individuals, local and national foundations.”