Minnesota’s Women in Transportation Seminar (WTS) presented the 2016 Rosa Parks Diversity Leadership Award to the Health Equity & Engagement Cohort, Hennepin County and Nexus Community Partners. The award was for shared work to incorporate health equity and community engagement into the Station Area Plans for the METRO Blue Line Extension which will run from Brooklyn Park to the City of Minneapolis.
The Health Equity & Engagement Cohort members included: ACER Inc, African American Leadership Forum (AALF), CAPI USA, CLUES, Harrison Neighborhood Association, Heritage Park Neighborhood Association, Lao Assistance Center, Masjid An-Nur, MN African Women’s Association, Northside Resdients Redevelopment Council, La Asamblea de Derechos Civiles, Redeemer Center for Life, Northwest Hennepin Human Services Council, and with technical support from the Alliance for Metropolitan Stability and MN Center for Neighborhood Organizing.
Some project highlights include:
- Health Equity & Engagement Cohort informed over 1,600 hundred people, gathered input from over 900 people and supported community leaders participate in local station area planning. Over 80% of the participants were people of color.
- Station Area Plans that explicitly speak to Health Equity, recommendations linked to community engagement results, and recommendations to utilize a Racial Equity Toolkit and other equitable development tools to inform decision-making and project development to improve community health outcomes
- Over 200 public employees from various departments within Hennepin County and Cities along the METRO Blue Line Extension (Bottineau LRT) were provided training by the Governance Alliance for Racial Equity (GARE). The training introduced participants to the concepts of Structural Racism, Institutional Racism, Individual Racism and a Racial Equity Tool to inform government decision-making.
Congratulations to everyone involved!
