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The Double Bottom Line
June 6,
2005
Brief Suggestions for Reaching New,
Diverse, and Historically Underserved Populations and
Audiences
By Juan C. Moreno
University of
Minnesota Extension Service
“Education was once exclusive; it is now in spirit inclusive. The agencies that have brought about this change of attitude are those associated with so-called industrial education, growing chiefly out of the forces set in motion by the Land-Grant Act of 1862. This Land Grant is the Magna Charta of education: from it, in this country, we shall date our liberties.” --Liberty Hyde Bailey (1904)
“In a democracy such as we have in the United States it is important to maintain as nearly as possible equality of opportunity for all citizens. The nearer this goal or ideal can be approached and realized the stronger and more enduring will be our democratic institutions. Suppose, for example, that the government had provided agricultural colleges and experiment stations at public expense and then made no special effort to extend to all farmers the information so obtained. Such a system would have trained a minority group who had the opportunity to attend the colleges so that they could better their own conditions, oftentimes at the expense of their less well trained and less fortunate neighbors. Such a system would have fostered inequality of opportunity instead of that equality of opportunity which is the basis of free government.” --R. K. Bliss (1952)
“[Extension’s future] lies with helping those who have the greatest need. That is where the pioneers of Extension started their work and the work in which those who followed show the most pride. It is an awesome assignment for an organization and its personnel if they are to find ways to ‘pick up’ those left behind. Yet it is no more of a challenge than the pioneers faced when Extension began. [Extension’s] program, as it has always been, continues to be in the hands of those people for whom Extension carries the name Service. Hope for the future remains in a basic concept of democracy, of all civilized society, that the majority of their citizens will hold firm to their ‘mission of concern’ for those in need.” --Ralph L. Reeder (1979)
“Do what you fear and the death of fear is certain.” --Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
Program teams have often asked how they can reach new, diverse, and historically underserved audiences. This article outlines some of the main groups around which these audiences are organized. When a program team is revising its business plan and wants to explore these new audiences, one or more of these groups would provide a good starting point for discussion and exploration.
Minnesota has four state-level councils representing the principal minority racial/ethnic groups of the United States. These councils, which have been in existence since the mid-’70s, advocate for the interests and aspirations of historically underrepresented and underserved populations in the state. In many instances, they are excellent resources on each group in Minnesota. They are:
Council on Black Minnesotans
2233
University Avenue West, Suite 426
St. Paul, MN
55114
651-642-0811
Council on Asian-Pacific
Minnesotans
658 Cedar Street, Suite 160
St. Paul,
MN 55155
651-296-0538
www.state.mn.us/ebranch/capm
Minnesota Indian Affairs Council
3801
Bemidji Avenue, Suite 5
Bemidji, MN
56601
218-755-3825
Chicano Latino Affairs Council
555 Park
Street
St. Paul, MN 55103
651-296-9587
http://www.clac.state.mn.us/
Additionally, there are two other state-level councils that work with special populations:
Minnesota State Council on
Disability
121 East Seventh Place, Suite 107
St.
Paul, MN 55101
651-296-6785
http://www.disability.state.mn.us/
The Legislative Commission on the Economic
Status of Women
GT-22 State Capitol
St. Paul, MN
55155
651-296-8590 or 800-657-3949
lcesw.leg.mn
New and underserved populations generally congregate around critical social service agencies and nonprofit organizations that serve their particular community needs. The Center for Urban and Regional Affairs at the University of Minnesota (CURA, 612-625-1551, http://www.cura.umn.edu/) publishes Directory of Nonprofit Organizations of Color in Minnesota. This excellent resource lists many such agencies throughout the state. Another excellent resource is Minnesota Ethnic Resources Directory, published by the International Institute of Minnesota (651-647-0191, http://www.iimn.org/ ). The Minnesota Council of Churches, in collaboration with Extension as well as other agencies, has also recently published the wonderful Twin Cities Immigrant Orientation Guide (612-870-3600, www.mnchurches.org/immigrantguide/index.html) in English, Spanish, and Somali.
Several communities also have business and residential directories. Some examples follow:
Hmong American Residence and Business
Directory, 651-224-9395
Asian Business and Community
Directory, 651-224-6570
Minnesota Hispanic Directory,
612-729-5900
The Twin Cities Black Pages,
612-333-8255
The Source: The Ultimate Gay Community
Directory, 612-781-1600
Minnesota has 11 American Indian reservations. Generally speaking, members of the Minnesota Chippewa/Ojibwe Tribe live in reservations whereas members of the Sioux/Dakota Tribe live in communities. Their names along with corresponding counties follow:
Red Lake Reservation: Beltrami,
Clearwater
Bois Forte Reservation: Koochiching, St.
Louis
Grand Portage Reservation: Cook
White Earth
Reservation: Mahnomen, Becker, Clearwater
Leech Lake
Reservation: Beltrami, Cass, Hubbard, Itasca
Fond du
Lac Reservation: Carlton, St. Louis
Mille Lacs
Reservation: Mille Lacs, Crow Wing
Upper Sioux
Community: Chippewa, Yellow Medicine
Lower Sioux
Community: Renville, Redwood
Shakopee Mdewakanton
Sioux Community: Scott
Prairie Island Indian
Community: Goodhue
Additionally, the Twin Cities urban area is home to nearly 25,000 American Indians (2000 Census). Neighborhoods with the highest percentage of American Indian populations (1995) are as follows:
Phillips: 34%
Powderhorn:
6%
Whittier: 5%
Hawthorne: 4%
Jordan: 3%
Minnesota has three American Indian land-grant colleges (1994). They are:
Fond du Lac Tribal and Community
College
2101 14th Street
Cloquet, MN
55720-2964
TEL: 218-879-0800 or 800-657-3712
FAX:
218-879-0814
Donald Day, president
Leech Lake Tribal College
Route 3, Box
100
Cass Lake, MN 56633
TEL: 218-335-2828
FAX:
218-335-7845
Larry Aitken, president
White Earth Tribal and Community
College
202 South Main Street, P.O. Box
478
Mahnomen, MN 56557
TEL: 218-935-0417
FAX:
218-935-0708
Robert “Sonny” Peacock, president
Religious organizations offer places where new and underserved populations typically assemble. Look for churches, temples, synagogues, mosques, and similar institutions where communities gather to meet their religious and spiritual needs.
Community health-care facilities such as reservation-based clinics, migrant health service clinics, federal public health service clinics, and other income-based health-care facilities accommodate new and underserved populations. Nearly 70 clinics serve low-income residents throughout Minnesota. In the urban setting, large county hospitals such as the Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) as well as smaller clinics such as St. Mary’s, La Clinica, and the People’s Clinic provide low-cost health services to these populations.
Many communities and neighborhoods have food shelves, second-hand clothes shops, and homeless shelters (Goodwill, Care and Share Center, etc.) where new and underserved populations tend to congregate.
Schools are another point of congregation for new and underserved populations, particularly English as a Second Language (ESL) programs operated through the schools’ adult basic education (ABE) and continuing education efforts. In Minnesota there are approximately 450 ABE sites, most operated by public school districts. St. Paul alone has nearly 60 sites. Some of the most important ones are: the Hubbs Center for Lifelong Learning, Minnesota International Institute, Minnesota Literacy Council, Chicanos Latinos Unidos en Servicio (CLUES), Hmong American Partnership, Guadalupe Alternative Programs, and Southeast Asian Ministry (SEAM). In rural areas with significant migrant seasonal farm worker populations, the local school district generally operates a migrant summer school program as well as a Head Start program during the migrant employment season. Some of these programs are located in the following school districts: Anoka-Hennepin, Argyle, Bird Island, Breckenridge, Glencoe-Silver Lake, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle, Montevideo, Montgomery-Lonsdale, Moorhead, Owatonna, Renville, Rochester, Sleepy Eye, St. James, and Willmar.
The Minnesota Food Association operates a New Immigrant Agricultural Project for new immigrant farmers in collaboration with the University of Minnesota Extension Service. This project is based out of the Wilder Foundation’s farm near Stillwater. Contact information is as follows:
Alvaro Rivera
Minnesota Food
Association
New Immigrant Agricultural
Project
14220-B Ostlund Trail North
Marine on St.
Croix, MN 55047
arivera@mnfoodassociation.org
Another similar project is beginning to take root in Worthington.
New populations generally work in the agricultural, service, and blue-collar sectors of the economy. In rural areas, meat and poultry packing, food processing, and sugar beet farms provide the bulk of employment opportunities for immigrants. Many Latino workers are finding employment in large dairy operations. In the urban areas, factories, restaurants, hotels, greenhouses, nurseries, horticultural operations, and the construction trades offer the most opportunities for employment. Below is a partial listing of large employers of immigrants in the rural areas:
Albert
Lea
Farmland Foods*, Hudson, Holsum, Hormel, Quality
Pork
Austin
Hormel, Quality Pork, Austin Packaging
Butterfield
City Butterfield Foods
Faribault
The Turkey Store (Jennie-O), Faribault Foods
Gaylord
M.G. Waldbaum Co.
Long
Prairie Long Prairie
Packing
Co.
Madelia
Tony Downs Food Co.
Marshall
Heartland
Food
Melrose
Jennie-O
Owatonna
Midwest Foods
Pelican Rapids West
Central Turkeys
St.
Charles North
Star Foods
St.
James
Armour Swift Eckrich, Tony Downs Food Co.
Wells
Swift Eckrich
Willmar
Jennie-O, Willmar Poultry Co.
Windom
PM Beef
Worthington
Swift & Co., Monfort Pork, Inc.
*The Farmland Foods plant in Albert Lea burned down in 2001 and has not reopened to date.
Most communities and neighborhoods have small shops, restaurants, and small family-owned markets that cater to the needs and palates of the new populations. Additionally, in close proximity to one of these establishments, one generally finds a place to make local and international phone calls using phone cards, a travel agency specializing in the newcomers’ place of origin, a place to cash checks or buy money orders as well as a place to send money home by electronic wire transfer (Western Union is one such popular service).
Because of their immigrant status in the country, many new populations are quite knowledgeable of the local Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) office. The INS is now part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its new name is the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS), also known as CIS. Additionally, the relationship of new populations with the local police department, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, and other law enforcement agencies is generally quite strained due to multiple and reciprocal legal, linguistic, and cultural entanglements and misunderstandings.
Minnesota has 30 diplomatic delegations serving many new populations throughout the state. They are members of the Minnesota Consular Corps. The Consular Corps is composed of career consuls and honorary consuls with offices in this area. Individual Consuls safeguard the interests of their respective countries and citizenry in their jurisdictions. Countries with consular offices in Minnesota include Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica, Denmark, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Iceland, Colombia, and Japan.
In addition to new and underserved populations from the various racial and ethnic groups, other historically disenfranchised groups in communities also tend to be excluded from full participation in our society by virtue of their gender, religion, social/economic class, disability, age, and/or sexual orientation. These underserved and underrepresented groups can be found in every single community in the land. In many cases, all one has to do is begin to see with new eyes in order to discover them anew in our midst.
Historically underserved as well as new populations have numerous media outlets that cater to their particular needs. Some of the more important newspapers are:
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder (African
American)
Insight News (African American)
Native
American Press (American Indian)
The Circle
(American Indian)
Indian Country (American
Indian)
Anishinabeg News (American Indian)
La
Prensa de Minnesota (Hispanic)
Gente de Minnesota
(Hispanic)
Lazos Hispanos (Hispanic)
La Voz Latina
(Hispanic)
La Conexión Latina (Hispanic)
Asian
American Press (Asian American)
Asian Pages (Asian
American)
Hmong Times (Hmong American)
The
Minnesota Women’s Press (Women)
Access Press
(Disability)
Equal Time Newspaper
(Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender, or GLBT)
Lavender
Magazine (GLBT)
Additional resources to learn more about these populations include:
Center for Rural Policy and
Development
600 South Fifth Street, Suite 211
St.
Peter, MN 56082
507-934-7700
www.mnsu.edu/ruralmn
Centro Legal Inc.
2610 University
Avenue West, Suite 450
St. Paul, MN
55114
651-642-1890
Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota
450
North Syndicate Street, Suite 175
St. Paul, MN
55104
651-641-1011
http://www.immigrantlawcentermn.org/
HACER (Hispanic Advocacy for Community
Empowerment through Research)
330 HHH Center
301
19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN
55455
612-624-3326
http://www.hacer-mn.org/
Center for Victims of Torture
717 East
River Road
Minneapolis, MN
55455
612-436-4800
http://www.cvt.org/
Greater Minnesota Housing Fund
332
Minnesota Street, Suite 1310 East
St. Paul, MN
55101
651-221-1997
Minnesota Indian Affairs Council
3801
Bemidji Avenue, Suite 5
Bemidji, MN
56601
218-755-3825
Intercultural Mutual Assistance
Association
300 11th Avenue N.W., Suite
110
Rochester, MN 55901-2739
507-289-5960
http://www.imaa.net/
Lao Family Community of Minnesota
320
West University Avenue
St. Paul, MN
55103
651-221-0069
http://www.laofamily.org/
League of Minnesota Human Rights
Commissions
4100 Lakeview Avenue
North
Robbinsdale, MN 55423
763-535-1051 or
612-376-0525
Minnesota Advocates for Human
Rights
650 Third Avenue South, #550
Minneapolis,
MN 55402-1940
612-341-3302
http://www.mnadvocates.org/
Minnesota State Demographic Center
658
Cedar Street
Room 300
St. Paul, MN
55155
651-296-2557
http://www.demography.state.mn.us/
University of Minnesota
Program in
Translation and Interpreting
College of Continuing
Education
201 Wesbrook Hall
Minneapolis, MN
55455
612-624-4000
www.cce.umn.edu/creditcourses/pti
University of Minnesota Law
School
Institute on Race and Poverty
415 Walter
Mondale Hall
229 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN
55455
612-625-8071
www.irpumn.org/website
Resource Center of the Americas
3019
Minnehaha Avenue
Minneapolis, MN
55406-1931
612-276-0788
http://www.americas.org/
UMOS
3400 First Street North
Suite
103
St. Cloud, MN 56303
320-650-1715
http://www.umos.org/
Centro Campesino
104-1/2 West Broadway
Street #206
Owatonna, MN 56060
507-446-9599
http://www.centrocampesino.com/
Midwest Migrant Education Resource
Center
1564 Englewood Avenue
St. Paul, MN
55104
651-645-9005
www.hamline.edu/mmerc
District 202
1601 Nicollet Avenue
South
Minneapolis, MN 55403
612-871-5559
http://www.dist202.org/
Program in Human Sexuality
University
of Minnesota
1300 South Second Street, Suite
180
Minneapolis, MN 55454
612-625-1500
www.med.umn.edu/fammed/phs/phsindex.htm
OutFront Minnesota
310 38th Street East
#204
Minneapolis, MN 55409-1337
612-822-0127 or
800-800-0350
http://www.outfront.org/
PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends
of Lesbians and Gays)
P O Box 8588
Minneapolis,
MN 55408-0588
612-825-1660
http://www.pflag.org/
abertke@scc.net
Minnesota State Council on
Disabilities
121 East Seventh Place, Suite 107
St.
Paul, MN 55101
651-296-6785
http://www.disability.state.mn.us/
Metropolitan Center for Independent
Living
1600 University Avenue West, Suite 16
St.
Paul, MN 55104-3825
651-646-8342
http://www.mcil-mn.org/
The information given in this publication is for educational purposes only. Reference to commercial products or trade names is made with the understanding that no discrimination is intended and no endorsement by the University of Minnesota Extension is implied.
Produced by Communication and Educational Technology Services, University of Minnesota Extension.
In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, this material is available in alternative formats upon request. Please contact your University of Minnesota Extension office or the Distribution Center at (800) 876-8636.
University of Minnesota Extension is committed to the policy that all persons shall have equal access to its programs, facilities, and employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, disability, public assistance status, veteran status, or sexual orientation.