Ground Level: August 31, 2010 Archive
Todd County group focuses on youth, seniors, jobs
Posted at 9:02 AM on August 31, 2010
by Nancy Leasman
(0 Comments)
Filed under: Todd County
Todd County's Healthy Community Partnership group met again Monday evening to develop task forces to address retaining youth, economic development and senior services.
Verna Toenyan, who has been a key player since the beginning of the partnership, suggested that since other groups in the county are addressing youth projects and economic development, readjusting the focus to devote this process to senior services might be most effective.
A team member asked where broadband access to the Internet fits. Verna responded that it fits everywhere, within every topic. Nathan Burkett picked up that thread and said that senior services phase into economic development, broadband service and youth retention. All of the work areas merge into each other and though setting specific goals for a task force is necessary, awareness of other projects within the county and assigning liaisons between the groups will keep the communication open.
Charlie Crews, who at 79 is on top of technology, offered to act as the research resource for all task forces. He offered copies of information he found online about youth retention and offered copies of a survey administered by the Canadian government as well as a 78-page strategy package on youth retention. He likened the effort to a three-legged stool: developing programs to involve kids in their communities will help them consider staying to provide some of the "thousands of services senior citizens will need" which will mean jobs and economic development- youth retention, serving seniors, jobs.
After further discussion, task forces to address youth retention and senior services were set up and representatives of the group volunteered to attend economic development meetings within the county . Those who volunteered or were assigned to the task forces are asked to recruit others to join the effort.
Pat O'Regan from the Initiative Foundation directed the group to develop a mission statement and then set duties for the task forces. A task force training session is set for Sept. 27 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Photo at left: Charlie Crews shares copies of the Canadian government survey and project strategy on youth retention with Jan Notch while Mary Ellen Otremba and Randy Newman discuss their positions on the task force.
Beyond the data, Wilder asks good immigration questions
Posted at 9:13 AM on August 31, 2010
by Dave Peters
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Filed under: Immigration
You'd think by now the outlines of immigration data in Minnesota should be coming into focus, and a Wilder Research study for the Minneapolis Foundation yesterday helped:
--6.5 percent of Minnesotans are foreign-born and the number is rising quickly.--More than in the nation as a whole, this population is from a broad array of African, South and Central American and Asian countries.
--A good count of the immigrants who are here illegally is hard to make.
--Immigrants tend to cluster in low-skilled and high-skilled groups, and their age distribution means they are a good source of the future workforce.
--Outstate, immigrants tend to be clustered in southern and western Minnesota in communities with big meatpacking, poultry-packing and other agricultural operations.
--This population is putting big pressure on the English-teaching industry and the state is not doing as well as other places.
--Contrary to some claims, immigrants do not put a disproportionate load on the state's public health system.
--Some groups do make heavy use of food stamps and cash assistance.
--There is no evidence immigrants contribute disproportionately to crime.
But perhaps the best part of the report is the set of questions that can serve as a guide to the continuing debate. Wilder sponsored a webinar last month that I helped moderate, and MPR News' Michael Caputo continued that conversation in an online discussion a few days later.
But the nine questions in the report lay out particularly well the hard conversation that could take the state past platitudes and meanness.
My favorites, the ones that keep coming up and need answers:
--To what extent are immigrants competing for jobs and lowering wages?
--To what extent are immigrants competing with existing minority groups for resources and jobs?--How do we keep schools and other resources from getting overwhelmed?
--Any successful models out there for communities?
--How does Minnesota have this conversation at a room-level decibel rate?
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