In this past Monday’s installment of the Working Together blog, we highlighted the recently released Minnesota Poverty Report 2022, a collaborative effort between Minnesota Community Action Partnership (MinnCAP) and the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs. This report reveals how low-income households, especially in Minnesota’s BIPOC communities, continue struggling to meet their basic needs. The report also calls upon the Minnesota legislature to implement specific policy initiatives designed to address food security, affordable housing, and income disparities.
The day after the Minnesota Poverty Report came out, the National Poor People’s Campaign published its own report relative to the pandemic titled, Mapping the Intersections of Poverty, Race and COVID-19. In addition to a digital report and story map, this online tool includes an interactive county-level map, snapshots from around the nation, and data that demonstrates not only how people of color were disproportionately impacted by the health-related impacts of COVID, but how the pandemic severely exacerbated the social, economic and racial disparities that already existed. And, just today, the National Urban League released its annual State of Black America, which contains insightful analysis from activists, scholars, and thought leaders in the nonprofit sector, public education, politics, business, and popular culture.
Not only do these reports focus on persistent and growing inequities in income, employment, housing, education, healthcare, civic engagement, the criminal justice system, and other quality of life indicators, but propose policy and legislative recommendations, local and national development strategies, and other community-based solutions to effect meaningful and lasting change. To access any of these reports, simply click on the hyperlinks imbedded in this blog.
