EXCERPT: “Far from being an ‘urban only’ issue, both urban and rural communities in Minnesota struggle to achieve racial equity and immigrant integration. Two efforts within the state, Thriving by Design and One Minnesota Equity Blueprint, are working to spread the facts about these shared challenges, create opportunities to tackle them together and address the urban-rural divide as a crucial step in promoting racial and immigrant inclusiveness. Racial and immigrant diversity is growing throughout Minnesota. Immigrant and refugee families, as well as Asian, African-American, native-born Latino and other families of color, are increasingly settling in rural as well as urban parts of our state. Between 2011 and 2016, 82 percent of Minnesota’s counties saw an increase in the number of households of color. Of the ten counties which saw the greatest gains, none were in our most urban region, the Twin Cities Metro. The number of jobs held by employees of color has more than doubled over the past 20 years. Students of color are, or will soon be, the majority of children in school districts in both urban and rural Minnesota.” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2yVPoK8
