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News and ideas you can use to strengthen rural Minnesota communities.

Blandin Foundation data, message on inclusion featured in Star Tribune editorial

sprig by Posted in Blandin Foundation, Rural Capacity Building

“Minnesota has arrived at that proverbial fork in the path,” said Growth & Justice President Dane Smith in Sunday’s Star Tribune. In his article on Minnesota’s “equity agenda,” he talks of a low road, pocked with envy, enmity and suspicion between rural and urban Minnesotans, and a high road, “marked by a rural optimism and solidarity with metro Minnesota around statewide disparities and challenges.”

He offers up a number of vignettes that illustrate what the high road does and could look like.

Utilizing data from our 2016 Rural Pulse survey, Smith talks about the issue of racial inclusiveness and equity in rural Minnesota.

RP welcoming snap“A powerfully affirming statement on the importance of racial inclusiveness and equity was issued recently by Blandin Foundation President and CEO Kathy Annette, one of Minnesota’s most prominent American Indians and rural leaders.

Annette, taking note of this summer’s urban unrest over racial disparity, cited recent “Rural Pulse” polling by Blandin that showed about 70 percent of rural Minnesotans feel their community is “welcoming for people of all backgrounds.” The worrisome footnote is that this percentage had dropped about 10 percentage points since 2013.

Look for our full Rural Pulse 2016 next week and read Smith’s Star Tribune article here.

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