HACER

Minnesota Young Adult Latino Leadership Academy
(MYALA)

Over the past 29 years HACER has studied the changes in population of color, particularly in the Twin Cities and MN as a whole.  We have identified a unique opportunity to address a recurring theme that research has pointed to in recent decades: Twin Cities’ minority residents are at a disadvantage. On any number of indicators, people of color in the Twin Cities do not do as well as white residents.  Vertical statistics show that the population of color is growing rapidly in MN, making the state increasingly diverse. The population of color is expected to break the line of 1.5 million by 2035, and to make up at least 40 percent of the region’s overall population by 2040. This demographic change will amplify existing disparities, especially in education and socioeconomic status. In a changing economy where an education is the ticket to higher incomes and better jobs, minority residents are at a disadvantage. Inevitably, as the minority population continues to grow, disparities will have a larger impact in the Twin Cities and MN as a whole.

Working towards the elimination of these disparities, HACER has developed the Minnesota Young Adult Latino Leadership Academy (MYALA) as part of a broader social change strategy to achieve more equitable access to opportunity for communities of color. As the population of color in the US continues to increase dramatically, so does the need for communities of color to have better access to greater levels of education, cultural health, housing, legal, family and child services that are accessible to ever more diverse groups of color. 

PARTICIPANT PROJECT

As part of the leadership academy, participants will be asked to develop a project related to the Latino community that reflects the participants interests or concerns. This project manifest itself in many ways and is open to variation between participants. It can be a project that focuses on personal development for the participant to work on his/her own leadership skills by reaching out to leaders in the community, getting out of their comfort zone, reaching out to organizations or companies where they would like to see themselves, etc. It can also be a project that participants want to implement with an organization where they have interned/worked, a program they would like to see implemented in schools, or something completely novel, among many other options.

The requirements for this project is that participants have an area or aspect that they would like to focus on, as well as goals and expectations that the Academy will help them develop further. Please include as much detail as possible in your project description as part of the application. During the first session of MYALA participants will have the opportunity to participate in several workshops to develop their project. In order to ensure that participants will be able to make the most out of these sessions, we require that all applicants have a solid project idea when applying. This idea may change after the academy begins, but we want all participants to come in with at least a direction in mind. After this first session participants will be paired with a mentor from the community to continue supporting them with their project. Participants and mentors will be asked to have regular check-ins every other week and that they meet in person at least three times between sessions. During the second gathering later in the semester we will discuss next steps and how to implement and execute projects.