The Alliance is a coalition of community-based organizations and advocacy groups building shared power to advance strategic campaigns for racial justice, economic justice, environmental justice, and health equity in economic growth and land development in the Twin Cities region.

The Alliance believes that the people, places, and issues of the Twin Cities are all connected. They find creative ways to link resource allocation and public policy decisions to more equitably benefit every person and place in the region.

Regional equity is a term that describes the complex interplay of racial justice, environmental justice, economic justice, and health equity. It is impossible to separate them, particularly as they relate to how major development decisions get made. Decisions and investments that affect housing, transportation, land use, economic development, and other regional issues affect all of these critical areas. They all have a stake in creating a more equitable Twin Cities region.

Values

The Alliance operates from a commitment to four core principles:

• - Regional equity. They place racial, economic, environmental, and health equity at the center of every aspect of their work and their organization. These represent four areas of intersecting and overlapping work that create regional equity.
• - Elevating the wisdom of communities. The Alliance believes that people are experts in their own lives and have the best ideas to make positive changes in their communities. They are committed to ensuring that people of all races, income levels, and geographic areas benefit from public decisions and investments; share in decision-making; and have access to opportunities like housing, transportation, jobs, good schools, parks, health care, and more.
• - Grassroots Organizing. Grassroots organizing is a process through which people come together to act in their shared self-interest. The Alliance believes that building power and expanding leadership through organizing is one of the most effective ways to create lasting change. They support grassroots organizing through coalition building and connecting grassroots organizations to more power and resources.
• - Shared leadership and accountability. As a coalition, one of the most important values driving their work is their commitment to shared leadership, ideas, and resources among many groups and individuals. They strive to be accountable to their members and allies and they work for public accountability to the diverse communities represented in the Twin Cities region.

Approach

The Alliance is aligned to change the policies and systems that affect our lives and influence racial, economic, environmental, and health equity. The issues they work on and the places they affect are always changing—but they play four central roles.

Coalition organizing

They organize coalitions that cross the boundaries of race, culture, geography, and issues to advance equity and justice in the way growth and development happens in the Twin Cities region. They unite policy and advocacy organizations with place-based and culturally specific organizations to amplify their efforts.

Community engagement

They ensure that communities are engaged in the public decision-making processes that shape policies and systems in their region. They often support community-based organizations who have deep relationships with residents with research, tools, and strategy that can advance their community engagement work.

Strategic system navigation

Many of the decision-making processes that affect their lives are complex in nature and occur over the course of many years. The Alliance provides technical expertise, analysis, and strategy development to support leaders in navigating these complex projects over time.

Field building

Throughout their work, the Alliance intentionally connects local organizations and organizing efforts to broader public decision-making processes. By supporting the leadership of community based organizations and connecting many groups across geographic and cultural communities doing similar work, the Alliance plays a role in developing a stronger set of relationships, collaborations, best practices, and understanding of collective power. That power is then wielded to influence both policy and process.