Rise Up Center: Uptown Minneapolis Coalition Transforms Former YWCA Into Job Training Hub for BIPOC Workers
Contributing writer Clint Combs reports on the Rise Up Center at 2808 Hennepin Ave. in Uptown Minneapolis, where a coalition including Unidos MN, The New Justice Project and SEIU Local 26 is converting a former YWCA into a 70,000-square-foot job training center designed to move BIPOC and immigrant workers into middle-class union careers.
Go past Lake and Hennepin and you’ll notice that Uptown Minneapolis may be in a funk. Like many metropolitan cities, vacant buildings line a once-bustling retail hub. Grant money from the state and city hopes to turn one outdated YWCA into a job training center.
Construction at the Rise Up Center at 2808 Hennepin Ave. in Uptown Minneapolis has already started. Unidos MN’s Emilia Gonzalez called this phase one.
“We hope that in the next 18 months, we’ll have phase one completed on some of the principal organizations moving in,” said Gonzalez. “We also have a larger vision where we still have to develop and fundraise for phase two, because we have an ambitious vision.”
That vision includes a four-part cooperative community space designed to turn low-wage earners in BIPOC communities into middle-class wage earners working union jobs. The 70,000-square-foot center is designed to be geographically accessible, culturally competent, and economically sustainable, anchored in the Lake Street corridor that has faced decades of economic disinvestment, compounded by the pandemic and the civil unrest of 2020.
“Here we are in the vanguard of clean energy, of the decarbonization, of electrification, and that requires more time,” said Gonzalez. “Phase two will be more clear as the months come.”
Unidos MN, The New Justice Project, Unite Here Local 17, SEIU Local 26 and Minnesota Training Partnership are among the coalition organizations that want to convert the outdated basketball courts of the former YWCA into a one-stop retraining center.
The New Justice Project and Unidos MN have proposed a Green Training Pre-Apprenticeship Program that would give workers from BIPOC and immigrant communities the foundational skills needed to pursue careers in environmentally sustainable construction, providing an on-ramp into the skilled trades for those who have historically been locked out.
“We’ve seen our communities locked out of the economy for too long, and a Rise Up Center opens up doors to push back those systemic barriers, to build new partnerships and strengthen old ones, with our labor partners, with our partners, both in philanthropy and also our partners in the public sector,” said Rod Adams, executive director of The New Justice Project.
The New Justice Project is a Black-led nonprofit that has advocated for a $25 minimum wage, just-cause eviction protections, a municipal wealth tax, and community-owned grocery stores.
“This building is going to train over 3,000 people a year, meaning that economic mobility is no longer a dream, but it’s a reality, meaning that being able to make sure that you don’t have to work two to three jobs is no longer going to be reality for the folks who come here and get apprenticeship training and move on to careers inside of the trades,” said Adams.
There’s also a proposed Community Safety Specialist Apprenticeship and a high-rise window cleaning program. SEIU Local 26 represents 8,000 unionized workers, with 4,000 members working as commercial janitors. Brahim Kone hopes that renovating the former YWCA, originally a West High School gym turned YWCA Uptown, into a job training center will be a welcoming retraining home for his members.
“The idea of having a center where members can call home, a place where they can come and get trained was pretty much a big, big deal,” said Kone. “It’s like a dream, something that they never thought of.”
Rena Wong is president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 663, representing a majority of retail workers at Cub Foods, Lunds & Byerlys, Kowalski’s Markets, and various food co-ops throughout the Twin Cities. Wong sees the center as a practical solution that would give part-time cashiers, for example, the scheduling flexibility and childcare access needed to pursue job training.
“They need an ability to have a place to come for workforce development that understands their needs and understands that they might need childcare,” said Wong. “They might need language support, so that they have a path to be able to get to those full-time meat cutter jobs.”
The nearest meat-cutting apprenticeship program is nearly two hours northwest of Minneapolis at Central Lakes College’s Staples Campus, which offers a 16-month program. The Rise Up Center, by contrast, is located steps from the Metro E Line station, putting workforce training within reach for transit-dependent workers across the city.
“The American dream does mean that you have a path to be able to do better for you and your family and together with our partners here, that is what we are aiming to do,” said Wong. “And for our Minnesota members in the meat packing plants, where folks really need language supports and a path to citizenship, this is where we’re going to build those programs to enable folks to have those ESL classes and those citizenship classes so they can fully experience the American dream.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey noted the practical benefits of a job training center aimed at uplifting communities of color. “This is going to be something that’s really special to the whole city, and also specifically this corridor, because those 3,000 workers that come in here,” Frey said. “They’re not just getting training for a new job, they’re not just creating opportunities that they’ll be able to pursue throughout their life.”