MN Broadband Conference 2019: Blandin Foundation

1. Edison High School, Minneapolis

2. Higher Ground Academy, St Paul

3. Girls-Only Coding Class, Brian Coyle Best Buy Teen Tech Center, Minneapolis

4. Program Partners – Tech Dump
• New Vision Foundation buys
refurbished laptops and gives to
each student participating in the
coding classes.
• Students earn the laptop by
attending a specified minimum
number of classes. The laptop is
then theirs to keep.
• This helps to eliminate one specific
barrier: lack of computer
equipment at their homes

5. Program Partners – Comcast
• All students are eligible to receive
high-speed internet at a fixed price
of $9.95 per month.
• This is through Comcast’s Internet
Essentials Program.
• This helps to eliminate one specific
barrier: Access to high-speed
internet.

6. Key Corporate Partners – Internship Program
• 3M
• Best Buy
• Comcast
• Target
• HealthPartners
• Securian
• Mortenson Company
17 students did paid I.T internships in 2018.
35 students are projected to have their paid I.T internships in 2019.

7. Key Educational Partners
• Working with both Minneapolis & St Paul School Districts to convert
our coding classes into credit-equivalent courses.
• Partnership with St Thomas University to have weekend coding
classes at their St Paul Campus.
• Graduate Software Engineering students will teach those classes as
part of their graduation credits requirement.
• Working on similar partnerships with Metro State University,
Augsburg College, St Paul College and Minneapolis Community &
Technical College (MCTC).

8. Example of community participation (Local)
11.00 am. Reaction Panel: Forward-thinking options from Minnesota institutions
Hear from some of Minnesota’s education institutions who are innovating in their approach to training students for the
workforce of the future.
11.55 am. Change Agents Panel: Successful working models highlighting hidden talent pools
Hear from company leaders who find under-utilized talent – immigrant communities and those who are coming back
into the workforce after years.

9. Example of community participation (National)
PHILADELPHIA, PA
APRIL 23-25, 2019
Attended as Thrivent Foundation Grantee
• Learnt from the 5 areas of Opportunity Youth Forum:
Collaborating for Impact, Building Effective Pathways,
Using Data to Guide Decisions and Assess Impact,
Leveraging Funding for Innovation, and Developing
Supportive Policies.
• Learnt from the work of local and national youth leaders
• Learnt and share effective approaches between and
among community leaders, employers, and national
convening audience.
• Learnt how to engage local, regional and national
philanthropy in the collective impact approach.

10. Conclusion
• In a 2014 Policy Link study of the impacts of these
disparities, it is estimated that Minnesota looses
$16Billion annually in Gross Domestic Production
(GDP) due to these gaps. This will grow as our
population becomes more diverse.
• In 2018, the average full-time annual salary for
Somali employees was $30,000 – the lowest among
all cultural groups.
• In 2016, the median income for Minnesota’s Somali
households was $20,600. This is the lowest and is
less than half of the median income across all 17
cultural groups.
• Eight of out ten Somalis live in or near poverty, and
just one in ten Somalis own a home compared to
71% statewide average.
• A staggering 57% of Somali children under age 18
live in poverty!!