Council Member's Message

In 2014 the City's Public Works Department launched a worker recruitment initiative that was intended to offer concrete and practical strategies to help achieve the City's adopted goal of doing its part in creating opportunity for all Minneapolis residents. Very simply, Public Works leadership wanted to make stable, good-paying jobs within the department more accessible to a broader cross-section of job seekers in the City.

The approach to making this happen was two-fold. First, Public Works partnered with Human Resources to develop a Service Worker Trainee Program. This program reduced barriers to applicants by assisting them in obtaining the required Commercial Driver License (CDL) and one year of laboring experience. Secondly, Public Works included several new components into the recruitment process to reach a broader audience. Outreach included information sessions around the City, multi-lingual outreach in a variety of formats. Also, they partnered with several community job placement services and attended job and career fairs at local technical colleges.

I am pleased to announce that in 2016 we are seeing the first class of graduates from that program. Please see the story below to learn more about how this innovative program is increasing broader and more varied participation of people pursuing the great jobs in Public Works.