“And we know we’re not alone in that need.”Ĭonsidering all the construction jobs to be funded by the Biden administration’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure spending bill, what Rochester has learned could inform other cities. “It is vitally important for the businesses in my community to be successful, that we have a workforce able to repair our streets or build a new building, or, probably most desperately, build affordable housing for our community,” Norton said. Rochester’s program encourages the industry to hire women of color and offers mentorship, training and support - including help with child care. They found only 1% of the construction jobs for Destination Medical Center went to women of color, even though they make up 13% of the population. The home base of the Mayo Clinic and the $5.6 billion public-private Destination Medical Center decided to address two major issues - a lack of jobs for women of color, who were disproportionately displaced by the pandemic, and a shortage of construction workers. Kim Norton, mayor of Rochester, Minnesota, said she wanted her city’s program to be bold. The winners “really represent the spirit of city innovation, the positive legacy that has come out of a very, very difficult period of time,” Anderson said. James Anderson, who leads Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Government Innovation programs, said the organization has high hopes for Istanbul’s program because “it’s government acting as a platform to make it easy for people to be good neighbors.”Īnderson said it was difficult to pick from the 50 finalists, who developed programs last year during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I’m very happy to be able to introduce such a system because this project, it can go on forever, it’s very sustainable and renewable,” Imamoglu told The Associated Press through an interpreter, adding that if it would be adopted by other cities around the world, he would feel like “a very powerful angel.” Istanbul’s program then expanded to include scholarships for university students and packages that support new mothers and their children. About $14 million in utility bills have been paid through the program since it began last year, Imamoglu said.
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