Attending: Mary Haug (Chair), Rep. Karen Clark, Jennie Lightfoot, Bob Niemiec, Michael O'Keefe, Jim Korkki (DES, resource liaison), Chuck Johnson (DHS, committee staff).

Opening discussion/work of the committee: The meeting began with some general discussion about hopes for the committee:

• focus on the needs of the disabled, who experience an unemployment rate of 70% even though 80% want to work.
• concerns about the barriers to self-sufficiency (education, housing, appropriate/affordable child care, discrimination, etc.) facing many inner city residents, and about the limits on education in NEIP.
• desire that the committee do meaningful work and that we not spend a lot of time re- identifying the barriers we already know are problems.

Jim Korkki said that Roger Hale and DES staff are currently discussing the appropriate connection between the work of the mini-cabinet and the GWDC. This will be an important consideration in how the GWDC, and in turn this committee, focuses its work.

Review of vision, goal, timelines of Governor's Workforce Development Council: Staff provided a hand out (attached for those not attending) and a brief overview of the vision and goals of the GWDC.

Efforts of the New Worker Committee: Staff shared some of the issues that have been discussed by the New Worker Committee (attached for those not attending). This is the mini- cabinet committee that had the most overlap with the focus of the Self- Sufficiency Committee of the GWDC.

The committee had an extensive discussion of data produced by the DES Research and Statistics Office for the New Worker Committee. The data attempts, within the limits of available sources, to identify the number of Minnesotans in various disadvantaged groups. Discussion included:

• Need a better understanding of unemployment on Indian reservations.
• How much of part-time work is seasonal?
• Some part-time work is a deliberate business policy to avoid providing benefits.
• What data is no longer collected because of federal cuts made in the early 1980s? How might this information help us to identify groups not making it in the labor market?
• Need to consider older workers.
• How many new immigrants are refugees?
• How many disabled folks are not identified because they have not self-identified? Mostly mental health.
• Young people are another group. How many high school graduates go on to post-secondary school? How many drop-outs are there?
• Getting people to where jobs are; in rural areas, internet connectivity may be key.

Staff will follow-up on the questions to help fill out this picture at our next meeting.

Focus of the Life-Long Learning Committee: The Life-Long Learning committee has had one meeting (minutes attached). They have not determined a focus. Mary Haug had asked staff to check with this committee because one issue assigned to the Self-Sufficiency Committee - career ladders for low-income workers - has overlap with the Life-Long Learning committee. There are many such overlaps across the committees that must be worked through. Staff of the various committees will be discussing how to manage this.

Focus for the Self-Sufficiency Committee: The committee discussed how the committee should focus its work. Michael O'Keefe suggested that by putting together the two concepts - self- sufficiency and workforce development - we could consider our work to focus on how to help those that are not self-sufficient become more self-sufficient through workforce development strategies. There seemed to be general agreement on this as way to frame our work. Some discussion that ensued:

• Employer responsibility: workers should get what they need from their employers.
• Job retention does not need to be staying in the same job; should mean ongoing labor force participation, especially when movement is the way to better jobs and wages.
• The committee needs to invite the participation and input of the affected people through focus groups or some other mechanism.
• While one focus should be on living wage jobs, the other should be on the supports and infrastructure - housing, child care, transportation, etc. - that help people make it in lower wage jobs.
• Should look at the Citizens' League "Help Wanted" report to see how they addressed this issue of supports and infrastructure.

Next Steps: Mary Haug and staff will put together a draft work plan for the committee to consider at our next meeting.

Next Meeting:
November 15,
9:00 to 11:00 am
Minnesota Department of Human Services
444 Lafayette Road
Commissioner’s Conference Room (2^nd floor)
(Security badges will be requested for everyone attending)

Please call Chuck Johnson (651) 297-4727 if you will not be able to attend.