“I love the people and different cultures/languages within the department and the community. It’s so diverse!”
—Inspector Jose Gómez, MPD
Last week, Mayor Jacob Frey, Community Safety Commissioner Todd Barnette, City Operations Officer Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara, and 911/MECC Director Joni Hodne announced the launch of a multi-year, comprehensive recruitment campaign for hard-to-fill positions in 911 and the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD).
Cities across the country are grappling with staffing shortages in critical public safety departments. Minneapolis is competing with local governments across the state and U.S. to recruit and retain officers. Mayor Frey and the City of Minneapolis have invested in a new effort – a marketing campaign centered around recruiting talented, community-oriented individuals to apply for hard-to-fill public safety careers like 911 call takers and police officers.
The initial phase of the “Imagine Yourself” campaign will be aimed at attracting people ages 18-44 that live within 300 miles of Minneapolis. These individuals will be targeted through multimedia elements including include a new website, social media content on Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and LinkedIn, Google ads, YouTube ads, job board placements, email messages, video content, billboards, and flyers. In addition to English, some of these materials will be accessible in the three commonly-spoken languages in Minneapolis – Somali, Spanish, and Hmong.
Watch the Imagine Yourself recruitment video.
Additional recruitment work in progress
This comprehensive marketing campaign is just one piece of the City’s overall recruitment plan. The City’s HR team will continue to implement additional recruitment strategies for other positions in the Enterprise, which will be rolling out over the course of the next year.
Complimenting this new campaign, the MPD and Chief O’Hara have been working to bolster their own boots-on-the-ground recruitment efforts, at the local and national levels. Some of their efforts include:
- Step-Up summer internship for local youth
- Attending career fairs around the City in cultural corridors
- Regularly visiting colleges across the country, including visiting Historically Black Colleges and Universities (resulted in a partnership with HBCU Alabama A&M University)
- Going to military bases across the country
The City and the MPD have also taken steps to streamline the application and background checks process to get qualified applicants in the door as fast as possible, and the City has moved civilian recruiters from MPD to HR in order to more effectively assist candidates through the hiring process.
 This week, the City of Minneapolis awarded the first round of opioid settlement money to community-based, culturally specific organizations combating the opioid crisis, with a focus on underserved communities and youth.
The awardees of the Community Opioid Response & Engagement (CORE) funding will focus their work on treatment, long-term recovery, and prevention to reduce disparities in the number of overdose-related deaths and emergency room visits. The goal is also to increase access to and options for opioid treatment, recovery, and prevention in our underserved communities and amongst youth, including recovery support services, recovery housing support, early intervention and prevention, and evidence-based addiction treatment.
The first-round awardees are:
- Access Healing - $20,000
- Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio (CLUES) - $100,000
- Generation Hope - $78,844
- Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches (GMCC) - $100,000
- Minnesota Somali Community Center - $74,994
"Right now, we’re making intentional investments in long-term recovery options, especially for our communities affected most,” said Mayor Jacob Frey. “To do this, we’re expanding culturally-specific care and investing in treatment facilities, a mobile medical unit, and medication-assistance treatment programs. And we couldn’t do this important, long-term work without the help of our amazing partners like Access Healing, Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio (CLUES), Generation Hope, Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches (GMCC), and the Minnesota Somali Community Center. By working together, we can offer hope and build a brighter future for our residents."
More City resources and information on opioids
 Mayor Frey recently joined Urban Ventures to celebrate the reopening of the Lake Street Works facility in the heart of South Minneapolis. Lake Street Works is a fantastic program that helps our youth learn life and career advancement skills — specifically in the trades and construction industries.
We’re thrilled to welcome them to their new space, and want to give a big thank you to Urban Ventures for supporting this program and helping to build a stronger community through our young people!
 Mayor Frey recently visited the Harrison Townhomes project in North Minneapolis. The Harrison Townhomes were one of the first homeownership projects approved through Minneapolis Homes Financing using the higher density allowed under the 2040 Plan. Mayor Frey and the City committed $900,000 from local sources and an additional $550,000 of federal ARPA dollars to help the development gap of this $9.7 million development. The project is 17 units of perpetually affordable homeownership townhomes affordable below 60% AMI.
During his visit, Mayor Frey got to meet the incredible women who are helping build these 17 affordable homes. Women’s History Month is the perfect time to celebrate and promote the role of women... especially the ones doing great work in our local construction industry. We’re lucky to have their talent in our city.
Additionally, the Harrison Townhomes are the type of innovative affordable housing projects that could be impacted by the court rulings on the 2040 Plan. Many thanks to Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity and the City of Lakes Community Land Trust for their continued commitment to this project.
 Ramadan Mubarak to those celebrating in Minneapolis! Mayor Frey and his team are wishing you a month filled with peace, love, and reflection.
Watch the mayor's full Ramadan message by clicking the image above.
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