Nonprofit Mission Award for
Advocacy

	Criteria This award recognizes advocacy as one of the most effective and unique roles of nonprofit organizations. Nominated organizations should: Implement an effective advocacy strategy; Demonstrate success in its advocacy efforts; and Have a significant impact on the organization's constituency.
	Recipient: Transit Partners, St. Paul
	Other Finalists: Brain Injury Association of Minnesota, Minneapolis Minnesota State College Student Association, St. Paul

Recipient Profile

Transit Partners

The Transit Partners coalition is a diverse alliance of organizations that joined together to call for a new direction in Minnesota transportation policy: a balanced transportation system supported by a reliable source of funding for transit. Convened by Transit for Livable Communities (TLC), Transit Partners is a diverse coalition of the following business, environmental, faith, labor and transportation groups: Alliance for Metropolitan Stability, Amalgamated Transit Union: Local 1005, Fresh Energy, ISAIAH, League of Women Voters Minnesota, Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, Minnesota Environmental Partnership, Minnesota Public Transit Association, Minnesota Senior Federation, Sierra Club: North Star Chapter, and Transit for Livable Communities. Together, the coalition has a statewide reach with tens of thousands of constituents.

Until recently, the Legislature funded one new transit line at a time and TLC was concerned that a population influx would create problems for the current transportation system. TLC believed there was a significant need to secure funding for a transportation system that would address its concerns about economic competitiveness, climate change and traffic congestion but would also connect the Twin Cities region and shape communities that residents are proud to call home. TLC convened the Transit Partners coalition in 2003 and introduced the “Transportation Choices 2020” initiative at the state Legislature in 2004. The initiative was designed to fully fund a region-wide transit system that would include eight new transitways (i.e. light rail, commuter rail and express buses) and would double bus ridership. Using examples of other similar initiatives across the country, the coalition recommended using a region-wide sales tax to fully fund the transit system upfront.

To accomplish its goals, the diverse group of partners created a broad-based, grassroots network of residents committed to take action on transportation decisions that would impact their communities. Today they number nearly 10,000 people.

The end result of the Transit Partners coalition was a groundbreaking, bipartisan victory for a balanced transportation system during the 2008 Legislative Session. Broad-based support from diverse constituencies ensured that the bill included a 1/4 cent region-wide sales tax dedicated solely toward transit, which will generate approximately $100 million per year for transit needs across Minnesota, including those defined in the initiative and others like a new Park & Ride facility and providing revenue to local governments for bicycle and pedestrian projects. The Central Corridor light rail transit line received $70 million in state funding, which helps ensure that the project remains competitive for federal matching funds and can open on time in 2014. Transit Partners’ ultimate goal is a transit system that truly connects Minnesota, ensuring that the great majority of residents have alternatives to driving.

Changing Minnesota’s transportation patterns to include more opportunities to take transit will create jobs, stimulate our economy and help address air quality, water quality and wetland protection issues in our state. Increasing transit options will reduce car travel in the region by one million miles by 2020, helping to protect Minnesota’s great quality of life that is the ongoing mission of the Transit Partners.

Transit Partners Web site: www.tlcminnesota.org/Events/2007/Legislature/TC2020/TC2020TransitPartners07.html

Finalist Profiles

The Brain Injury Association of Minnesota is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life and bringing the promise of a better tomorrow for all people affected by brain injury.

Three years ago, the Mayo Clinic Traumatic Brain Injury Model System (TBIMS) asked the Brain Injury Association of Minnesota to take the lead role of the Minnesota Advocacy Project (MAP), a pilot project funded by a federal grant awarded to the Mayo Clinic. The idea behind MAP was to create a comprehensive program that provided mentoring to individuals interested in becoming advocates for brain injur issues. MAP participants train to be self-advocates, advocates for others and community organizers to maximize personal access to quality services, increase public awareness of brain injury issues and solutions, and affect change within their community and state. MAP participants are required to attend four bi-monthly weekend training seminars as well as the Brain Injury Association of Minnesota’s Brain Injury Basics 1 class.

The MAP pilot program proved successful. It was able to provide enough information during the first phase to expand the project further. The project, now called the Midwest Advocacy Project, seeks to identify the most effective methods of imparting advocacy skills to individuals after brain injury, their families and significant others and disseminate these methods to Brain Injury Associations and other nonprofit organizations nationwide. In addition, the project now includes the Brain Injury Assocaiations in Iowa and Wisconsin. The Midwest Advocacy Project looks more closely at advocacy training and facilitated support groups as community interventions and will attempt to measure the effectiveness of this advocacy training model. It will also assess the clinical trial’s impact on advocacy skills and advocacy activities of individuals and the broader population in each state.

Another of the Association’s successes is its work with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and inmates in the Minnesota Department of Corrections, on the TBI in Correctional Facilities project. The project, which has a three-point goal of screening for TBI in the corrections population, educating corrections staff, and developing intervention and release strategies, found a high percentage of Minnesotan inmates that experienced a TBI prior to incarceration: 82 percent. By developing a brain injury training curriculum for correctional staff on the local, county, state, federal and tribal levels, along with parole officers, police officers, lawyers and other professionals who may interact with offenders, the Association has made great advances in the treatment of inmates with TBI.

The Association’s central role is to directly provide education about brain injury, information on services available, and connect individuals to community-based health resources and organizations. These two projects exemplify its achievements in providing a voice to those with brain injury and their loved ones.

Brain Injury Association of Minnesota Web site: www.braininjurymn.org

The Minnesota State College Student Association (MSCSA) works to ensure accessible, quality and affordable public higher education while providing students with representation, leadership development and communication across the state of Minnesota. MSCSA represents over 100,000 students that attend the 46 public two-year community and technical colleges of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System—the largest population of nontraditional students in the state.

MSCSA advocates on behalf of students on both the state and federal level. As the costs of post-secondary education have gone up, many people have found it increasingly difficult to further their education. Since 2003, tuition has gone up over 100 percent within the MnSCU system. By limiting the increase to four percent last year and two percent this year, MSCSA successfully made the student voice heard at the Capitol and within the Legislature and the MnSCU board of trustees.

Another major MSCSA achievement is a $500,000 appropriation to create pilot programs to reduce the costs of textbooks. For some students, textbooks are a huge expense, costing upwards of $500 each semester. MSCSA students worked with textbook publishers and constituents to lead the charge on the topic. Though textbook publishers sent lobbyists from Washington, D.C., to kill the bills, the students drafted the language, lobbied and fought for the legislation, which included pilot programs like rental programs, educational strategies and used book exchanges.

Additional MSCSA accomplishments include protecting student privacy rights from automatic disclosure of sensitive information and lobbying for two-year college access to the MnSCU revenue fund in order to gain additional funds for student facilities, such as student unions and residence halls. Finally, MSCSA successfully lobbied to include language to return the state to the “two-thirds, one-third” funding formula for public higher education within the next eight years, calling for state funding of two-thirds of instructional costs and funding of one-third from tuition.

MSCSA’s success has shown that students can be effective advocates. Participation in MSCSA leadership development trainings, civic engagement efforts and advocacy efforts has increased dramatically since the group’s initial successes. Whether meeting with administrators about tuition on their campuses or testifying at the capitol, students are increasingly becoming their own best advocates.

Minnesota State College Student Association Web site: www.mscsa.org