District Work Week April 2022
Dear Friends,
This week, Congress is in recess which means we’re back in our communities for a district work period. Co-governance is one of the core values of our office and shapes the work we do every day. That’s why we wanted to share what we’ve been up to and what a district work period entails!
We started the week off with the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners talking about maternal health, housing, transit, and mental health. After an all staff briefing, I met with SEWA-AIFW. SEWA-AIFW was founded in 2004 to serve and promote “Total Family Wellness” for Asian-Indians in Minnesota. Then I headed to the Hennepin Healthcare Birth Center in South Minneapolis to mark Black maternal health week. We also discussed $4.6 million we recently secured for their East Lake Clinic Rebuild.
On Tuesday, I attended a press conference to announce that Downtown Hopkins is being added to the National Register of Historic Places. Then I visited the Shafi’i Tutoring Center, which is an after-school tutoring program in Hopkins to help students succeed.
On Wednesday, we started the day out by having a meeting with the US Global Leadership Coalition. We discussed the ongoing war in Ukraine, humanitarian assistance, and food security. Later, we visited the Sabathani Community Center to celebrate their $500,000 Community Project Funding and hear about the programs that they offer. This funding will be used to repair their 100-year-old commercial building and upgrade their energy system. Next, we hosted a community conversation on Afghanistan refugee resettlement in Minnesota and the ongoing relocation effort. In case you missed it, you can watch the livestream here.
On Thursday, we visited the Renewable Energy Partners facility in North Minneapolis to celebrate their $1 million Community Project Funding check. This funding will go towards workforce training for green energy jobs and careers. I also had the opportunity to meet with Amir Locke’s parents, Karen Wells and Andre Locke, to lend support and extend my condolences. We discussed the Amir Locke End Deadly No-Knock Warrants Act, legislation to restrict no-knock warrants and save lives. I also introduced legislation calling on the United States to become a full member of the International Criminal Court, in the wake of reports of war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine. You can read more here.
That’s a wrap for the week! To follow along with our work, please follow our official Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook pages.
In service,
Ilhan Omar
