NEWS: Rise Up Center for Workforce Training Breaks Ground in Uptown Minneapolis

A ceremonial groundbreaking took place Monday, May 4, to mark the development of the Rise Up Center in the former YWCA building in Uptown Minneapolis. The center will be a highly collaborative workforce development space for well-paid union jobs, a site for entrepreneurial incubation, a co-working space for local and state power-building organizations, and include a gym and community meeting space. The site will be a carbon-neutral, geothermal hub.

Phase 1 of the construction has now begun, with $16 million earmarked from public and private investments and loans, with an opening planned in Spring 2027.

The job training space will focus on trades and apprenticeship programs, including:

• Building and construction trades and green jobs apprenticeship readiness program — supported by Unidos MN — for 120 hours of training with stipends and tools especially for BIPOC and immigrant workers to work in construction trades.
• Community Safety Specialist apprenticeship — supported by NRRC, SEIU Local 26, and other community groups — to train people in state-registered public safety roles.
• High-rise window cleaners apprenticeship — supported by SEIU Local 26 and the Minnesota Training Partnership (MTP) training.
• Green cleaning certification — enables buildings to save 5 percent on energy usage
• Meat cutter program — led by UFCW Local 663, MTP, and the retail grocer industry
• Commercial cook and food prep program — in partnership with Unite HERE 17, MTP, and the hotel industry
• Other options in the future could include solar panel installation training, pre-apprenticeship metalwork programs, and CWA communications training

At the groundbreaking, SEIU Local 26 secretary-treasurer Brahim Kone said, “For many of our members who come from a place of struggle, owning something is a pretty big deal. The idea of having a center where members can call home, where they can come and get trained, is a big, big deal. … We understand that when community comes together, when unions come together, when our partners come together, we are stronger. In Minnesota, we show that over and over again.”

Rena Wong, president of UFCW Local 663, pointed out that the value of being in a union is that you have people watching out for you. The Rise Up Center will be built together “with our chosen family. … Our [members] work hard, and they need a place to come for workforce development that understands their needs — understands that they might need child care, they might need language support — so they have a path to get to [better-paid] full-time jobs. The American dream does mean that you have a path to be able to do better for you and your family. Together with our partners here, that is what we are aiming to do. This is a practical democracy, and practical equity, that can take place every day.”

She added: “It took a lot of hope, a lot of dream, a lot of vision to get us to this point today. It’s going to take that hope and those dreams and that vision to be able to build a better Minnesota, to improve … the lives of workers as a whole.”

Rod Adams, executive director of New Justice Project Minnesota, indicated the new center will train over 3,000 people a year, making it possible for people to realize economic mobility, and move into well-paid trades and away from working two to three jobs. “Careers so people can do everything from buying homes to having the time to go see their kids’ baseball games. For us, this is not just about building. It’s about a vision that says that working class people in Minnesota deserve more.”

Bernie Burnham of AFL-CIO and Minnesota Training Partnership (photo by Mikki Morrissette)

Bernie Burnham, president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO — which represents roughly 300,000 Minnesotans — spoke on behalf of her role as board chair of the Minnesota Training Partnership, which works with both unions and employees to create apprenticeships for jobs that previously had no formal training. “In the labor movement, we believe that all work has dignity and that every worker, no matter where they come from, what they look like, or what they do for a living, deserves access to a stable, sustaining job and the necessary training for advancement.”

State Senator Scott Dibble, who represents the neighborhood, said: “I’m so proud to be here. This is about something that is deeply human — about what we can build when we choose community over isolation and care over indifference. This center is not just a building. It is a declaration that people who have too often been pushed to the margins want to gather in community. Immigrants, workers, families who are striving for stability and prosperity belong at the very center of this neighborhood and our shared future. It reflects the belief that when people are given the tools, the training, and the dignity they deserve, they will lift up entire communities. This corridor is on the brink of a new revival, and this building is right at the heart and the center of that revival.”

Dibble credited people in the room who lobbied at the state capitol to get $9.2 million in support for the project in 2024, including former representative Frank Hornstein, and Unidos MN’s Emilia González Avalos and Sara Lopez — as well as steadfast support from House speaker Melissa Hortman. “This is a legacy and honor to her memory.”

He added: “This project recognizes something powerful. People come in search of opportunity, ready to contribute, ready to work hard, to care for one another, and to build something that lasts. And when we invest in that spirit, when we organize, when we nurture it, we stand alongside, we create good union jobs, it is a stronger, more connected community for everyone.”

Unidos MN executive director Avalos concluded by indicating that Phase 1 of the project will take about 18 months to complete. Fundraising will begin for Phase 2, which involves being embedded in the vanguard of clean energy.

Members of SEIU Local 26 at the Rise Up Center groundbreaking ceremony (photo by Mikki Morrissette)

The collaborative venture includes:

• Unidos MN — a BIPOC-led organization building multiracial power for social, racial, and economic justice
• New Justice Project — a Black-led organization to provide access for equitable jobs and housing that trains BIPOC and ex-offenders in the building trades
• SEIU Local 26 — represents more than 8,000 janitors, security officers, and window cleaners in the Twin Cities, many of whom are women and people of color
• The Building Dignity and Respect Standards Council — monitors the Twin Cities construction industry with legally binding standards for all contractors that require fair treatment, a safe workplace, and good working conditions
• United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 663 — represents 17,000 retail, meat-packing, processing, food preparation, manufacturing, healthcare and other essential workers in Minnesota
• Minnesota Training Partnership (MTP) — nonprofit organization that provides, in tandem with United Here Local 17, a Commercial Kitchen Certification project to prepare members for entry-level jobs with nine hotels in Minneapolis and Bloomington, made available to Hennepin County residents who are unemployed or underemployed
• Unite Here Local 17 — represents more than 6,000 workers in hotels, restaurants, and other venues, working in tandem with MTP
• The Future Builders Cooperative — a collective of construction workers that partners with developers who value responsible business ownership, equality, and purpose beyond profitability, with a belief that an equitable green economy must protect workers affected by the transition away from fossil fuels
• Tending the Soil MN — an alignment of five BIPOC-led, power-building, nonprofit, and labor organizations representing more than 100,000 Minnesotans, including Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL), Inquilinxs Unidxs por Justicia, New Justice Project, SEIU 26, and Unidos MN

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