Minnesota Voices

Bob and Pat Tammen rolled into the Twin Cities in their sturdy mobile home on January 5 to attend the Parents United for Public Schools legislative kickoff.

Health disparities implies something that is just there, Doran Schrantz explained. Health inequities, on the other hand, implies a societal structure that produces inequality. “We need a structure that brings more equity,” Schrantz said as she described the differences in terms.

Jay Clark, the Director of the Minnesota Center for Neighborhood Organizing (MCNO), a program of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA), thinks that everybody should be involved with their neighborhood group, whether they are rich or poor.  “It’s so American and so needed and not done in a lot of contexts,” he said. As opposed to other kinds or organizations, where people are preselected depending on their ideology or belief, neighborhood groups allow a voice for every person. “We need it badly,” he said. “There are too many forces that pull us apart.” 

After fleeing the violence of the 1990s in his native Colombia, Jose William Castellanos now works with immigrant communities in the Twin Cities. “People with professional backgrounds usually leave this area, but I find that I’d prefer to give back,” he said, explaining his choice to continue working with the Latino immigrant community.