About EMERGE

EMERGE is a community and workforce development organization serving North Minneapolis and Cedar-Riverside with the goal of addressing unemployment and poverty by driving jobs, investment in community, and providing pathways to brighter futures.

EMERGE was established as a 501(c)(3) non-profit in 1995 as a division of Pillsbury United Communities before becoming an independent entity in 2007. EMERGE has specialized expertise serving individuals overcoming a criminal background, new Americans, families seeking to end reliance on public assistance, and any job seekers overcoming significant barriers to employment through job coaching, training opportunities, and skill-building workshops.

EMERGE’s social enterprises Second Chance Recycling, Nielsen Metal Manufacturing, and Furnish Office & Home -- provide additional opportunities for advanced training and work experience in under-staffed industries in Minneapolis while also financially supporting the agency’s broader mission.

Recent awards include the City of Minneapolis Provider of the year (2020), Bush Prize for Community Innovation (2016), Bank of America Neighborhood Builders Award (2015), the Accenture US Corporate Citizenship Community Change Award (2015), the City of Minneapolis Youth Services Provider of the Year (2014); and Nonprofit of the Year from the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce (2014).

Mission employment, and economic opportunity.

Our mission is to reveal the potential in people and communities through skill-building,

Vision

We envision a world where all people have the opportunity to emerge and thrive.

Values

Our values are equity, innovation, collaboration, responsiveness, and community-centric.

Board of Directors

Mercedes McFarland Jackson – Chair Shareholder – Fredrikson & Byron PA

Xander Hector – Vice Chair – Finance & Operations

Managing Director – Houlihan Lokey

Tesha Alston Dampier – Vice Chair –Fundraising & Brand Development Senior Quality Engineer – 3M Company

Jeff Fix – Vice Chair – Social Enterprise Development

Chief HR & Talent Officer – The Imagine Group

Tricia Brown – Immediate Past Chair Director Member Attraction & Activation –Thrivent Financial

Elaine Eiland

Team Lead Manager, Fraud Detection –Target Corporation

Paul Fitzpatrick

Vice President, Global Commercial Banking – Bank of America

Jay Gast President – Perrill

Jason Lundrigan

Owner & Appraiser – JPL Appraisal Services

Connie McCuskey

Senior Vice President & Marketing Director – US Bank

Abdifatah Mohamed, Esq.

Mike Wynne – Ex Officio

President & CEO – EMERGE

Sheila Dowling

Treasury Management Team Leader –Western Bank

President – The Somali American Bar Association

Steven Thompson

Principal – NorthStar Healthcare Advisor

Key Staff

Mohamed Ali

Senior Director of Workforce Programs

Kevin Engdahl

Senior Vice President of Enterprises & Operations

Deqa Essa

Vice President of Finance & Administration

Thomas Gibson

Director of Training & Education

Sherry Glanton

Director of MFIP

Terra Mayfield

Vice President of Workforce Programs

Jill Pearson-Wood

Vice President of Advancement

Mike Wynne

President & CEO

EMERGE’s work is composed of six overarching programs to address employment disparities: Economic advancement is a central source of many other intersectional barriers facing our community, so we focus our effort around economic opportunity, advancement, and stability which delivers a noticeable impact to our broader community.

Adult Workforce

We exist to connect our community to jobs in an effort to decrease disproportionate rates of unemployment, families relying on low-wage jobs, and significant barriers to employment in our communities of color.

Enterprise

Our social enterprises provide transitional jobs to those that have significant barriers to employment and serve as a bridge to another job. They provide an income source for the organization while providing a valuable service to the community.

MFIP & DWP

An under-served population of job seekers in our communities are families relying on public assistance and struggling to find family-sustaining work. MFIP addresses this by providing families with basic needs while assisting parents in becoming financially stable and selfsufficient through work.

Re-Entry

Second Chance Recycling provides over 100 transitional employment opportunities annually to people with barriers to employment, primarily those returning from incarceration.

Training

EMERGE offers free Career Training programs that start individuals on career pathways by connecting them to industry-specific credentialed trainings. EMERGE offers specific industry trainings in response to the needs of participants, employers, and the community.

Youth Workforce

EMERGE addresses a broad range of needs we see in our disadvantaged youth such as: career planning, escaping cycles of violence, financial education to interrupt generational poverty, and engagement with the community as a whole.