Twin Cities World (Africa) Refugee Day Celebrations

What is today known as International or World Refugee Day was first declared as African Refugee Day by the African Union. Africa hosts the most refugees in the world and in 2001 the African Union and UN agreed to have International Refugee Day coincide with the June 20th Africa Refugee Day.

Minnesota is home to many large refugee populations and has the highest proportion of refugees compared to immigrants in the US. Minnesota has the largest Somali population, 2nd largest Hmong population, one of the largest Liberian populations and pretty decent sized East African populations. In fact, the fastest growing group of immigrants in MN are from Africa. If you’d like to read more stats check out the state demographer’s center or the office of refugee resettlement website.

You can celebrate the Twin Cities diversity by at the 3rd annual Twin Cities World Refugee event at Minnehaha Park.  Here’s a snap shot of the schedule.

Saturday, June 20, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

11 a.m.-2 p.m. – Immigrant resource fair and global cultural displays

12-3 p.m. – Diverse music and dance performances

3 p.m. – Main program, featuring speakers from six prominent refugee communities, spoken word and break dancing

4:30 p.m. – Live music by Marimba Africa

For more information click here

RSVP for TC National Black MBA Association Leadership Event

On April 23rd the Twin Cities chapter of the National Black MBA Association in conjunction with General Mills will present their April Program; “Diverse Leadership in a Multicultural 21st Century”. This is a great networking opportunity and lots of HR people will be there. 

When:  Thursday April 23rd

Time: 5:30 – 8:00pm

Where:  General Mills Corporate Office

This program will feature a panel of 4 diverse senior level executives who will share their insights on leading a diverse workforce. The dialogue will focus on the challenges and issues that leaders face while leading teams that possess different ethnic, cultural, and/or age differences.

For more information click here.

Elusive employment opportunities for foreign-trained African Immigrants

by Nelima

 The Star Tribune had a  ’Mega Career Expo’ at the Minneapolis Convention Center yesterday. There where three pavilions, a health care pavilion, a general/professional pavilion and an engineering pavilion.  There were a ton of young job hunters and only FOUR booths in the general/professional area. Verizon Wireless was looking for customer reps, a company called ARAMARK was looking an operations manager and office assistant, AVON was looking for salespeople and the Border Patrol was there too (didn’t know they’d come this far north to hire people).  The health care pavilion was pretty small, though I couldn’t really tell how many booths were in there because they were screening people’s resume at the point of entry; you had to have some experience in nursing. The engineering pavilion had only one booth and they were screening for entry too; you had to be a US citizen. Which means that all those highly qualified American-trained engineering permanent residents were out of luck.  

$5 To Help MN

IBé

Hey folks! Besides letting my worldview be known in prose and poems, I work for the Greater Twin Cities United Way. And one of the added bonus of my job is having a bird-eye view of some of our community’s most pressing needs. And believe me, it’s getting to be very TIGHT out there. If you are one of the lucky people with still a job and few dollars in your pocket, I know you’ve thought about helping others not so fortunate, but alas you thought the problem is too big for your small hands. Well think again, not so. This morning I logged into our Intranet and came across this video/campaign, and I just thought I would share it with one and all. I hope you consider it. All it takes is $5 and you can help someone in need weather the storm.

Give5Now.org

TGIF! What are YOU doing this weekend?

This time round I’m going to be on time with this update. With the days getting shorter I’m sure there are some of you who’ll want to hibernate (like me) and then there are others who like to get out no matter what. Here’s a list of some going on around town this weekend.

1. Josiah Rasugu and Sound of Fujun will host their monthly reggae and dancehall ‘Energize’ party at First Ave’s VIP room. 241 drinks special until midnight, Ladies free until 11p.m. 
2. Learn how to move your career into film, commercial, or television scoring and how to get your music featured in a commercial or television show on Saturday from 4 – 6pm at the Summit Brewery. Panel of industry experts includes “the Kings of the Jingle” Bob Hest and Steve Kramer of Hest & Kramer Music,award-winning producer/director, former Minnesota Film Board Executive Director, and current McNally Smith College of Music faculty member, Craig Rice, and Twin Cities-based musician/ film composer Chris Beaty. This event is hosted by MNartists and Summit.
3. Ugandan Reggae/Dancehall artist, Ragga Dee will be in town giving a performance at 508 Snelling Ave North in St. Paul (above Ogiamen’s store) on Saturday. For more info contact 6515929234.