Political Advocacy and Policy Development
| IRP provides data, testimony, and consultation on issues and policies concerning low-income communities of color. IRP staff members regularly consult with community leaders, government agencies, members of the press, policymakers, and elected representatives. At the state level, IRP provides data and testimony to the Minnesota Legislature, the State Board of Education, and other agencies. Nationally, IRP staff have worked with Vice President Al Gore, former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros, and members of Congress; presented evidence to the California Legal Services Consortium; and consulted on race and poverty projects in Washington, D.C., Oregon, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, and Washington State. IRP is currently working with the King County (WA) public defender's office on a project addressing racial discrimination in King County juvenile justice system and collaborating with the National Institute on Criminal Justice to conduct a joint project on disparate criminal sentencing of minority youth. We are also working with the Minneapolis City Council's Affordable Housing Task Force on setting affordable housing policy, and working with the Minnesota Supreme Court Racial Bias Task Force on issues of racial bias in the judicial system. |
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IRP offers specialized information, legal consultation, and support to organizations, academic researchers, community groups, private corporations, and individual advocates engaged in social justice work. IRP works closely with these groups to ensure that programs and policies are designed and problems are resolved in ways most responsive to the needs of poor communities of color. IRP has provided consultation and assistance to the Legal Aid Society, the Gamaliel Foundation, the ACLU, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Habitat for Humanity, individual public-interest attorneys, legislators, government administrative offices, and non-profit organizations such as the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs and the Poverty and Race Research Action Council. IRP's legal and social science research has supported, among other issues, the Hollman Settlement in Minneapolis (a class action suit by the Legal Aid Society against HUD) and the NAACP educational adequacy lawsuit against the state of Minnesota (which alleges violation of the State's educational adequacy guarantee in its constitution). IRP has provided consultation to the attorney representing the St. Paul school district in their adequacy suit and is also working with Habitat for Humanity to help the organization address the exclusionary use of zoning authority by suburban municipalities resistant to affordable housing. |
