SkyWater Blog

Learning, Understanding, and Driving Real Change

This year, as we recognize Juneteenth, we’re also reflecting on the fundamental human right to freedom itself. It’s not true freedom without truly equal access to education, rewarding work, and the opportunity to earn personal income and assets that can lead to generational wealth and security.

Yet right here, in spite of all the national attention on the Twin Cities’ woeful racial disparities in employment and income, those gaps still exist. According to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), unemployment rates are an impressively low 3.3%... until you look at the numbers by race.  As of April 2022, Black unemployment in Minnesota was 6.7%, more than twice the state’s average – and 2.4 times the rate for white Minnesotans.

At the core of the SkyWater Search Partners promise is our commitment to the twin cities community. One way we celebrate that commitment is through our Employee of the Quarter award. Every quarter, we honor a top-performing team member with the gift of a substantial financial donation, in their name, to a nonprofit organization that is meaningful to them.

This quarter, we are delighted to say…

Earlier this year, SkyWater Search Partners was invited to join the Ramsey County Inclusive Workplaces Cohort. The group had its third monthly meeting in December 2021. We would love to share what we have learned and continue the discussion.

In late June of 2020, the editors at Twin Cities Business Magazine published a brief but poignant piece titled The Long Road Ahead: Business Leaders on Addressing Racial Disparities. It was a simple collection of quotes from local leaders, including Tawanna Black, the founder and CEO of Minneapolis-based Center for Economic Inclusion, and R.T. Rybak, former Minneapolis mayor.

Earlier this year, SkyWater Search Partners was invited to join the Ramsey County Inclusive Workplaces Cohort. The group had its third monthly meeting in December 2021. We would love to share what we have learned and continue the discussion.

In 2021, SkyWater Search Partners took several concrete steps toward our diversity, equity, and inclusion goals.  We’d like to share some highlights of our progress so far.  

Earlier this year, SkyWater Search Partners was invited to join the Ramsey County Inclusive Workplaces Cohort. The group had its third monthly meeting in December 2021. We would love to share what we have learned and continue the discussion.

To redistribute wealth and honor diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Over the past year, a growing number of Twin Cities businesses have become more focused, vocal, and visible in their efforts to address Minnesota’s long-standing racial disparities.

It has been inspiring to see this real swell of effort, especially as it pertains to diversity in recruiting and hiring, creating more inclusive work environments, and shifting community support dollars toward organizations that provide loans and grants to BIPOC owned businesses.

But too often, too many organizations are overlooking one of the most powerful ways they could actually make a difference.

Earlier this year, SkyWater Search Partners was invited to join the Ramsey County Inclusive Workplaces Cohort. The group had its second monthly meeting in November 2021. We would love to share what we have learned and continue the discussion.

Earlier this year, SkyWater Search Partners was invited to join the Ramsey County Inclusive Workplaces Cohort. The group had its first monthly meeting in October 2021. We would love to share each month what we have learned through being a part of this Cohort.