From Honolulu to Manhattan, Target works in service to its local community. That’s especially true of our hometown of Minneapolis. Since our founding, we’ve been dedicated to seeing our community thrive, partnering with community groups and local businesses to help do just that.
Now, as we listen to and work alongside our communities to seek solutions to ongoing racial inequities, we’re partnering with Minneapolis-based vocational training school Summit Academy OIC on the new North Star Innovation Center (NSIC). The NSIC will lease Target’s space in the Regional Acceleration Center in North Minneapolis, expanding Summit Academy’s efforts advancing racial equity in employment.
“We’ve invested in North Minneapolis to support a strong quality of life for families in the neighborhood, and the Regional Acceleration Center is an important part of that investment,” says Brian Cornell, chairman and CEO of Target. “With its expertise in helping Black families and other residents overcome social and racial inequities, Summit Academy is an excellent community resource. We’re proud to welcome them to the RAC and to work together to advance racial equity in our hometown.”
The NSIC will serve as a learning and training center for Black students and students of color preparing for careers in information technology. Through that work, as well as programs in fields like construction trades and healthcare, Summit Academy serves nearly 1,000 adults each year, providing tuition-free education and training to those who need it. It’s all in service of a singular mission: to create racial equity in employment by providing students with the training and marketable skills they need to succeed in the workforce.
"The North Star Innovation Center will be an inspiring and transformative place where Black men and women will build new opportunities for themselves and their families," says Louis King, Summit Academy OIC's president & CEO. "Alongside Target and the Northside community, we're taking action against racial inequity. Thousands will have their lives changed at the North Star Innovation Center, as it's a tangible, real, concrete way for us to create a better future, where people of all races can do something to help themselves and to help others. This space will be a place where people demonstrate that the best social service program is a job."
As community resource for more than 50 years, Summit Academy is a great new addition to the RAC, which was built in 2018 as a partnership between Target, Hennepin County, the Metropolitan Economic Development Association (Meda), community leaders and local businesses with the mission of serving the North Minneapolis community. Students can learn more about enrollment at the NSIC, which begins February 2021.
Supporting the NSIC is part of Target’s longstanding investment in our local community and our efforts to promote racial equity. Over the past decade, we’ve invested more than $11 million in the North Minneapolis area, working with local partners, such as the Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ) and the Northside Economic Opportunity Network (NEON), to help build wealth and create new opportunities in the community. And in June, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, we announced an investment of $10 million and ongoing resources in our efforts to advance racial equity, both in our hometown and across the country, including:
- Investing $10 million to support long-standing partners like the National Urban League and the African American Leadership Forum, plus new partners.
- Providing 10,000 hours of pro bono consulting services for Black-, Indigenous- and People of Color-owned small businesses, helping with rebuilding efforts in Minneapolis-St. Paul.
- Offering our guests the option to direct Target funds to organizations supporting social justice through Target Circle, our loyalty program.
Curious about our ongoing efforts? Check out Target’s commitment to racial equity and social justice to learn more.
