Sioux Falls non-profit Conscious Youth Solutions is holding a “Diversity and Inclusion Summit” next week Thursday, November 2, at the downtown Holiday Inn. Unlike the dreary stream of out-of-state brownshirts who’ve been fouling public discourse in our state lately, this summit will bring some local heavy-hitters in economic development to talk about the importance of “Empowering Our Emerging Workforce” (the event’s theme) by promoting diversity and inclusion.
Sioux Falls business leaders appear to recognize this Diversity and Inclusion Summit as an opportunity to underscore their stated commitment to countering the ugly anti-immigrant sentiment that they see threatening South Dakota’s economic health. Check out the summit program:
Opening speech from the president of the Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce, panel discussion with the Chamber President and the boss at First Premier Bankcard right next to civil rights advocate Taneeza Islam, and a panel discussion led by Jack Marsh with eight Sioux Falls mayoral candidates—that’s a noteworthy array of Sioux Falls business and political figures standing with civil rights campaigners to say diversity and inclusion aren’t just warm fuzzy liberal lullabies but practical values essential to our economic survival.
Conscious Youth Solutions CEO Moses Tut tells me registration for the event is “looking great,” leading him to expect maybe 190 attendees. Tut says that, as a member of the Sioux Falls Diversity Council, he’s been involved with similar events for eight years. This year, CYS is organizing the summit to, in Tut’s words, “provide the community with a focused theme that emphasizes the importance of our emerging workforce. We must come together as a unified front to tackle the issues of workforce development from business leaders, city government, the private sector, the education sector, and city stakeholders to truly come up with a community driven solution.”
CYS has been working since 2015 to help young people connect with jobs and education opportunities. Tut describes his non-profit’s mission:
Conscious Youth Solutions Research & Development Council is a non profit organization that aims to empower and connect underserved communities and millennials to advanced workforce training and career exploration. One of our programs, the Youth League Apprenticeship is a 2 month youth-based educational and experiential program. The primary goals of this project is to educate youth on various skills of entrepreneurship, business development, and professional advancement by way of on-site lesson plans and facilitated mentorships & support. The lessons/curriculum will be administered by our program coordinators in 8-week intervals, 2 days a week for a total of 16 weeks [Moses Tut, CEO of Conscious Youth Solutions, e-mail to Dakota Free Press, 2017.10.26].
CYS activities include teaching young people “marketing knowledge, attracting and retaining quality employee traits, and key communication skills” plus skills for getting and keeping jobs, like professionalism, interview preparation, team work, confidence, budgeting, and experience pitching to potential investors. CYS also works on keeping young talent in the community and arranging mentorship opportunities.
Tut’s primary partners for CYS are vice-president Tolcha Melese and treasurer Terry Liggins:
I first met Tolcha and Terry back in 2013 when I was a board member of the Sioux Falls Diversity Council and reached out to both of them to help me run the Youth Initiative Committee under the Sioux Falls Diversity Council. Since our relationship formed in 2013 we’ve always have stayed connected and in 2015 continued to work together on the formation of Conscious Youth Solutions. After running a 3 month feasibility study sponsored by First Premier Bank, we surveyed 239 individuals and had enough data to prove there was a need for workforce training for young adults and underserved communities. We all do work outside of CYS, I currently live in Minneapolis, MN where I’m the VP of Strategic Partnerships of Running Tap – a Minneapolis-based startup that sells beer online and delivers directly to customers from local taprooms. Tolcha works at Smithfield Foods as the Production Scheduler and Terry works at Lutheran Social Services [Tut, 2017.10.26].
CYS gets no small boost from hosting this event. Note that the programs concludes at 5 p.m. Thursday with a Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting for Conscious Youth Solutions.
The Diversity and Inclusion Summit does cost money. Tickets (available online) are $50 for individuals, $40 a head for professionals signing up groups of three or more, $30 a head for big groups, and $25 for students. Tickets include lunch and the Chamber ribbon cutting.
The sad truth is this will come to nothing and the white people attending will have wasted their $40 to $50 to hear others speak about what they want other people to do that they are not willing to do themselves. In turn, the attendees will return to their home towns and tell others how they should believe because they attended a conference where someone else told them to tell other people they are all racist. “Talking” about racism solves nothing. Prejudice can only be cured through self awareness and action. No speaker, group or individual can make you or anyone else change what you already think. Change can only occur from within. Beyond all that racism is practically nonexistent in South Dakota if only due to the states demographics and the forced existence of our largest minority being jailed in the government institutions called “reservations”.
Boy, aren’t you the Debbie Downer, Old Sarg.
You say is racism is nonexistent in SD. How would you know, you have never experienced it.
http://tinyurl.com/y8xgncos
Herr OldGeneral, take a look at this advertisement and see if notice the one blaring difference that separates one corn pop from all the other homogeneous cornpops.
Maybe you can figure out why Kelloggs apologized for the racial content. Maybe not. I’m sure you have a pat answer why this isn’t racist in your world.
The sad truth is that so many unnerved white supremacists (perhaps willing dupes of the Russians) are spreading racist, anti-refugee, anti-immigrant propaganda that normal, middle-of-the-road businesspeople, Americans who would much rather go quietly about their business, must take time to respond to this wave of chilling hate speech and hysteria with counterprogramming to say what ought to be obvious to anyone who truly believes in basic American principles: liberty, justice, and economic opportunity are for everyone in America, and closing our doors to newcomers and diversity means economic decline.
OldSarg is trying to get the good guys to unilaterally disarm, to abandon meetings and conferences and public events as useless talk. Yet OldSarg has never lodged that critique against the Branstner meetings or any other anti-immigrant rallies.
The Chamber of Commerce would surely rather stay at work making money than engaging in feel-good conversations reasserting basic principles and facts of demography (e.g., South Dakota’s economy dies if no one new moves here). But with so many outside forces (and remember, every one of these hate speakers has been an out-of-stater with financial support shrouded in mystery) rousing the rabble to fear and hatred, our local business and community leaders must respond to remind us of our basic needs and values.
What a disheartening story about Twin Falls and its 7 year old pedophile, knife carrying, gang (invisible membership) leading, Sharia pushing, rapist. I can’t imagine what the fear mongering folks would do to this child if they could get their hands on him.
[Note: Cory, incidentally, the link on your web page did not work, but I was able to access the story from the link in your subscriber email.]
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/10/top-florida-law-enforcement-official-plotted-to-abduct-rape-and-murder-a-black-man-or-a-jew/
Is it too late for this police official? He seemed nice.
[Whoops! Sorry about the link malfunction, BCB! I forgot an equal sign in the code. It should work now!]
“No speaker, group or individual can make you or anyone else change what you already think.” And yet, here you are.
Welcome to North Mississippi, OldSarg.
As a teacher, I change what young people think for the better on a regular basis.