Legislative Commission to End Poverty in Minnesota by 2020

Mission Statement: Develop guidelines to end poverty. Prepare recommendation on how to end poverty in Minnesota by 2020.

The commission must be guided by the following principles:

(a) There should be a consistent and persistent approach that includes participation of people of faith, nonprofit agencies, government and businesses

(b) All people should be provided with those things that protect human dignity and make for a healthy life, including adequate food and shelter, meaningful work, safe communities, health care and education.

(c) All people are intended to live well together as a whole community, seeking the common good, avoiding wide disparities between those who have to little to live on and those who have a disproportionate share of the nation's goods.

(d) All people need to work together to overcome poverty, and this work transcends both any particular political theory or party and any particular economic theory or structure. Overcoming poverty requires the use of private and public resources.

(e) Alliances are needed between the faith community, nonprofit agencies, government, business and others with a commitment to overcoming poverty.

(f) Overcoming poverty involves both acts of direct service to alleviate the outcomes of poverty and advocacy to change those structures that result in people living in poverty.

(g) Government is neither solely responsible for alleviating poverty nor removed from that responsibility. Government is the vehicle by which people order their lives based on their shared vision. Society is well served when people bring their values in the public arena. This convergence around issues of poverty and the common good leads people of varying tradition to call on government to make a critical commitment to overcoming poverty.

Established by the Legislature in 2006. - Minnesota Laws 2006 Chapter 282, article 2, section 27.