Building Communities That Work for Everyone for Municipal Leaders

For city halls and municipal associations specifically: this is told by someone who ran the meeting, held the press conference, and signed the resolution. Expect the version with the council votes, the union conversations, and the budget lines in it — not the TED-talk abstraction.

Brooklyn Center is one of the most diverse cities in Minnesota — Liberian, Hmong, Latino, and African American communities sharing a working-class suburb. Leading it meant building coalitions across communities that rarely shared a table.

His community-centered approach predates office by years: before running for mayor, he organized and established the Brooklyns Youth Council — a joint youth council for Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park — serving as its original advisor and facilitator.

This talk is about the practical work of belonging: how institutions can genuinely include the communities they serve, why representation changes what a city prioritizes, and what 'community engagement' looks like when it's more than a checkbox.