Public & Community Safety

Public safety must be rooted in prevention, trust, and accountability. For too long, policies have been designed without the voices of the communities most impacted. That ends here.

✔ Secure Sustainable Funding for Community Violence Prevention

• Champion long-term state funding for proven, community-led gun violence prevention programs
• Prioritize organizations with demonstrated outcomes in youth engagement, conflict interruption, and trauma recovery
• Push for multi-year funding so programs can plan, hire, and stabilize, not just survive grant to grant

✔ Address Drug Use & Trafficking as a Public Health and Safety Issue

• Advocate for coordinated responses that bring together public safety, public health, housing, and treatment providers
• Expand access to treatment, recovery services, and harm reduction
• Support targeted enforcement against traffickers, while protecting people struggling with addiction from criminalization

✔ Strengthen Accountability & Transparency

• Support data-driven public safety policies that measure outcomes, not just arrests
• Push for community oversight, transparency, and clear performance benchmarks
• Ensure public dollars invested in safety actually reduce harm

"Safety is not just fewer headlines, it’s peace of mind, opportunity, and trust."

- Raeisha Williams

We ALL deserve to live in the communities they helped build.

✔ Expand Affordable Housing

• Support investments in deeply affordable housing
• Protect renters from displacement and unfair practices
• Support first-time homebuyers and cooperative housing models

✔ Address the Cost of Living

• Advocate for policies that reduce everyday expenses
• Support utility affordability and consumer protections
• Ensure wages keep pace with rising costs

✔ Fight for Fair, Responsible Taxes

• Support tax policies that protect working families
• Ensure corporations and special interests pay their fair share
• Demand accountability and transparency in public spending

"People should not be taxed out of their own neighborhoods."

- Raeisha Williams

Our neighborhoods should not be treated as sacrifice zones for corporate profit.
Every family deserves clean air to breathe, safe water to drink, and healthy communities to live in.

For too long, large industrial interests have placed environmental burdens on communities while extracting profits and leaving residents with the consequences. It is time to put people, health, and the environment first.

✔ Stop Harmful Copper Mining Projects

• Oppose copper mining that threatens Minnesota’s water systems and natural resources
• Protect our lakes, rivers, and watersheds from toxic contamination
• Ensure tribal sovereignty and community voices are respected in environmental decisions

✔ Protect Communities from Industrial Pollution

• Fight against polluting foundries and heavy industrial facilities that harm community health
• Strengthen environmental oversight and enforce stricter pollution standards
• Prioritize the health and safety of residents living near industrial sites

✔ Oppose Data Center Development in Minnesota

• Stand against the expansion of large-scale data center developments in Minnesota
• Prevent excessive energy and water consumption that strains our environment and infrastructure
• Prioritize sustainable economic development that protects communities and natural resources

✔ Advance Environmental Justice

• Ensure communities most impacted by pollution have a seat at the decision-making table
• Invest in clean energy, sustainable infrastructure, and green jobs
• Protect future generations by making environmental justice a priority in every policy decision

Small businesses are not asking for handouts, they’re asking for fair rules, real support, and a chance to thrive. As a small business owner myself, I know the gaps between policy and reality.

✔ Reduce Barriers for Small Businesses

• Advocate for simplified licensing, permitting, and compliance processes
• Push for state agencies to provide clear, culturally competent technical assistance
• Support one-stop resource hubs for entrepreneurs

✔ Expand Access to Capital

• Champion funding for minority-, women-, and immigrant-owned businesses
• Support micro-grants, low-interest loans, and cooperative ownership models
• Ensure small businesses in corridors like University Avenue are prioritized, not displaced

✔ Create Real Jobs with Real Wages

• Support workforce development tied to actual employer demand
• Advocate for local hiring requirements on publicly funded projects
• Protect workers’ rights while helping businesses grow sustainably

"When small businesses succeed, entire neighborhoods rise."

- Raeisha Williams

Education is not a partisan issue, it’s a moral one.

✔ Fight for Equitable School Funding

• Advocate for funding formulas that reflect student needs
• Support smaller class sizes and modern learning environments
• Ensure schools serving high-need communities receive adequate resources

✔ Support Educators

• Push for competitive pay and retention strategies
• Expand mental health and classroom supports
• Respect educators as partners in policy decisions

✔ Invest in the Whole Child

• Increase access to counselors, social workers, and mental health professionals
• Support after-school, arts, and enrichment programs
• Protect inclusive and culturally responsive education

"Our schools should prepare children not just to graduate, but to thrive."

- Raeisha Williams

Our elders deserve stability, respect, and care, not fear about housing, healthcare, or isolation.

✔ Protect Senior Security

• Defend Social Security and retirement protections
• Support cost-of-living relief for fixed-income seniors
• Expand access to benefits and services

✔ Expand Senior Housing & Care Options

• Support affordable senior housing developments
• Increase access to in-home care and transportation
• Support family caregivers with resources and respite

"A community that honors its elders honors its future."

- Raeisha Williams

Families should not have to navigate broken systems alone. Policy must reflect how families actually live, working, caregiving, healing, and growing.

✔ Strengthen Childcare & Early Education

• Advocate for affordable, high-quality childcare statewide
• Support childcare providers with fair wages, training, and stabilization funding
• Expand early childhood education access so parents can work and children can thrive

✔ Protect Children & Support Families

• Push for child protection systems that prioritize prevention and family preservation
• Increase supports for foster, adoptive, and kinship families
• Invest in wraparound services that address trauma, housing stability, and mental health

✔ Protect Medicaid & Family Healthcare

• Defend Medicaid from cuts and expansion rollbacks
• Support mental health access for children, parents, and caregivers
• Champion maternal and infant health initiatives that save lives
  

"Strong families are the foundation of a strong state."

- Raeisha Williams