What is the definition of \u201chome?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And maybe a more important question \u2013 at least around these parts \u2013 is can the Twin Cities truly be home for professionals of color, particularly African-Americans? One person helping to answer that question in the affirmative is an area woman who had to answer the question for herself, and in doing so, decided if this is home, \u201cit\u2019s going to be the best possible home for people of color.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tasha Byers, manager of workforce initiatives for the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce (SPCC) said living in Philadelphia helped her realize the Twin Cities is where she belonged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn 2014 I moved to Philadelphia. I was running away,\u201d said Byers. \u201cI came back and I realized I wanted to build a place to stay for other people. It\u2019s helped me to feel that I, too, belong here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is that sense of belonging \u2013 or rather that lack of sense of belonging \u2013 that makes Byers work so meaningful \u2026 so needed. In a subject that has been examined for quite some time, there seems to be a greater emphasis and sense of urgency in recruiting and retaining professionals of color. As part of the Make it MSP initiative, several groups, including the Bush Foundation, Greater MSP and SPCC have joined forces to address the brain drain as it pertains to African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and others of color. While for Byers it\u2019s personal, she said others have realized retaining a diverse workforce is vital to their bottom line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSimply put, it\u2019s best for business (to have a diverse workforce),\u201d said Byers. \u201cThis is about the economic growth and competitiveness as a region.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No surprise to most, according to Byers, studies conducted by the Make it MSP team found that while companies in the region have done a very good job of recruiting and retaining white workers, they have been abysmal at attracting and retaining African-American talent. She said what they have found is what many already know \u2013 lack of social options and a lack of connectedness to community have many African-American professionals planning their exit almost as soon as they get settled in their northern place of residence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the professional role she\u2019s been in since November, Byers has been working with area promoters and professional groups to design events and coordinate calendars in efforts to provide social opportunities for people of color. Early in August Byers and the Make it MSP team hosted a networking happy hour inside the St. Paul headquarters of Ecolab that attracted more than a couple hundred professionals of color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about communicating and letting people know what\u2019s out there,\u201d said Byers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As mentioned before, attracting professionals of color to the Twin Cities is personal to Byers. While Byers \u2013 a three-time state basketball champion from North Community High School (Minneapolis) \u2013 has a definite connection to the Twin Cities, she does not have definite ties. Though a native of the area, the only family she has here are her parents and she said they have talked about moving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have any other family here so I had to decide what\u2019s keeping me here,\u201d said Byers. \u201cI can\u2019t live where I don\u2019t feel deeply rooted. My work here is what keeps me rooted.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What is the definition of \u201chome?\u201d And maybe a more important question \u2013 at least around these parts \u2013 is can the Twin Cities truly be home for professionals of color, particularly African-Americans? One person helping to answer that question in the affirmative is an area woman who had to answer the question for herself, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4326,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2712,2711,32],"class_list":["post-4325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-st-paul-chamber-of-commerce-spcc","tag-tasha-byers","tag-twin-cities","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Insight-News-Website-Images-11.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4325"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4327,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4325\/revisions\/4327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}