our MISSION
To transform lives through meaningful employment.
our VISION
A community of empowered individuals, especially men of color, who achieve long term job success to support their families.
how we help

Career Training
We provide free comprehensive career skills training to under and unemployed individuals. Our training goes beyond technical training and is coupled with interpersonal skills, Personal Empowerment, and one on one career coaching.
Empowerment Institute
Our Empowerment Institute brings Personal Empowerment training to other nonprofits, private companies, schools, and colleges.
Employment
We provide employment placement services, connecting participants to our network of over 500 employers. We also work directly with employers to find recruiting and training solutions.
participant stories
“TCR is a place for new beginnings. It’s a place for structure, discipline. and encouragement. TCR is not just a place where you come and sit in a class. TCR is a place of opportunity. It’s a place for you to discover what your skills are. It’s a place for you to have people help you build upon your skills. It’s a place to meet new people. It’s not just a learning institution. It’s a place where you can feel welcome and safe and happy and motivated to increase in your life.”
When Anna came to Twin Cities R!SE, she had reached a low point in her life . As a single mother dealing with homelessness and joblessness, Anna was spending 3-4 hours a day at the library looking for work and applying for jobs with no luck. “I was at a point in my life, where I wasn’t working and didn’t know what I was going to do. I heard Twin Cities R!SE could help.” Years of unemployment and sporadic part-time jobs came to an end for Anna when she graduated from TCR this spring. Anna has been at her full-time job placement at Wellington Homes for over a year and has been recognized by her employer several times for exceeding sales goals. Today Anna is excited about her future and only sees good things ahead. “The empowerment and core values that I learned at Twin Cities RISE really motivate me to keep pushing and moving forward.”
“I’m 34 years old, and for the first time in my life, I can say that I’ve held a job for a year. And it doesn’t even feel like work. I have found my career and my passion.”
A pick up game of basketball at a St. Paul park led Doniel to the doors of Twin Cities R!SE. One of the guys at the park had shared with Doniel how TCR had helped to shape his career and gave him the job skills that he needed. Doniel followed up the very next day and enrolled at TCR. For Doniel getting a job was not a problem, however keeping one was a different story. He would often find work at dead-end temporary agencies.
“Twin Cities RISE, besides the birth of my kids, is the best situation that I’ve ever been in in my life. It brought me from a place of not knowing myself to a place of finding who I am and what I’m here to do.”
Juanita came to Twin Cities R!SE, after not working for several years to care for her children, who were in need of medical care. She is now a proud TCR graduate working as a clinical Medical Assistant.
our IMPACT in 2018

78%
1 Yr Job Retention

242
Job Placements

$3.5m
increased participant earnings

Steve Rothschild, right, resigned in 1991 from an executive post at General Mills to address high unemployment among low-income black men through the nonprofit Twin Cities Rise. Rothschild retired this month as Rise’s founding chairman.
Twenty-five years ago, Steve Rothschild, a former General Mills executive, founded Twin Cities R!SE to address the vast unemployment and generational poverty that he saw, particularly among African-American men.
Steve Rothschild, who retired as an executive at General Mills at age 45 to start a Twin Cities nonprofit that has helped empower and train for employment thousands of high-school dropouts, ex-offenders and others, has retired as chairman of Twin Cities Rise.
CEO Isabelle Day of Quality Ingredients of Burnsville was having difficulty filling jobs last year when she read a Star Tribune column about hiring former inmates.
I knew very early on that TCR was a special place. When I did GED tutoring I remember the excitement and smiles on peoples faces and the feeling I had when they thanked me for my help, I have that same feeling every time we help someone else obtain employment and grow in to the person and the life God created for them.
When my husband and I first decided that we’d like to move to the Twin Cities from Denver, CO, I started researching nonprofits in the area. Twin Cities R!SE really stood out as a results-oriented organization creating positive change, and a great community partner.
We are excited to be welcoming our newest participants to the first professional Call Center Career Pathway program at Twin Cities R!SE
Twin Cities R!SE is pleased to announce that amendments to the job training grant (Pay-for-Performance bill) (SF 2629/ HF 2937) were signed into law by Governor Mark Dayton on May 14, 2018.
After 11 years of serving participants of Twin Cities R!SE and leading this organization with passion and excellence, Shereese Turner, Director of Programs and Operations, is leaving to start a new journey with Habitat for Humanity.
Twin Cities R!SE unveils guide for employers to hire people with criminal convictions in their pasts.
upcoming events

“I’m happy that I have the job, and it’s consistent and it pays me. It pays my bills. Before TCR, I had low-self esteem. I didn’t think highly of myself, so I never tried. Personal Empowerment has helped me to make better decisions and not let my feelings control my actions all the time. Everything that they taught me in empowerment has helped me on the job and in life.”
A Twin Cities R!SE Engagement Leader met Ronald at a point in his life, where several bad decisions had led him to a halfway house. Today Ronald has kept his full-time job placement for over two years and teaches his children everything that he learned in TCR empowerment classes. Because of Twin Cities R!SE, he is able to better support himself and his family.