Shawn Singleton is a former sales representative for Pre-Paid Legal who has been job searching since becoming unemployed two years ago. His efforts have ranged from newspapers to websites, from job fairs to WorkForce Centers, but to no avail.

Singleton is not alone. The struggle to find and keep jobs has left many people unemployed. This is why the Minnesota Wants to Work coalition launched earlier this year in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The Minnesota Wants to Work coalition is part of a pilot program designed to give a voice to unemployed workers. The coalition seeks to organize unemployed and underemployed workers into a group powerful enough to make their collective voices heard by decision-makers.

A secondary goal of Minnesota Wants to Work is to provide unemployed workers with useful resources to aid in their job search and to help with financial hardships.

Minnesota Wants to Work is our state’s contribution to a larger program, America Wants to Work, which is an expansion of Working America, the community affiliate of the AFL-CIO. Working America has shown extraordinary success in organizing large groups of people quickly, and the America Wants to Work expansion of this program makes it possible to include the broader community of unemployed workers.

America Wants to Work has been launched in seven states total, and its success in Minnesota helps determine whether or not the program will continue and expand.

Minnesota Wants to Work is led by the Minneapolis and St. Paul regional labor federations, the Minnesota AFL-CIO, Working America and the Minnesota Dislocated Worker program, with the aid of interns in the AFL-CIO’s Union Summer program.

To date, Minnesota Wants to Work has focused on serving the unemployed and finding out from people first-hand what they want to see from the program.

At a recent Minnesota Wants to Work service fair, unemployed workers met with representatives from partnering programs, including Bridge to Benefits, Fare for All, Portico Healthnet, the United Way, Community Action Partnerships of Ramsey and Washington Counties and the Neighborhood Development Alliance.

Meanwhile, Minnesota Wants to Work team members have been researching and brainstorming ways to creatively and effectively organize the unemployed. By looking at our nation’s past and present unemployment programs, the coalition has begun to build a strong foundation for future action.

“The unemployed worker is becoming the silent majority, which will eventually become the boisterous majority,” said Bobby Kasper, president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation. “We need to pay attention to the unemployed union worker.”

The unemployed are not the only people who the Minnesota Wants to Work coalition hopes to recruit, however.

One of the challenges leaders of the program foresee is retention of members. There is a possibility that, as unemployed workers are hired, the movement for job creation may lose momentum.

For this reason, it is essential that the Minnesota Wants to Work coalition’s member base includes active and passionate people from all walks of life, whether unemployed, underemployed, or working full-time. Pushing for job creation rather than job elimination is something that will benefit all Minnesotans, and more support means more power.

Shawn Singleton, though he has been unemployed for two years, remains optimistic about every job that he applies for. Organizers at Minnesota Wants to Work hope to see Singleton and his fellow unemployed workers remain hopeful and succeed in their quest for jobs. Through organization and cooperation, the Minnesota Wants to Work program can work for unemployed and underemployed workers.

Kelsey Eide is an intern for the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation. This article is reprinted from the federation’s website.