Hamida Dakane

I feel deep gratitude towards my community, first for welcoming me and for allowing me the honor to lead in various capacities to improve the community. After being asked to run by leaders in the community that I respect, I decided that this would be a great way to give back to this great state. North Dakota needs leaders who will listen to the community and work cooperatively to find solutions. I am particularly moved to action by the needs I have heard from so many in the community: The need for improved early education and a head start for our children, major workforce issues including pay, retention, and barriers to participation like childcare, and the need for housing that is affordable for families to build a home and roots in our communities

In our Democracy serving in an elected position is a sacred responsibility. In private life our responsibilities are to our families, our businesses or employers, and then to our neighbors and community nearest us most of all. An elected position in our democracy requires that we take responsibility for our entire state. I take this responsibility very seriously. The life, work, and community service experiences that I believe will serve me most in this role are: My work assisting businesses and the community in solving the workforce challenges related to New Americans and welcoming multiple cultural backgrounds into the same workplace, my Master's education in Public Administration, and my focus on building collaboration to solve community problems.

Our community faces major workforce issues, workers struggle with low pay, businesses struggle to make ends meet to pay well, at the same time as everyone is facing housing costs that are too high to afford, and childcare that is in short supply and is also too expensive for most workers and businesses to afford. Often some of these problems are pitted against each other, but these are community issues that we need to solve together without trying to place blame -- everyone is struggling with these issues either directly, or indirectly because their workers and neighbors are struggling directly. These aren't "worker" issues, or "women's" issues, or "business" issues, all of these are community issues that impact everyone.

Solve workforce challenges throughout North Dakota, improve access and affordability to childcare, remove barriers to workforce participation, and ensure that every family can afford a homes to build roots and invest their lives into North Dakota.

1. Listen to business owners and workers and focus on solving the problems they identify

2. Remove the barriers to workforce participation, childcare, transportation, and housing.

3. Develop an effective economic and workforce development policy for the state

I support any economic development tool that will improve business success in North Dakota while also benefiting the community. Without businesses we have no jobs, without jobs we have no people, without people we have nothing.