A new nonprofit structure will help construction leaders turn shared commitment into sustained, industry-wide change.
September offers an important opportunity to focus on mental health and suicide prevention in construction. Meaningful progress, however, requires work that continues throughout the year and reaches beyond awareness alone.
That is why leaders representing contractors, labor, project owners, public agencies, industry associations, and professional service organizations came together to establish the Minnesota Construction Mental Health Alliance. The Alliance is working toward a shared vision: making mental health a construction safety standard across Minnesota.
Now, that work has reached an important milestone. The Minnesota Construction Mental Health Alliance has been formally established as a 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization in Minnesota.
The new structure creates a stronger foundation for the Alliance to operate as an independent, statewide organization, establish formal governance, engage more industry leaders, and build a sustainable model for the work ahead.
Moving From Awareness to Systemic Change
The construction industry has made significant progress in raising awareness, reducing stigma, offering training, and connecting workers with resources. Those efforts remain essential.
The Alliance was created to address another part of the challenge: the systems and conditions that shape mental health across the industry.
That means looking upstream at how projects are planned, bid, scheduled, staffed, and delivered. It also means helping construction leaders consider how mental health can be integrated into safety practices, contracts, organizational policies, leadership expectations, and workforce planning.
The Alliance does not provide clinical care or replace the mental health programs already available through employers, unions, associations, and community organizations. Its role is to bring decision-makers together around changes that no single organization can achieve alone.
The long-term goal is to make mental health as established and expected within construction as physical safety.
Establishing the Board of Directors
With the organization formally established, one of the next priorities is creating its initial Board of Directors.
Joel Smith, president and business manager of LIUNA Minnesota and North Dakota, and Brent Wilber, chief engineering officer at Ames Construction, were nominated to help lead the board formation process.
They will work with Alliance leadership to consider the representation needed on the board, review potential board members identified by the Strategy Team, and determine the next steps for extending invitations.
The goal is to build a governing board that reflects the construction industry’s interconnected structure and includes perspectives from labor, contractors, project owners, design and professional services, public agencies, and other influential industry partners.
The board will provide formal governance, organizational oversight, and fiduciary leadership. It will also help establish long-term priorities and ensure the Alliance has the resources and relationships required to sustain its mission.
Additional board appointments and leadership roles will be announced as they are confirmed.
From Strategy Team to Board, Committees and Action Groups
The Alliance’s Strategy Team has played a central role in shaping the organization from its earliest stages. Participating leaders have helped define the mission, maintain the focus on systemic change, identify opportunities for action, expand industry participation, and guide the Alliance’s transition from an informal coalition into a formal nonprofit organization.
The Strategy Team includes leaders representing: (in alphabetical order)
- 3M
- American Council of Engineering Companies of Minnesota
- Ames Construction
- Associated General Contractors of Minnesota
- Benike Construction
- C.S. McCrossan
- Donlar Construction
- Holmes Murphy
- International Union of Operating Engineers Local 49
- Kraus-Anderson Construction
- Kubes Law Office
- Labor HealthWorks
- Lakehead Constructors
- LIUNA Minnesota and North Dakota
- Minnesota Asphalt Paving Association
- Mayo Clinic
- McGough
- Metropolitan Council
- Minnesota Department of Administration
- Minnesota Department of Transportation
- MN Laborers Benefit Fund
- Park Construction
- P.E. Services
- Target
- TKDA
- Veit
- Xcel Energy
Mercury Creative Group has supported the Strategy Team through strategic planning, facilitation, communications, and organizational development.
The Alliance extends its sincere appreciation to the organizations and individuals who have participated in the Strategy Team since its inception. Their time, insight, influence, financial support, and willingness to engage in difficult conversations helped turn a shared concern into a focused statewide effort.
The creation of a formal nonprofit organization would not have been possible without their early leadership. Strategy Team members helped establish the Alliance’s direction, build credibility across the industry, welcome new perspectives, and create momentum around the belief that mental health must become part of how construction defines safety.
The Alliance is equally grateful for their continued support as the organization enters its next stage. Formalizing the Alliance does not end the collaborative model that brought this work forward. It creates a stronger structure through which that collaboration can continue and grow.
As the Board of Directors is established, some Strategy Team members who were nominated for board seats will be considered for formal governance roles. The board selection process will also consider additional leaders who can help provide balanced representation across Minnesota’s construction ecosystem.
The board will ultimately be responsible for governance, financial oversight, organizational sustainability, and formal decision-making. The Strategy Team’s work and relationships will continue through committees and action groups working alongside the board.
These groups will provide focused opportunities for leaders, practitioners, and subject-matter experts to turn the Alliance’s strategic priorities into action.
This evolution allows the Alliance to maintain the broad participation that helped build the organization while adding the governance and accountability needed to sustain it. Board service will be one important form of leadership, but it will not be the only way Strategy Team members and other industry partners can help advance the mission.
Creating a Sustainable, Industry-Funded Model
One of the Alliance’s most important developments is the creation of a long-term funding model through collective bargaining.
AGC of Minnesota, worked with labor and contractor representatives to establish a mental health contribution within newly negotiated highway trade agreements. Under the model, one cent is contributed for every trade hour worked.
The contributions began with the highway agreements on May 1, 2026. The long-term vision is to expand the model into additional collective bargaining agreements, including future commercial building agreements.
The funds are collected through the same third-party administrative structure used to manage other collectively bargained benefits and industry funds. They will ultimately support coordinated mental health work on behalf of Minnesota’s construction industry, subject to the requirements and oversight governing their use.
This is significant because it moves mental health funding away from dependence on short-term grants, volunteer energy, or contributions from only a few committed organizations. It creates shared responsibility between labor and management and provides a more consistent foundation for long-term action.
The model reflects the Alliance’s larger approach to systemic change. Mental health cannot become a permanent construction safety standard without permanent infrastructure to support it. Sustainable funding makes it possible to coordinate leaders, develop shared tools, support committees and action groups, measure progress, and continue the work beyond any single grant cycle.
The new nonprofit structure gives the Alliance an independent organization through which these funds can be governed responsibly and transparently. The Board of Directors will help establish the appropriate financial controls, priorities, and accountability measures to ensure the funding advances the Alliance’s mission and benefits the broader construction workforce.
The Alliance and the State Mental Health Grant
AGC of Minnesota members may also be familiar with the Mental Health Support in Construction grant awarded through the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry.
The AGC of Minnesota Foundation was one of two organizations selected to receive funding through the statewide grant program. The grant supports outreach and engagement, practical resources, education, and worksite strategies intended to promote mental well-being and prevent suicide among construction workers. The grant period runs from February 2026 through December 2027.
The grant and the Alliance are closely aligned, but they are not the same.
The grant is a defined, time-limited source of funding administered by the AGC of Minnesota Foundation. It supports specific activities, deliverables, and outcomes established through the state’s grant requirements.
The Alliance is the long-term, industry-led organization working to coordinate leaders and sustain systemic change beyond any single grant, program, or funding cycle.
The two efforts strengthen one another. Grant-supported work can help develop resources, deliver training, test strategies, convene stakeholders, and accelerate implementation. The Alliance provides the leadership structure and cross-sector relationships needed to guide that work, encourage broader adoption, and carry successful approaches forward.
How AGC Members Can Engage
AGC members do not need to wait for the governance process to be completed before supporting the Alliance.
Members can:
- Share Alliance information and resources with company leaders, project partners, and industry peers.
- Express interest in serving on a future committee or action group.
- Explore opportunities to financially support the Alliance.
- Bring owners, labor representatives, contractors, and other partners into the conversation.
This work needs leaders who are willing to use their experience, authority, relationships, and resources to help move the entire industry forward.
Formal nonprofit status is an important milestone, but it is also a beginning. The strength of the Minnesota Construction Mental Health Alliance will continue to come from the people and organizations that choose to lead together.
Learn more, sign the Commitment, or express interest in getting involved here.