Report Back From Our Minnesota Site Visit
Community groups in Minnesota navigate through pain and COVID, building power that brings about real change
Report from the first Veatch Program site visit since the pandemic, in October 2021:
When grantees tell me how much they value the long-term relationship they have with the Veatch Program it makes me incredibly proud of my work. For instance, Doran Schrantz, executive director of ISAIAH — one of our key grantees in Minnesota — told me during my recent visit to the state that “Veatch has played a key role in giving us stability throughout the years to be where we are now.”
It is more than a grantmaking connection, they tell us — it’s a real partnership that feeds from ongoing interactions. It was sad, but necessary to protect all our health, not to be able to visit groups during the pandemic. Once vaccination became widespread and available in the country, case levels were reducing fast, and most aspects of our lives started to open to a certain degree this past Summer, we started exploring the idea of in-person site visits once again. Some groups communicated that it was still too soon for in-person visits. But for others, the work they were doing around the 2021 election cycle was so important that they were glad to receive a Veatch visit to witness it. In this post, I share with you the experience of my recent site visit, in October 2021 — Veatch's first since the pandemic started.
Organizing in Minnesota could not stop, despite the global COVID pandemic
Organizers in Minneapolis and Saint Paul have been at the heart of the pain faced by communities for decades, but especially this past couple of years. For them, isolating and staying at home was not an option because the long-standing history of police brutality that has decimated their communities showed once again its most terrible face with the murder of George Floyd — causing an uprising from communities of color who had already suffered a lot through the first months of the COVID pandemic. To support the mobilizations for racial justice, and protect them, organizers needed to be in the streets. After those mobilizations, community groups continued to organize virtually through zoom meetings and phone banking, and in person in neighborhoods, particularly to promote the civic engagement of disenfranchised communities in the 2020 election.
Image: A mural near George Perry Floyd Jr. Place.*
Pain and Hope
One day in between meetings, I walked down the section of Chicago Avenue that has been renamed George Perry Floyd Jr. Place —the spot where he was murdered by police officer Derek Chauvin on May 25th, 2020. The area shows, and makes you feel, those paradoxical emotions that have accompanied communities of color for so long: the pain of adding yet another death to a long list of unjustified killings by those supposed to protect us. But there was also a sense of hope — for a future that will be different because they know they are working to make it real, independently of how unsurmountable the task might seem.
I could see this mixture of pain and hope in posters in shops stating they were black-owned businesses and needed support. I saw it in a graffiti mural that said, “In times of crisis, the wise build bridges while the foolish build barriers.” I saw it in signs imploring us to “value Black lives.” At the corner of Chicago Avenue and 38th Street, locals built what is known as George Floyd Plaza, a monument with pictures of Black people that have died at the hands of the police in the last few years. Also, a community memorial has been created in front of the Cup Foods market, displaying flowers and pieces of art in remembrance of George Floyd and as inspiration to continue fighting for racial justice. It was clear to me that this is a sacred space for the local community, as it is for the wider racial justice movement in the city.
The struggle to make change possible through organizing and civic engagement
Image: A mural near George Perry Floyd Jr. Place.
While we were eating jerk chicken in a picnic table in the sideway outside of Pimento, a Black-owned business that donated so food to protesters and to to families affected by the COVID-inflicted economic crisis, Veatch grantee TakeAction MN’s executive director, Elianne Farhat, told me that organizing is a way to harness the energy that a sense of injustice leaves in us — and turn it into something productive.
Organizing creates a path to make change possible, to give our hope tools to become reality, she explained. Multiple community organizations in Minnesota, many of them Veatch grantees, have worked for many years on a variety of issues that affect their specific members and communities. At the same time, they have built strong collaborative relationships among themselves that build a social justice ecosystem that exponentially amplifies the impact that they would be able to achieve separately. One of the ways they do this is through civic engagement campaigns, educating the public about important issues and encouraging voters to vote.
Community groups located in the Minneapolis / Saint Paul area organized in 2021 to pass two ballot measures that would significantly address some of the key issues their communities have been dealing with for years, and that became dramatically salient in 2020. I was in Minneapolis during the last week of canvassing before the election, and was able to witness—and participate in—their last minute campaign push.
The first issue at stake was police brutality towards communities of color, lack of accountability of police departments, and overall, After months of organizing for accountability in the George Floyd case — inspiring people across the country and the world —Minnesotan organizations launched a campaign to reimagining public safety, by replacing the city’s Police Department with a Department of Public Safety. This department would be staffed by social workers, mental health experts, peace officers, and crisis managers. This ballot measure was defeated, though with only 56% of the vote, which community groups view as a sign of progress on this issue. They were heartened that even opponents of the measure acknowledged the importance of reform.
A second ballot measure sought to address the state’s unjust housing system — which leaves renters vulnerable to unscrupulous landlords who raise rents, avoid repairs, and evict tenants without cause. The federal eviction moratorium paused this crisis briefly — but with those protections expired, the problem is now back with a vengeance.
To get better protections for tenants, Veatch grantees in Minneapolis and Saint Paul decided to skip over elected officials, who were not responsive on this issue, and take the campaign directly to voters to decide. The ballot measure in Saint Paul limited rent increases to no more than 3% per year, while the proposal in Minneapolis gave the city council the power to enact rent control. In an incredible win, voters passed both ballot measures, which has dramatically changed the landscape for tenants in these cities.
Building community power to achieve real change takes a long time, a strong commitment, and sophisticated infrastructure
In my visit to Minnesota I was fortunate to be able to meet with various staff members of ISAIAH, an organization that, along with TakeAction MN, plays a leading role in building the organizing infrastructure in the state. Through these conversations I learned the many complex pieces involved in developing a movement that is: rooted in communities; sophisticated in its analysis; intentional about its relationships with key actors in government and philanthropy; and highly proficient with technology to track progress..
I also learned about the group’s strategy to build a strong multifaith coalition in which Muslim, Jewish, and Christian members get together not on the basis of “helping the less fortunate,” but with the common goal of transforming society. I also learned about ISAIAH’s large network of Black barbershops and congregations — inspired by just one man who found that, through his work as a barber, he could engage his community in the important conversations needed to spark action.
Image: (Left to right) ISAIAH’s Office Coordinator Lauren Kress, Executive Director Doran Schrantz, and Domenico Romero at ISAIAH’s office.
These are just a few examples of the many pieces that organizations like ISAIAH, TakeAction MN, and many others use every day to connect with communities’ pain and hope and empower them to take steps towards a better future, such as the important civic engagement wins that they achieved in November. We look forward to continuing to strengthen our partnership with the Minnesota organizing ecosystem, and to use the lessons we learn from them to continue to tell others what long-term support for organizing can achieve.
Domenico Romero
Senior Program Officer
*Images provided courtesy of Domenico Romero