After last weekend at the Capitol: resourcing community

As most of you reading this already know and despite extraordinary organizing efforts to stop it, the 2012 election will be including a vote on an amendment to ban marriage equality in Minnesota.

At moments like this, being involved with a community foundation is a funny thing. It’s different from being involved in any other kind of community organization. Here’s what we mean: Our role is to create the space for conversation across community to take place, conversation that will support our communities to make the changes needed to become stronger. This means stating our organizational opinions is much less important than how we listen, and the moments when we can create the opportunity for all of us to listen to each other. And to then respond from that listening.

Our community has a variety of opinions about the struggle for marriage equality. For many of us, the right to same-sex marriage is a fierce point of liberation. The lack of this legal right is a constant reminder that same-sex relationships are seen as less equal than different-sex relationships. For others among us, marriage is not a priority. Instead, other issues are seen as more urgent, more demanding of our community’s resources.

As a community foundation, PFund’s role is not to decide which community priority is the most important, but to instead support the forums where dialogues about our shared agenda can take place. And sometimes, parts of the agenda are decided for us.

The fight at the Capitol is a fight about resources: the resources of time, of money, and of hope.  Because of this potential amendment, thousands of Minnesotans who might otherwise be putting their time, talent and tenacity towards building a state that cares for all of us will be putting their energy towards defeating someone else’s agenda.

Currently Minnesota is facing budget cuts that will significantly affect the quality of life for Minnesotans: from eliminating affordable health care to closing multiple state parks and recreation areas. Cuts to prevention and intervention services place vulnerable children at greater risk of peril and cuts to employment support will push some families with children deeper into poverty. These cuts will impact those of us who are aging, those of us with ongoing healthcare needs, and those of us already living some distance from necessary services, such as individuals in rural communities. These are our families. Our children. Our community.

As Senator Scott Dibble and others have voiced so clearly, our time is better spent in coming together to make sure our state has the resources needed to build safety and the space for celebration for each one of us. As your community foundation, our role is also to maximize the resources that are available to our LGBT community to make the changes we need so that all of us can be celebrated and live free from discrimination, violence, invisibility and isolation. Thank you to all of those who spent time at the Capitol, demanding that our focus remain on figuring our how we can best share the wealth that is Minnesota rather than having to defend ourselves against a campaign we didn’t choose.

- Kate and Susan

Anatomical Leadership

A key element of PFund’s mission is to develop leaders. Among the staff and Board, we ask a lot of questions about what it means to develop leaders and, related to that, what exactly individual leadership means. How can organizations be community leaders? What is the role of listening in leadership and when does listening lead to action? What should be expected of an individual leader in relationship to broader communities?

We’ve recently had the opportunity to dive deeply into these questions again while going through the scholarship review process. Like all review processes, scholarships are selected by groups of community members. Diverse in their LGBT identities, in their life experiences and in their understandings of leadership, this group gets together to go over all of the applications and match up individuals with scholarships.

As showcased in the press release, these scholars represent a powerful group of leaders. They are as diverse as the group who selected them and that diversity includes their understanding of their own leadership. Again, what exactly is individual leadership?

To reflect on that question, we went to thinking about anatomy, wondering what 800,000 years of evolution might teach us about leadership and making change.

Free radicals are a unique kind of atom in the body: they can change their electronic signature from negative to positive or they can carry zero charge.  Free radicals move throughout the body, attaching and repelling atoms from one organ to the next, sometimes causing problems and sometimes supporting important change. Free radicals are an important part of the immune system. They help determine which cells or tissues are harmful to the body and need to be broken down or built up. They are free-moving, hence their name, and their independence, literally, helps them to identify problems that other aspects of the body can’t easily “see.”

This same skill set, this independent and free movement, can be a problem. Free radicals can destroy cell membranes, disrupt crucial processes in the body, reprogram DNA, form mutant cells and generally cause significant cellular degeneration or, as many believe, out of control cell reproduction, otherwise known as cancer.

Free radicals are an incredibly important part of our system when they work along with the body as a whole, identifying what is dangerous to the system and supporting the body to shift what is dangerous. Free radicals work against the system when they choose their own direction, working away from the body’s needs and wellness.

And this is a blog about individual leadership. The metaphor is hopefully obvious at this point. What is the role of an individual leader and how are they accountable to the larger community? Go ahead, let all of the tongue-in-cheek moments take up some time – hey, I know a free radical! You should see the number of bumperstickers on their car, hardy har har. But very seriously, sometimes it takes the unique perspective of an individual to give voice to something that needs to change. This is individual leadership – being able to speak against the tide, to draw our attention to something we have been missing, and to then work with us to make the necessary change.

When individual leaders work outside of the community context, meaning they are separate from systems of accountability and transparency, they have the potential of causing more damage than good.

PFund is so excited to present to you the list of scholarship recipients for 2011. We are honored to be in community with this group of individuals who have taught us, yet again, the strength of an individual voice. We also want to acknowledge that while we could not provide scholarships for all those who applied, we still recognize the breadth of individual leadership demonstrated by each applicant. Please celebrate them with us, knowing that who they are and what they do only helps to make us all of us stronger.

On the Road Again...

Periodically, different staff and Board members will be writing blog entries. Over the summer, we are going to begin inviting community members to also submit. This is the first entry for this blog written by Alfonso Wenker, currently Director of Programs and soon to be Director of Development & Communications.

Early on Friday, April 29, Kate and I got in a car and headed northwest. We spent two days listening and learning with LGBT and allied leaders in St. Cloud, Fargo and Grand Forks. Our travels were part of PFund’s QNet Roadshow – community listening sessions we hold in cities and towns across the greater Upper Midwest.  We began this tradition last summer and will continue it into the coming year.

These community visits are our words in action. We’ve been writing here on our blog and speaking publicly about regular regional travel, community listening sessions and regional outreach. This is part of our commitment to be more accountable to our region as a whole.

In St. Cloud we met folks from  St. Cloud Pride, Winning Marriage Equality and St. Cloud State University LGBT Center. Everyone in the room shared that they were battling the reputation of an unwelcoming St. Cloud. Much of their work is aimed at creating a welcoming and affirming climate for LGBT people living in and visiting St. Cloud. The organizations we met with are working to mobilize their communities and to provide St. Cloud and the surrounding communities with the skills needed to develop allies.

Following our visit to St. Cloud, we headed out to Fargo. There we were inspired by the work the Pride Collective and Community Center and Dakota LGBTQ Campus Alliance had done to organize a counter protest during a local production of The Laramie Project. When followers of Fred Phelps came to town to condemn the theatrical production, local groups organized more than 2,000 community members in a counter-demonstration that focused on building community within and among LGBT people. The local organizers also used this opportunity to focus on creating opportunities for developing a common agenda for LGBT communities in Fargo.

On Saturday, April 29, the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks was host to the first annual North Dakota GLBTQA Conference. PFund scholar, Tanner Schuh, was one of the primary organizers of the conference. During a feedback session he encouraged participants to consider making a gift to PFund. He shared, “I wouldn’t be in school if it weren’t for PFund’s recognition and support of my activism.” It was so exciting to see one of our scholars in action and organizing in his community.

National bisexual activist, Robyn Ochs, keynoted the conference. Robyn spoke of the importance of local organizing efforts and supporting one another in our work for the long haul. “We’ve made a lot of progress in our movement’s short history,” Robyn remarked. “But we have a long way to go until each and every one of us experiences the world as a just and fair place.”

As the first segment of our 2011 QNet Roadshow, Kate and I were moved by the breadth of commitment and brilliance across our region. We are excited to continue learning from community members as we begin to plan our next trip.

-        - Alfonso