Organizer Roundtable: Bridging the Digital Divide
05/16/2012
The Alliance for Metropolitan Stability gathered organizers and community leaders from around the region to discuss this topic at our most recent Organizer Roundtable: Bridging the Digital Divide. Presenters Corrine Bruning, James Robinson, Christopher Mitchell, and Abdi Ali, shared with roundtable participants their strategies for providing technology access to underserved communities in our region.
Organizer Roundtable: Changing Suburbs, Changing Strategies
04/03/2012
The Alliance for Metropolitan Stability’s latest Organizer Roundtable: Changing Suburbs, Changing Strategies gathered organizers from around the region to discuss strategies that organizers and distinct cultural groups are using to bring change to suburban communities thoroughout the metro area. Presenters Asad Aliweyd of New American Academy (NAA), Monica Bravo- Carbajal of ISAIAH, and Wynfred Russell of African Career, Education and Resource (ACER), each shared the successes that they have realized and the challenges that they have overcome in their organizing work.
Organizer Roundtable: Overcoming Historical Disinvestment
02/21/2012
Kevin Martineau, Theresa Gardella, Malik Holt-Shabazz and Elena Gaarder were featured presenters at the Alliance for Metropolitan Stability’s Organizer Roundtable: Overcoming Historic Disinvestment on Wednesday, February 15. These presenters represented communities around the Twin Cities metro area who are working to surmount a history of disinvestment that has most often been brought about by institutional racism.
Organizer Roundtable: Organizing for Equity - Sharing Lessons from PolicyLink's Equity Summit
01/25/2012
Last Wednesday the Alliance for Metropolitan gathered over 40 organizers from around the region for our first Organizer Roundtable of 2012: Organizing for Equity – Sharing Lesson’s from PolicyLink’s Equity Summit. Members of the Minnesota Delegation, Hashi Shafi, Nancy Pomplun, Joan Pasiuk and Neeraj Mehta, shared their experiences and what their learnings mean for their work.
Organizer Roundtable: Taking Care of Business
12/15/2011
As the Central Corridor Light Rail Transit (CCLRT) is being developed on University Ave, many businesses, organizations, and community groups have had their worlds disrupted. Although project staff communicated beforehand the effect that the construction would have on these entities, the reality of the construction season turned out to be more than any of them anticipated. What is clear is that businesses were not told in advance how much their businesses would be affected due to the lengthy construction which has resulted in a greater loss of revenue because they were ill prepared for the total impacts.
October Organizer Roundtable: The Importance of Community Voice at the Legislature
11/17/2011
“Power concedes nothing without a demand.” – Frederick Douglass
This point was made expressly clear at the Alliance for Metropolitan Stability’s October 2011 Organizer Roundtable on The Importance of Community Voice at the Legislature. Rep. Frank Hornstein of Minneapolis’ District 60B shared with those who attended that power in the state legislature only comes as a result of doing community organizing. For Rep. Hornstein, community organizing has no substitute and must be consistently employed even when organizers find that they have a legislator who is sympathetic to their cause.
Organizer Roundtable: Bridging Culture to Organize Community
10/20/2011
At the Alliance’s last Organizer Roundtable on Bridging Culture to Organize Community, the Native American Somali Friendship Committee and Unify University Parade discussed the strategies that they have employed to organize with one another, and the obstacles that they have had to overcome in order to make their cross-cultural relationships a success.
Organizer Roundtable: Storytelling as an Organizing Strategy
09/22/2011
On August 24, more than 50 people gathered for the Alliance’s Organizer Roundtable: Storytelling as an Organizing Strategy at the Merriam Park Library. Organizers from around the region shared how they use storytelling in their work to motivate people to take action and create social change.
Organizer Roundtable: New Legislative Dynamics
08/24/2011
On Wednesday, July 27, the Alliance for Metropolitan Stability gathered organizers, advocates and other nonprofit leaders for an Organizer Roundtable to highlight the strategies Twin Cities organizers used to build power at the Minnesota State Legislature this year. This year presented new challenges for progressive organizations at the legislature. An extremely large freshman class of legislators, combined with changes in leadership of all committees, meant that a lot of new relationships needed to be built between legislators and the constituents they served.
The legislature is not the only body of government that has changed inthe state. For the first time in 20 years, Minnesota elected a Democratic governor, Governor Mark Dayton. As a result, Dayton appointed new leadership to head state agencies such as the Department of Human Rights and the Department of Education, opening up potential areas of policy reform that previous administrations may not have prioritized.
Lessons from Faith-Based Organizers
07/15/2011
On Wednesday, June 29, the Alliance for Metropolitan Stability organized a roundtable for a discussion on Lessons from Faith-Based Organizers at the Franklin Library. Alison Kileen of the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition (JRLC) opened up our time speaking of the work that she and colleagues do, organizing for social justice across faith lines.
Local Organizing for the Environment, Energy and the Earth
06/07/2011
On May 25, the Alliance for Metropolitan Stability organized a roundtable for a
discussion on Local Organizing for the Environment, Energy and the Earth. Valerie
Martinez, of the Women’s Environmental Institute, opened up our time with a
powerful testimonial and shared why environmental sustainability for communities
of color matters to her.
Metro Clean Energy Resource Team
05/03/2011
On Wednesday, April 27, the Alliance organized a roundtable of community
organizers for a discussion on the Metro Clean Energy Resource Team. The Clean
Energy Resource Teams, or CERT, are a statewide program that fosters a
partnership between community groups, congregations, schools, and
municipalities to improve clean energy.
Developing Cultural Corridors
12/14/2010
In late October, the Alliance organized a roundtable of community organizers for a discussion on the cultural corridors that promise to be vital contributors to our local economies in the Twin Cities area. The development of cultural corridors can establish a unique sense of place and strong community ownership in the economic revitalization of a neighborhood and our region.
Photo of the American Indian Cultural Corridor groundbreaking provided by the Native American Community Development Institute.
Sustainable Communities and the Community Engagement Team
12/03/2010
On October 14, 2010, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that the Twin Cities region, led by the Metropolitan Council, was awarded a $5 million grant from the Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant program. This grant is through the HUD-DOT-EPA Interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities. The goal of the grant is to support the Met Council and other regional stakeholders to "build on existing regional planning efforts to advance multi-modal transportation choices with access to jobs and housing, transit- and pedestrian-friendly development, environmental preservation and energy efficiency." This grant covers a three-year period beginning in January 2011.
The Alliance for Metropolitan Stability, Nexus Community Partners and the Minnesota Center for Neighborhood Organizing were selected to lead a Community Engagement Team (CET) for the grant. The CET will work with the project's advisory board to ensure communities along emerging transitways have a voice and a strong role in planning for the future of their neighborhoods.
Organizers and public agency staff from throughout the Twin Cities came together at an Alliance Organizer Roundtable in November to hear about the background of the Sustainable Communities grant and the major role community engagement will play in the implementation of the work.
Lessons Learned from the Central Corridor
10/06/2010
What lessons have organizers learned from their work along the Central Corridor? Find out what was shared at our September 2010 Organizer Roundtable.
The Ecology of Organizing
05/28/2010
In April and May of 2010, organizers from throughout the Twin Cities came together for two Alliance for Metropolitan Stability Organizer Roundtables to learn about and discuss the Ecology of Organizing, a system of thinking that recognizes an ecosystem of social justice organizing happening right now in the Twin Cities.
Community Partnerships for Success
02/24/2010
Alliance member group Twin Cities LISC provided this excellent article summarizing the shared learning among organizers who attended our February Organizer Roundtable on Community Partnership for Success.
Developing Leadership for Sustainable Organizing
02/03/2010
At the heart of organizing is developing leadership that can guide and influence a community or organization toward accomplishing its goals. Enhancing current leadership capacity and ensuring a pipeline of future leaders is crucial to ensuring long-term organizational success. This resource summarizes the Alliance's Organizer Roundtable on Development Leadership for Sustainable Organizing, held January 27, 2010.
Leveraging Community Benefits from Transitway Development
01/04/2010
On December 16, 2009, Anne White of District Councils Collaborative, Diane Dube of William Mitchell College of Law Community Development Clinic and Hussein Samatar of the African Development Center spoke at an Alliance for Metropolitan Stability Organizer Roundtable about their efforts to convene community residents to identify solutions to long-standing community concerns about the LRT and create a process to secure community benefits from the development of the Central Corridor. Participants joined in the discussion about the future of transit development in the Twin Cities and how they could apply lessons learned from the Central Corridor in their own communities.
Tools from the Rail~Volution Conference
12/09/2009
A cohort of 36 people from nonprofits and government agencies attended the Rail~Volution Conference in Boston at the end of October. Rail~Volution is a conference for practitioners from all perspectives who believe strongly in the role of land use and transit as equal partners in the quest for greater livability and greater communities. The conference provided a unique opportunity for innovative minds to develop solutions to issues that affect livability in cities, towns and regions of all sizes and shapes.
The Alliance held an Organizer Roundtable in November to allow Twin Cities organizers who weren't able to attend the conference to learn from those who did. Even if you didn't attend the roundtable, this Organizer Roundtable Resource willl point you toward helpful links and documents to inform your work.
Lobbying for Policy Decisions with Community Accountability
11/04/2009
On October 21, 2009, regional organizers came together at the Alliance for Metropolitan Stability to discuss their strategies and experiences in advocating for public policy change while remaining accountable to the communities they represent.
Racial Equity Impact Policies
10/06/2009
On September 26, 2009. Twin Cities’ activists and organizers joined in discussion on racial equity impact policies. This roundtable centered on the work of a coalition that includes the Alliance, Aurora St. Anthony Neighborhood Development Corporation (ASANDC), Community Stabilization Project (CSP) and Jewish Community Action (JCA), which is working with the St. Paul Planning and Economic Development Department to incorporate racial equity into the development subsidies of the city.
Community Organizing in the Suburbs
09/02/2009
On August 26, 2009, Twin Cities organizers came together to discuss specific strategies for community organizing in the Twin Cities suburbs. This resource summarizes the discussion at the roundtable, including tips from our presenters and participants!
Do-It-Yourself Media
08/05/2009
On July 29, 2009, the Alliance for Metropolitan Stability held an Organizer Roundtable that brought together Twin Cities’ organizers to discuss current social media tools and how they can be used to elevate our organizing campaigns. Mary Turck, editor of the Twin Cities Daily Planet, and Bill Toth, Web 2.0 intern for the Headwaters Foundation for Justice, presented at the roundtable.