Merrick Community Services
Report date
April 2021
What has been most instrumental to your progress?
The steady energy and engagement of our partners has been most instrumental to our work. We formed our work around agreed-upon values and broad direction and from there, our work evolved based on partner relationships and opportunities. Partners defined the “action teams” that organize our work; and, placed themselves voluntarily as leaders and members in teams. Partners choose the activities that are most meaningful and advance our work with enthusiasm and spirit! Allowing for this organic structure has been a significant part of the momentum built through the xChange and moving us toward our goal of helping partners see themselves as collaborators, not competitors.
Supporting that voluntary engagement, we created a compensation structure, using Bush, that paid all partners a “base” participation stipend; and, a flexible pay-for-participation structure with leadership roles paid at a higher rate and all partners paid for each staff person who is engaged. This model has served us well, both rewarding and incenting engagement in our collaborative work. We are proud that over half our Bush grant funds have been distributed to xChange partners.
Supporting that voluntary engagement, we created a compensation structure, using Bush, that paid all partners a “base” participation stipend; and, a flexible pay-for-participation structure with leadership roles paid at a higher rate and all partners paid for each staff person who is engaged. This model has served us well, both rewarding and incenting engagement in our collaborative work. We are proud that over half our Bush grant funds have been distributed to xChange partners.
Everytime we connect directly with East Side residents, it has shaped our direction:
Our Talking Circles, directed by community leaders, engaged over 60 residents and significantly shaped our understanding of how the labor market works (or doesn’t) for many people of color living on the East Side. Most importantly, we understood how many had deferred their dreams and were employed in less-than-satisfactory work (and often not so lucrative) because other opportunities had not been available or presented.
Through our career fairs and hiring events, we reached several hundred East Side jobseekers. Repeatedly, we learned from them the important details that would help with their job searches – salary, shift times, other benefits – key pieces of information that were routinely not available during the application process.
• In our “Dreams Pursued” survey, we reached over 300 East Side residents who told us about the work they are doing now; the work they want to be doing; and, what barriers they face in pursuing their career dreams. Barriers included hiring process screening tools as well as larger systemic issues: race bias, barriers for justice-involved individuals, and m
Our Talking Circles, directed by community leaders, engaged over 60 residents and significantly shaped our understanding of how the labor market works (or doesn’t) for many people of color living on the East Side. Most importantly, we understood how many had deferred their dreams and were employed in less-than-satisfactory work (and often not so lucrative) because other opportunities had not been available or presented.
Through our career fairs and hiring events, we reached several hundred East Side jobseekers. Repeatedly, we learned from them the important details that would help with their job searches – salary, shift times, other benefits – key pieces of information that were routinely not available during the application process.
• In our “Dreams Pursued” survey, we reached over 300 East Side residents who told us about the work they are doing now; the work they want to be doing; and, what barriers they face in pursuing their career dreams. Barriers included hiring process screening tools as well as larger systemic issues: race bias, barriers for justice-involved individuals, and m
Our engagement with employers has already resulted in process improvement among them. A few have become more inclusive and welcoming through their work with us. Some have changed the information they share in recruiting, based on learning from the xChange. The direct support and engagement we have from the Saint Paul Port Authority has given the xChange capacity and credibility. Coupled with the Bush investment, we are actively doing shared job development – a meaningful step by itself. And, we are moving toward more and more collaborative programming among partners. Both employer relationships and partner relationships within the xChange, are dependent upon trust, high degree of communication, and sharing of information to ensure transparency (which circles back to trust). We will continue to explore ways to make this work as effectively and efficiently as it can while maintaining the collaborative and highly relational nature of the work.
Key lessons learned
We’ve noted it in previous communication, but the first and continuing lesson is about having the space and capacity to build and maintain trusting relationships. Although some of our ability to stay connected has been tested during COVID, we are confident that we have maintained the core of our trusting relationships – as evidenced by all partners wishing to re-commit to another two year period together through our renewed Memoranda of Understanding.
A second, more difficult, lesson has been around the challenge of initiating and maintaining authentic community engagement efforts. We feel good about the engagement we’ve had; and, recognize that there is always room for more! The COVID pandemic has created particular challenges to reach residents and connect with them on workforce needs (particularly when there have been more pressing health, housing, and self-care needs!). We have learned, also, to trust our partners’ relationships with the people they serve – and to build on their trusting relationships. That said, we note that there are communications challenges within our partner organizations – technology-related challenges – to being able to reach the people they serve efficiently and effectively with broad-based communications. We know that we can rely on partners AND we need to do some direct outreach to East Side residents as the xChange. We are conscious that we need both authentic connections and culturally-sensitive communication (and the appropriate tools for that communication) to do so.
Finally, we have been aware that the ‘backbone functions’ of managing a collaborative like this require steady attention, support, and adequate financial backing. The investment from the Bush Foundation was critical to helping us launch and maintain these support structures. We are continuing to do so, and appreciate the explicit support Bush provides to make and manage these collaborative connections – before we even have to start talking about performance outcomes or measuring our collective impact. The xChange is poised now to ramp up its external impact, in large part due to the investment made by the Bush Foundation and other supporters in these first formative stages.
Reflections on the community innovation process
As we’ve noted in previous communication with the Foundation, our action teams within the xChange are built around a dream-it-and-try-it approach! We have been ideating approaches to collaborative learning, job development, and community outreach/engagement and testing ideas as we go. Partners appreciate our “try whatever we like” approach and we have seen a lot of value from this approach – both in our collaborative work, and permeating individual organizations’ work as well.
What it will take to reach an innovation?
A second breakthrough that was anticipated was about helping East Siders’ actively pursue meaningful and lucrative careers. This is the programmatic/community-level outcome we sought at the start of our work and which we are still pursuing. We made progress on this by tending to a number of processes within our partners’ organizations along the way, creating shared programming, and creating shared job development and placement opportunities for our partners’ clients and program participants. We have not yet gotten to meaningful volume (scale); and of course, the labor market continues to change dramatically even as we write this report. We can point to:
• Specific moments where employer behavior changed as a result of xChange engagement, including hiring of 89 East Side residents for jobs!
• East Side residents pursuing training as a result of xChange program creation and/or support. In total, just over 50 residents have accessed training that is attributable to xChange support along the way.
• Reaching East Side residents for career fairs, hiring events, and more. We have reached about 450 East Side residents during the grant period leading to the results above.
• Specific moments where employer behavior changed as a result of xChange engagement, including hiring of 89 East Side residents for jobs!
• East Side residents pursuing training as a result of xChange program creation and/or support. In total, just over 50 residents have accessed training that is attributable to xChange support along the way.
• Reaching East Side residents for career fairs, hiring events, and more. We have reached about 450 East Side residents during the grant period leading to the results above.
What's next?
We are moving ahead! We have a dozen partners who have re-committed with a new Memoranda of Understanding through at least December 2022. Our primary work will continue to be:
a) Moving East Side residents through a collaborative approach toward workforce development that includes aspirational counseling and assessment work, training as needed, other life supports, placement with employers in the Twin Cities region (with focus on the East Side), and longer-term support as they advance in their careers;
b) Supporting our partners with internal process improvements, data capture and analysis, case management and counseling tools and training, and more so they can be their most effective in serving their communities;
c) Building/expanding programming – education and training opportunities – for East Side residents that align with their long-term career aspirations and the demands of the regional labor market; and,
d) Continuing to advocate for workforce, community, and economic development policies and practices that keep East Side resident interests, values, and aspirations at the forefront of the discussion.
We are grateful for the support of the Bush Foundation and others.
a) Moving East Side residents through a collaborative approach toward workforce development that includes aspirational counseling and assessment work, training as needed, other life supports, placement with employers in the Twin Cities region (with focus on the East Side), and longer-term support as they advance in their careers;
b) Supporting our partners with internal process improvements, data capture and analysis, case management and counseling tools and training, and more so they can be their most effective in serving their communities;
c) Building/expanding programming – education and training opportunities – for East Side residents that align with their long-term career aspirations and the demands of the regional labor market; and,
d) Continuing to advocate for workforce, community, and economic development policies and practices that keep East Side resident interests, values, and aspirations at the forefront of the discussion.
We are grateful for the support of the Bush Foundation and others.
If you could do it all over again...
Although the organic nature of our work has been a strength, as noted above, we might have moved a little farther a little faster with just a bit more structure and rigor to adhere to that structure. We have reinvented ourselves a few times – all toward more and stronger individual and organizational relationships. That said, that reinvention has taken time and resources that, perhaps, might have moved us closer toward some of the programmatic goals we outlined for the Foundation and other funders.
One last thought
There is a broader effort that we have just begun, to more directly connect the aspirations, interests, and skills of East Side residents with longer-term economic development vision for the City and the County. Our Dreams Pursued project, is in part, an effort to invite a new kind of conversation/process among elected leaders, economic development officials, business leaders and others – asking: “How can we best use the talent, energy, and abilities of the people who live here?”. This is not the first questions traditionally asked in economic and community development circles. We have begun a conversation, sharing the results of our Dreams Pursued survey, with City of Saint Paul and Ramsey County leaders. To be clear, this is a long-term shift in thinking, and we had no expectation that it would be solved through this grant period. But, we are excited to have launched it – with appreciation to the Foundation, MSPWIN collaborative, and Ramsey County for additional support – and look forward to continuing that work in the coming years.