Propel Nonprofits CI Report – Final

What has been most instrumenta to your progress?

During the second year of the Bush Innovation Grant three significant things happened!
First, throughout 2018, we asked families, community leaders, and like minded organizations what was needed in the Black community . We heard (3) primary themes; (1) to have a culturally specific space (2) to focus on economic development (3) youth and family centered engagement to help identify priorities and address the needs in the Black community. In February of 2018, Xavier Bell, the organizer of the Family Freedom initiative, decided to transition out of Community Action Duluth to form a culturally specific 501c3 organization in Duluth. We requested a grant extension from the Bush Foundation, which was granted in June 2018. To assist us in our transition, we also established a fiscal sponsor relationship with Propel. Additionally, we solidified a partnership with NDC (Neighborhood Development Center) to move forward economic development incubator programs. We formed our Articles of Incorporation in July 2018 and immediately began to look for office space. The search took three months,but in September 2018 we moved from Community Action Duluth to form Family Freedom Center-a cultural hub

Secondly, during the second year (prior to leaving CAD) we had engaged over 426 people. Most of the engagement centered around our Family Freedom Summer programming. This process follows the Community Innovation process exactly. During the grant term we learned how to increase our understanding of issues facing the Black community. We tested and generated new ideas, some of which are continuing as a result of our recent transition and are now using our existing resources and community assets to creatively make the most of what our community already has. We have learned over the past two plus years that our most vital issues are that we don’t have a place to connect and learn from each other. Family Freedom Summer has been the catalyst to provide a way for Black people and allies to build relationships (social capital) across socio-economic lines. After leaving CAD in September 2018, we engaged 319 people as of March 2019, most of whom identify as members of the Black community. The Family Freedom Center and Black community can now collaborate, engage stakeholders, and develop culturally resilient partnerships in Duluth thanks to the Bush Foundation

Lastly, In February the Duluth Iron Range African Heritage Hub bill (HF2514) was introduced in the House of Representative with support from the Council of Black Minnesotans. The legislative request was to secure a $250,000 appropriation for planning development of a solutions-oriented African Heritage community hub. We included a public building to be owned and operated by members of the African Heritage community. The hub would: (1) foster cross-disciplinary collaboration in a single location, (2) further the participation of community residents of African Heritage in shaping their living environment, (3) advance community self-determination, and (4) provide larger social, cultural and business opportunities. The Duluth contingent, coordinated by four Duluth-based nonprofits: Family Freedom Center, Fathers Rise Together, Healthy Alliances Matter, and Twin Ports African American Men’s group met with Senator Erik Simonson, House Rep. Schultz was the chief author, Rep. Olsen and Rep. Moran were co-authors. The bill died in committee but key stakeholders, activists and Elders of the Black community established a legislative agenda to move forward.

Key lessons learned

Lesson 1
The model and framework for the Family Freedom Center works! The “model’ we are referring to is the way in which we engage the Black community. We intentionally seek out people who value community, their traditions and cultural values and who want to become involved to move forward change for themselves and the world around them. As a result we’ve learned that there is not a safe space to celebrate culture, build social connection or develop social assets. This reality was identified as we considered the “need” aspect of the Bush Foundation process of innovation. After we identified ‘the need’ we came up with a framework that centered around the Black community historical stewardship in moving forward the civil rights movement specifically; Freedom Summer 1964. This framework has become ‘Family Freedom Summer’ and has moved forward for three years to help organize and mobilize the Black community to build capacity in moving forward change.

Lesson 2
Building capacity requires talent, tenacity and time! Deeply rooted in the fight for justice is the need for dedicated time for healing and reflection. We learned that when communities come together across race and class lines, we must speak truth and avoid congeniality. We don’t have time for that. We must transition quickly towards identifying the talent in the room. When we say talent we don’t mean the song and dance, but rather the need to bring people into their own power. We have spent these past few years creating a safe space for people to explore their preferred future. When we do visit the hurt and pain of the past we don’t spend time blaming anyone, but rather look at innovations to pursue. These new ideas stem from a reconciliation of the past, normally led by an Elders and then moved toward an alignment of what is taking place in our society that must be dealt with now. We are learning to avoid getting mad and instead getting focused. As Black people, we have experienced a lot of adversity in our society which has made us resilient and tenacious. We have chosen to celebrate our tenacity as we learn to appreciate the struggles. We say ‘Lift Your Head Up.

Reflections on the community innovation process

The increasing collective understanding of the issue stage was the most important aspect of the innovation process to help us start and complete our work. Our work has technically just begun, but it took time for us to fully understand how marginalized we had become. It’s like the story of the frog in water, feeling the heat and being uncomfortable, but not realizing that the water was slowly coming to a boil. As a result of the Bush Foundation investment process, we had time to gather, talk, and consider the scope of what has been taking place in our community. We were able to utilize fiscal resources to develop a safe space which had not existed in Duluth’s Black community for almost 50 years, (dating back to the Institute for Afro American Awareness existence in Duluth in the 1970’s). Prior to Family Freedom Centers inception, Elders would talk about how this organization positively impacted the Black community and how it was a hub for Black social awareness, economic expansion, and community building. By being able to increase our collective understanding across generational lines, we created an innovative space for Black people designed to address issues facing community.

Other key elements of Community Innovation

The incorporation of two other aspects of process are needed in our work. One is ‘reflection’ which we believe should be placed strategically after the test solutions phase. This aspect of the process allowed for people to celebrate victory or lament over our setbacks. This process provide a space for people to consider how much time and how many resources were needed to maintain the efforts of capacity building. Secondly, while the innovation process states, it is not linear. If the arrows within the diagram went back and forth at all phases of our process that visual would be a true representation of what actually happens when you innovate. We believe that the solutions and possible innovation became evident in the middle of all the stages in the process.

Progress toward an innovation

This process has made a significant impact in a very short time to address structural racism and social isolation. As we reflect during the grant term, we engaged and registered almost 1,000 people, 80% of whom identify as people of color. People are involved and continue to break social isolation. Elders continue to play a significant role within the Family Freedom Center as we grow. We have developed 53 workshops that have potential to become programming which we plan to offer in the community. We almost started a charter school, but decided not to because the MDE focus and grant framework was not right for our community. We are revisiting education options right now. Systemically- We are teaching financial freedom, wealth building concepts, and creating a micro-business creative economy. Youth/families are working with us to close the digital divide. We are struggling to build fiscal capacity to expand our process, but we have developed a legislative agenda to guide us and seek broad-based sustainable funding. We have helped to revive the NAACP and sustain efforts to address structural change. We have assisted in starting and expanding three non-profits including the FFC.

What it will take to reach an innovation?

I believe that we have achieved an aspect of innovation as a result of filling a void within our community. We now have to move forward a breakthrough which requires sustainability. The issue is as follows: Historically and present day innovations within the Black community have been perceived as a threat to the dominant culture. From Black Wallstreet, to the Harlem Renaissances to Hip Hop, the Black community is known for making a way when there is no way! In the 1960s, during the War of Poverty, there was a commitment to investment in communities of color and empower them to solve problems on their terms. The solutions encouraged a level of innovation designed to address Structural Racism. Unfortunately, just as we begin to see these innovative approaches become successful we move to fight a war on another front, leaving these communities in worse shape then when we started. Now in 2019, on a very micro-level, we are trying to reach of breakthrough in Duluth, Minnesota to sustain the work we’ve begun. I believe to reach a ‘breakthrough’ we need significantly more social investment within our community and the political will to move forward real change.

What’s next?

We are committed to continuing this work. First, let us say thank you again to the Bush Foundation for providing us the time and the fiscal resources to move this initiative from a project to an emerging non-profit in Duluth Minnesota. Thank you sincerely!
Our next steps are as follows: We have partnered with NDC to establish a Micro-Business incubator that we are calling Freedom Start-Ups. Our goal is to start 10 micro-business opportunities in the next year. We will offer training and on-going technical support and access to capital. We start in September of 2019. We have recently started the third year of Family Freedom Summer (May-July 2019) We have already engaged 237 people and have developed over ten new workshops. After Family Freedom Summer is complete we will engage our community to determine what type of programs will be embedded in the Family Freedom Center. We are also in the middle of developing programming to engage teens and middle school aged youth. We have taken on two issues to address; the school to prison pipeline issue in middle school and voter mobilization. The Family Freedom Center is a new cultural development hub in Duluth thanks to Bush Funds.

If you could do it all over again…

We have been thinking about this question since the interim report. We would not do anything differently. A person once said, ‘You have to work the plan until it becomes who you are!”. We have come a long way in a very short amount of time. We have created a safe place for community to come together; Black space that is inclusive of White, Black and Indigenous people under the banner of an Unapologetically Black process lead by the people! We’ve created a space where people of all races are seeing the parallels of social oppression, structural racism, and what social isolation continues to do to our community. We must come together! From MLK to Malcolm to Micheal (Jackson), black people have been saying that we need to pay attention to what is happening within the Black community to fully understand what will happen to all of us. We are very pleased and we would not change a thing! We are awake!

One last thought

By: DeAnna Randolph Age: 12
“ Before my family started Family Freedom School we didn’t have much to do with our time. Our days would be mostly boring and filled with nothingness. When we started Family Freedom School we met very cultural people that we weren’t aware of that lived in Duluth. By meeting all of these new people we felt we could share our culture and by doing so we felt less out of place. We also learned new cultures and many other things that we didn’t know of before. One of the many ideas I learned was starting safe businesses and learning how to manage them. This class was important because this is a skill you use in everyday life styles. This could help me become successful in my life time. Thank you to ‘Get To The Dough’, and thank you Family Freedom School for allowing me the chance to learn new things.”