Grantee Learning Log
Minneapolis Area Synod, ELCA CI Report – Interim
DATE
November 25, 2018
What has been most instrumental to your progress?
Bringing together leaders from the most impacted communities for training in both the tools of community engagement and the issue of payday lending was key. Leaders were able to share stories with one another about how what they’re learning about how the issue of predatory debt impacts their specific community, and uncover similarities and differences across different regions of Minnesota. Because sub-staff are working independently building leadership teams and engaging stakeholders in their own regions of the state, having several days together solidified relationships and has led to ongoing communication that is both informative and deeply relational.
Reconnecting with organizations who have worked on the issue of predatory payday lending over the last decade has led to a renewed sense of purpose and direction. Re-engaging one on one with organizational leaders reactivating a dormant network of stakeholders to discuss the current state of the problem, and inviting organizations to re-commit to working on this issue together has been energizing to leaders.
Visiting with diverse community stakeholders. Staff traveled throughout the state and met with stakeholders from social service organizations, community action agencies, government officials – both elected and appointed, and faith leaders to lay the groundwork for issue education and community conversation. This helped us uncover the talented sub-staff we eventually brought on board, and gave that sub-staff a start on a local network of leaders engaged on the issue.
Key lessons learned
Our team was reminded of the slow work of community engagement and relationship-building. The issue of predatory lending is complicated, and it often takes several one-on-ones with stakeholders to reach a personal and communal understanding of the issue. We somewhat underestimated the time it would take to get to the point where we had identified talented sub-staff and created a baseline for community understanding of the problem.
It gets complicated when there are local, statewide, and national efforts around the issue happening all at once. When we began this process and applied for funds, there was not attention being paid to this issue at the federal level, and our work over the last year has resulted in some concentrated local problem solving processes. We’ve had to learn to balance where we spend our time and efforts when multiple constituencies are considering this issue at once.
Reflections on inclusive, collaborative or resourceful problem-solving
Collaborative. It has been profoundly important to have dedicated staff on the ground through greater Minnesota doing research visits, one on ones, leadership development with local stakeholders and really digging in to what the issue looks like on the ground in their particular community. As we’re able to share our findings with one another across the state, it adds shape and nuance to our collective understanding of what is often a very hidden and misunderstood issue. We’re able to share this learning with our partners who work directly with people experiencing financial distress, so that they can better understand the problem and guide people accordingly.
Other key elements of Community Innovation
A key element this year has been interconnections. We were able to send two staff and three leaders to the National Community Reinvestment Coalition’s Just Economy Conference in April. We spent several days learning about gentrification, displacement, student debt, affordable housing, responsible banking, etc. This experience helped both staff and leaders understand the issue of predatory payday lending as one part of a web of interconnected systems and structures that impact the ability of individuals and families to thrive economically. This has informed all of our conversations moving forward, as we cannot talk about one issue without addressing the big picture.
Understanding the problem
It has become more clear to us that the experiences and understanding of the issue of predatory payday lending are widely varied throughout this state. We hear from leaders in Clay County that lending is impacting students, and that one particular lender is the primary culprit. We hear from leaders in Blue Earth County and Olmsted County who are trying to uncover whether struggling farmers may be seeking out these loans to stay afloat in an uncertain economy. In St. Louis County, some financial counselors tell us that they have people in their offices every day who have experienced the financial debt trap that payday lending sets, while other community leaders tell us that they weren’t aware that payday lending was even legal in Minnesota! It’s clear that some aspects of the problem solving and innovations may be shared across the state, but the conversations that get us there need to be deeply contextual.
If you could do it all over again…
That the process is slow. Building relationships and teams across an entire state takes awhile, particularly when the issue we’re convening around takes time to understand, and the people directly experiencing the problem often keep their situations hidden due to shame. We’ve learned that there as we traveled around greater Minnesota, there is some suspicion of people from the Twin Cities and it has taken time to build relationships built on trust. We also spent more time than we expected searching for the right field staff, out of a desire to have a staff that was representative of the racial and economic diversity of our state.
One last thought
We’re on a course that will help people who are economically vulnerable to avoid becoming trapped in a cycle designed to prey upon them. Getting clarity on the issue and it’s impacts is helping us see how deeply embedded in structures and systems this problem is and how it’s connected to other issues – student debt, medical debt, etc. Conversations both locally and at the federal level give us hope that this is a key moment for this issue. We know that our work this year has been a catalyst for the local movement on the issue and has been influential to statewide policy work. The work that we’re doing here in Minnesota is something that our national partners are interest in and are learning from – and there’s interest in replicating this model in other states. We’re ending this first year hopeful, and energized by the hub of innovation this state is becoming on this issue.