The VISTA cohort spent the week of December 9th participating in the Neighborhoods Now! Program, rounding out their intensive onboarding process with HOME Line, and pulling together all that they have learned in their first few months of service. This annual training is a staple for both the HOME Line VISTA Cohort, and the larger organizing community across Minnesota.
Put forth by The University of Minnesota’s Center for Urban & Regional Affairs (CURA), Neighborhoods Now! (NN!) is “an innovative community educational series to strengthen the work of individuals and organizations working in neighborhoods so they can organize to win issues for people and places, build power to change systems for racial equity and economic justice, build organizations whose leadership is reflective of the community, and build diverse and effective cross cultural collaborations.”
Days one and two introduced a reparative racial justice framework. The cohort reflected on how their projects address systemic inequities as well as how they might center those most impacted and work toward solutions that repair the scale of systemic harm. These discussions set the tone for the week by illustrating the need for community organizing to to build capacity by expanding its leadership base. Guest Presenter & NN! Alum Cirien Saadeh joined the group to facilitate and share wisdom during this section of the training.
Days three and four allowed participants to practice community organizing skills and receive group feedback. Cohort members worked on identifying and choosing winnable community issues and translating those issues into actionable demands. The group then spent time researching targets and allies for their demands, as well as escalating tactics to apply pressure and generate wins for the community. Guest Presenter & NN! Alum Katrina Garcia Mendoza joined the group to facilitate and share wisdom during this section of the training.
The final day of Neighborhoods Now! Opened with a panel discussion featuring HOME Line’s Managing Organizer Regan Reeck, and CURA’s Program Director of Community Based Research, Lee Guekguezian. The subject of the discussion was strategies for navigating the inside/outside of power and maintaining community accountability. The cohort closed out the week with a circle of commitment in which they made specific commitments to themselves, their cohort, and their communities, in their work during the rest of their service year
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