Going PLACES: In service to the 'Arc of Justice'

By Natalia Swanson, Program Director for Healthy Eating and Active Living, Mary Black Foundation

Back in July of 2017, as I was gathering my luggage from the conveyor belt at the airport, a good friend of mine sent me a text.

“Do you know of an immigration lawyer? A friend was just detained.”

My heart sank and I felt a small part of me die as my friend continued to send me more details. Maria (name changed to protect her identity) has two boys in elementary school and a husband. Tears began to well in my eyes as I thought about this young mother now detained and separated from her family. Immediately I began texting other friends and allies for potential lawyers. I was able to send a couple of names and phone numbers to my friend, but everyone that I talked to told me that from what they had heard, if someone was detained by immigration, it was practically impossible now to have him or her released. Yet for this one woman and her family, I was going to do all that was within my power.

During our first PLACES site visit to Wichita, I was encouraged to be surrounded by other professionals in philanthropy who desire to use their position to “be of service to the arc of justice” (as stated by our consultant, Bina Patel). The work in and with our communities is urgent. Families are being separated, single mothers are trying to provide for their children, babies of African American moms are dying at a much higher rate before they reach their first birthday, children are entering school unprepared to learn, and communities remain marginalized due to years of systems and policies that have created deep inequities. Herein lies what for me remains a tension and one of the key lessons I have taken away from this first site visit: how can we carry forward our work -- not just our professional work, for I believe that when the work of justice becomes your mission, it guides all that you do -- with “reflective urgency?”

In the world of philanthropy, our tendency is to enter a space and desire be seen as the expert. (This is probably true for all professions, admittedly.) Even our job titles reflect this. This is mine: "Healthy Eating | Active Living Program Specialist." We want to provide answers; we want to solve the problems. Yet the work of racial equity requires us to think differently. The systems that make up our world were created over centuries. The events that we see, such as an immigrant mother detained and separated from her family, are just the tip of the iceberg. Beneath it lie patterns of these sorts of injustices: It is not just this one mother and family; there are still more than 2,000 who have been separated from their parents, with the path to reunification painfully unclear. Underneath the patterns are policies and structures that make family separation a real fear for many immigrants and marginalized people. All of this is rooted in our culture, our values, and our biases. To be able to get to these deep roots, we need to give ourselves space and time. We need to slow down. And we need to be okay with the possibility that we will not always know the answer.

Teresa Lovelady is the CEO of HealthCore Clinic and one of the many individuals we had the privilege of meeting in Wichita. She is a woman that radiates love for people. She took over this federally qualified healthcare center and began making significant changes to the way they do the work. She told us that 80 percent of the women they serve in their women’s clinic are uninsured and will never be eligible for Medicaid because they are undocumented. Even when the state’s governor turned away funding to support services for refugees, she figured out a way to bring funding to their clinic to assist this population. Teresa acknowledged the trauma that children from immigrant and refugee homes had and continued to face. In an effort to address trauma and support children from these homes, she integrated a behavioral health screening into the regular medical screening. If the screening identifies that a child needs support, the screener refers him or her to an on-site therapist. It was inspiring to see know that Teresa believes a person’s health is more than the healthcare they can receive. Health is about the whole individual. She believes this so much that everyone on her team, even the janitor, earns at least $12 an hour. These are just some of the bold moves that this CEO in Wichita has made. They are moves that reveal her understanding of the urgency behind it all. Theresa, as she closed her session with us said, “I love people. I love people so much that I will do whatever it takes and whatever I [need] to make certain that people are taken care of.”

I know I am going to learn so much more through the remaining months of the PLACES fellowship. Therefore, I say this cautiously: After this first site visit, I have two desires that I am holding close. First, that I would continue to learn the practice of reflection, the practice of slowing down and digging deep to better understand. Second, that the people that we hear from and the personal stories that we hear about in our site visits would inspire and continue to kindle this urgent fire to do things differently. I hope that we never lose sight of the Marias and Teresas of the world and that these individuals would push us to live lives of compassion, humility, and service – all for the “arc of justice.”

Catch up on our last Going PLACES blog here.

About the Author

Natalia Valenzuela, Mary Black Foundation

Natalia Valenzuela Swanson joined the Mary Black Foundation in March 2015 as the Healthy Eating | Active Living program specialist. Prior to joining the foundation, Natalia worked at the Upstate Workforce Investment Board as the associate director and served on the board of a local non-profit working to make Spartanburg a vibrant, connected and healthy community. Natalia completed the United Way Non-Profit Fellows Program, as well as Leadership Spartanburg. Natalia has a master's degree in city and regional planning from Clemson University and a bachelor's degree from Columbia College. She is a native of Ecuador and her husband is from South Dakota.

by TFN Staff

Going PLACES: Wichita — Starting with difficult conversations, from a place of love

By Randy Lopez, Program Officer, Wyandotte Health Foundation & 2018 PLACES Fellow

Last week, I was hanging at my parents' house with my mom and dad.  As we often do, we were sitting in the kitchen.  I don’t know why we always pick the kitchen; it’s one of the smaller rooms in their house but we always decide that’s the room in which to be. Maybe it has something to do with the proximity of the food, but in my family the kitchen is the core gathering place, whether we are eating or not.

On this particular Wednesday, my parents were reflecting on their immigration story.  Both of my parents were born and raised in Mexico and were brought to the United States of America by their parents.  My mom said, "Honey (she calls my dad honey…it’s kind of cute). Honey, we were blessed.  Our parents were able to move to the U.S. and bring us here.  And we were able to create a life and have a family with opportunities."

What prompted this comment from my mom? Well, on TV at that same moment was a Univision report from the U.S.-Mexico border on the harsh and tense conditions faced by families trying to cross. They were reporting on the inhumane separation of families which has now turned into the inhumane jailing of mothers, fathers,  and children.

For my mom, the thought of having her family ripped apart, her children taken from her, because of "lack of status" is just unimaginable.  She was reflecting on her journey, my father’s journey, and our family’s journey to where we are now.

I am blessed to be in a position that I don’t have to fear whether I will be deported or separated from my family.  I don’t know the anxiety of wondering whether my parents will be home when I visit due to "lack of status" in this country.

But I also know that I do hurt when I hear of the unjust, inhumane, hateful, discriminatory and deeply rooted racist practices that we see and hear about every day.

I wasn’t sure what to expect through this PLACES Fellowship.  I’ve been through may different "leadership trainings" and professional development experiences, but many fell short of getting to the root causes of racial and economic injustice in our communities.

I want to learn about how I can incorporate the work of racial equity, in a meaningful way, into my everyday work in philanthropy and beyond.  I want to learn about ways to have real conversations and dialogue about race and racism. Most importantly, I want to learn what our response to our communities' needs will and should look like.

I want to know how best to use my voice as an individual, as an employee of a foundation, and as a Latino man to stand up against hate and tyranny, learning how to turn the conversations into solutions driven conversations focused on love, respect, and equity.

Our 2018 PLACES Fellows cohort met for the first time on our site visit to Wichita, Kan., which happens to be not far from Kansas City, the place I was born, raised and now work as program officer for the Wyandotte Health Foundation.

Day 1 of the Fellowship:  Damn.  We dove right into a root cause analysis of racial and economic inequity.  I won’t get into details, but the conversation was intense yet inspirational and intentional.

18 Fellows from all walks of life, with all types of lived experiences and views on life, all gathered in a room talking about the work of racial equity.  This was gonna get good, really fast.

A few (out of many) takeaways for me:

• Racial equity is inclusive, systemic, and focuses on root causes. It is on all of us, together, to lift this work and not be afraid to have deep conversations with each other, especially around real root causes of inequity.
• Communities know the answer. Often as funders we want to give answers.  That’s not the point. Communities know the problems in their own community and have ideas about solutions that make sense and work.  We have to be willing to listen, support, and be fully present.
• Start with self: I have to be willing to look at what my role is and be willing to make transformative change before expecting anyone else to do the same.

We met a community in Wichita that is really embracing these themes.  A young man named Armando Minjarez, an immigrant, activist, artist, and engaged community member working towards healing through art was our local guide.  We visited some of the community murals, which, sure, he lead, but he’ll be the first to tell you that it was really the community who spearheaded and truly took the lead.  Art, he said, has inspired community conversations and has sparked continued work to bring the community together.  His newest project will reflect community conversations on race between black/brown communities and will tell their stories through murals.  The work of racial equity is incremental and comes from a place of love and inspiration.

I mentioned I wasn’t sure what to expect, but let me say I was not disappointed with this first gathering.  Difficult conversations that set the tone which come from a place of love for community is where we must start.  That’s how we make changes in ourselves, in our work, in our workplace (philanthropy), and ultimately in our communities.  That’s how we end family detentions, families being separated, oppressive laws, and policies that overwhelmingly affect our vulnerable communities of color.

I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year will bring.

Catch up on our last Going PLACES blog here.

About the Author

Randy Lopez, Program Officer, Wyandotte Health Foundation

Randy Lopez was named Program Officer for the Wyandotte Health Foundation in Kansas City, KS.  He is responsible for program development and grants administration in the Foundation’s funding priority areas of Primary Care, and Early Childhood Trauma, as well as for special initiatives.  In addition to grantmaking, Lopez plays an important role in increasing collaborative partnerships as well as community awareness and engagement.

 

Featured image: Mural in downtown Wichita, Kan., depicting the struggle with immigration bureaucracy in the U.S. Photo credit: Randy Lopez.

by TFN Staff