Volunteers build understanding and deep relationships through learning community events.
Volunteers get to know one another, learn from nationally renowned speakers, engage in interfaith dialogue, and develop strategies to engage others in the work of creating real, systemic change in Greater Saint Paul.
This program year we are looking closely at the five neighborhoods in Saint Paul in which we work most deeply: Rondo, Rice Street, Payne-Phalen-Dayton’s Bluff, Frogtown/Midway, and West Side. We seek to better understand how these neighborhoods came to be in this moment and to understand their strengths. But we also want to understand how our community has failed these neighborhoods, resulting in barriers to economic mobility.
Next Learning Community Event
This Learning Community Event on March 19 at Mt. Zion is canceled because of the current situation with COVID-19. In place of the event, we will tape the two presenters and email links once the videos are posted.
Topic: Using Education to Boost Economic Mobility in Prison
Speaker: Daniel Karpowitz, a senior Department of Corrections official tasked with dramatically expanding higher education in prison
Interfaith text study: Ikram Mohamud
People in prison represent a significant portion of our community and a significant number of our neighbors. The United States incarcerates more people, in both absolute numbers and per capita, than any other nation in the world. Since 1970, the number of incarcerated people has increased sevenfold to 2.3 million in jail and prison today, far outpacing population growth and crime
Daniel Karpowitz’s work was featured in College Behind Bars, a PBS documentary by Ken Burns. More information here.
Additional upcoming 2019-2020 Learning Community Events
- Thursday, May 21, 6:00–8:30 pm
- Thursday, July 16, 6:00–8:30 pm
2019–2020 Learning Community Event Materials
January 16, 2020: Transportation History in Saint Paul
Infrastructure is, quite literally, the backbone of the Twin Cities. However, access to transportation is not equally distributed, and infrastructure projects such as the building of Highway 94 have had devastating effects on communities in St. Paul. Rep. Frank Hornstein provided a look at the history of such projects, as well as how we can approach future projects with a greater sense of equity and justice.
Video: Rep. Frank Hornstein | Video: Text Study
December 12, 2019: Immigrant Patterns in Saint Paul
Peter Rachleff, co-founder of the East Side Freedom Library, shared insights into immigrant patterns in Saint Paul. Who came to our neighborhood, and from where? Why, and what do we all have in common?
Video: Peter Rachleff | Video: Text Study
October 17, 2019: Housing
Margaret Kaplan, president of the Housing Justice Center, led a discussion about understand the history of redlining, racially restrictive covenants, and other deliberate policies that led to disparities in housing ownership by race, and then led to staggering gaps in assets and wealth.
Video: Margaret Kaplan | Video: Text Study | Redlining PowerPoint
2018–2019 Learning Community Events
July 18: Impact Stories: Opportunity Saint Paul’s Impact on our Community
Year-in-review of volunteer experiences and impact on community partners
May 9: Trauma-Informed Care
Understanding trauma and its impact on brain development, cultural resilience, and new tools to help volunteers in their work with students and clients
March 14: Motivational Interviewing
Understanding how Motivational Interview can help people of differing cultures and socio-economic backgrounds learn to work together and communicate better
January 29: Building Strong Volunteer Relationships
Learning how successful volunteer experiences rely on building effective, authentic relationships between volunteers and clients
November 29: Unconscious Bias
Understanding how unconscious bias can negatively affect our thoughts and behaviors, how it manifests itself in our relationships, and how we can take steps to create more innovative, caring, and inclusive relationships
October 11: Experience Poverty—Interactive Poverty Simulation
Experiencing what it feels to like to live in poverty through an online simulation tool developed by Urban Ministries of Durham
Learn more, download resources and watch videos from 2018-2019 here.