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
Thursday, December 12, 6:00–8:30 pm, Beth Jacob Congregation
Topic: Immigration
Presenter: Peter Rachleff, co-executive director, Eastside Freedom Library.
What were the settlement patterns in the five neighborhoods we’re studying this year? Who came to these communities, and when? What strengths and challenges accompanied each wave of immigration?
Additional upcoming 2019-2020 Learning Community Events
- Thursday, January 16, 6:00–8:30 pm, Wilder Foundation
- Thursday, March 19, 6:00–8:30 pm
- Thursday, May 21, 6:00–8:30 pm
- Thursday, July 16, 6:00–8:30 pm
2019–2020 Learning Community Event Materials
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.