Written By Dominique Miller 10 mins read
“Community development practitioners are tired. This is one of the most frequent things we heard in interviews. Poorly compensated, overworked, heavily regulated, doing emotionally exhausting work in building consensus, across multiple constituencies, over multiple bodies of work.” – Anti-Racist Community Development High-Level Findings
Over the past year, I’ve interviewed dozens of community development practitioners about how structural racism shows up in the field and what anti-racist practices look like. As I reflected on how often practitioners spoke of inadequate funding in communities of color and of the impactful work being done in these same communities, I began thinking about how there seems to be an expectation for these communities to do more with less. The Indigenous Association is no exception.
In July 2023, I had the privilege and pleasure of spending time with the Indigenous Association and their partners in Fargo, and during my time I was reminded that…
Places like this know their community best. The Indigenous Association is composed of individuals spanning dozens of tribal nations with expertise in many industries, including social work, criminal justice, public health and medicine, policy, arts and culture, organizing, and entrepreneurship. Rather than provide direct services that are beyond the expertise of the staff or duplicate the work of partners, they maximize the expertise of their network to connect the community with the resources they need to have the chance to live a healthy life and build strong communities. There is also a cultural and regional expertise allowing the organization to serve as a resource for those in the urban area of Fargo, as well as those on rural and tribal lands, often commuting between the two. They are making space and opportunity for Native American-led and -serving individuals and organizations to share information and resources with the community, reigniting the power the community already holds and enabling them to decide what programs are needed, for them to host their own programs, for them to have a place to restore and engage in cultural activities.
Places like this are often underestimated. The Community Opportunity Alliance defines community development as “a process through which community stakeholders come together to vision, plan, and implement a more prosperous future”; I’d say the Indigenous Association fits that bill. So much about anti-racist community development work is about creating a space for holistic, culturally relevant community-led efforts, even more than outputs like number of units built. Programming and events are directly informed by stakeholders and directly reflect community needs, including the Indigenous Business Association meetings, a Community Connection Circle, and a Nutrition and Breastfeeding Support Workshop for parents. The work done locally over the past 20 years is coming to fruition, and seeds planted are now blossoming into new opportunities and hope. In the Anti-Racist Community Development research, it was noted that housing development is overrepresented in the sector, which results in less attention and resources given to community-serving organizations who are not real estate developers. Not being directly engaged in real estate, small business development, or a provider of direct services may cause some not to view the Indigenous Association as a community development organization at all. I would strongly disagree with this assessment and believe it’s precisely organizations like this that should be resourced because their processes are most responsive to community needs and are central to advancing equitable, community-led practices.
Read full story: https://thepeoplespractice.org/issue03/