- Welcome to Mutually Inclusive.

I'm your host, Kylie Ambu.

Last month, leaders representing Battle Creek's Black, Burmese and Latin X communities announced an initiative called The Village, aimed at creating unity and sustainable prosperity in groups of color around the area.

On this episode, we'll take a look at this comprehensive plan.

The people it serves, and the systemic change that's underway.

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Kellogg Foundation, a partner with communities where children come first.

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Leaders behind this initiative say The Village could show us but achieving equity and prosperity for all members of the black indigenous people of color community would look like.

Here to talk more about this long-term plan, are members of The Village's management team.

Damon Brown, founder of Rise Up Corporation and Kyra Wallace, President and CEO of the Southwestern Michigan Urban League.

Along with Dr.Nakia Baylis.

Senior Director of Data and Equitable Systems, the United Way of Battle Creek and Kalamazoo.

Thank you guys so much for joining with me today.

How are y'all doing?

(Guests respond) - Thank you.

- Yes, absolutely.

It's our pleasure.

And I would really like to know, because I know that you all are leaders of the Battle Creek community in all sorts of different facets.

How did you get involved in this Village Initiative?

Damon, we'll start with you.

- Yes.

So, we were invited by Nakia.

This was a couple years ago now.

I believe it was.

Yeah, but you know, (indistinct) has come from the great work that we have been doing in the community, especially dealing with youth families who's been through trauma, have high ACEs, you know, community violence and things of that nature.

- Gotcha.

And Kyra?

- Yeah, like similar to Damon.

We received an invite from Nakia.

to join in in the conversation.

Went to that conversation.

And that was the start of it being, like you stated, a part of an organization that services primarily African-Americans.

It was like a good fit based on what the initial intent of the group was slated to be.

- Wonderful - And, Nakia.

You seem to be kind of the ringleader that brought every group in and together.

Do you wanna talk with me a bit about your role?

- Sure.

I play a role more of as kind of a strategic coordinator.

(Nakia laughs) That's work.

Really bringing the talent, the acumen of these great leaders together to do some great work in community together.

And that's really what this is about.

Is a movement building of collective liberation and systems building.

- Wonderful.

And I know we've talked a bit about the concept of, you know, what The Village is.

We want equity for all walks that are coming into this area.

Will you tell me a bit about from start to finish just a snapshot about what this plan really entails?

- Sure!

Well, this actually grew out of the catalyzing community giving grant work initially, which was designed to really provide capacity supports for bypath leaders to utilize philanthropy as a vehicle for becoming their own agents of change.

And so in that, as we started to explore the philanthropic landscape within our communities of color and invited them to come just talk to us about it, right?

And that's kind of what Kyra was talking about is we started off simply with listening sessions, where we just wanted to hear from our leaders.

What were they experiencing?

What were the challenges and barriers that they were facing and being able to respond to the communities, the residents that they have their hand on the pulse of in our community.

And, you know, they lifted up some really important things that I think it was really time for the philanthropic sector to hear.

And so from that, providing some different resources as they lifted up areas of interest, one of them being collective work, you know?

How do we make a collective impact?

And so, we brought in a consultant to do some workshops with the group.

And from that, we started essentially scanning the assets within the group to see what we could build from.

And Pastor McCoy of New Level Sports Ministries, we've done some work years ago that was invested in called The Youth Village.

And lifted that up as an opportunity for us to build out together.

And we talked, you know, as a group about it, thought it was a pretty good idea.

Let's build out where investments have already been made.

Right?

And it gave us a strong foundation.

And so from there, just a year ago, The Village Re-emergence Plan began to develop.

And so from that, what we really interested in doing is turning community voice into action.

We really wanted to get into the trenches and have deep and difficult conversations with our community members and hear what they saw as immediate needs right now.

And then, also to what they aspire for the future and for future generations.

And so, what we've been doing is taking information from community conversations and lifting their words into actions and creating this reemergence plan where our communities of color re-emerged together united and on a path of really generational wealth building that impacts the entire city and really impacts the GDP of our local economy at the end of the day.

- Wonderful.

And I know that part of this plan, you have to look, like you said, you had to do listening sessions and see, you know, what areas do we want to grow.

It sounds like that has created these pillars in this program.

This question can be for anyone, but can you explain to me some of those pillars and the thought process behind them?

- Quickly, (indistinct) chime in thinking like one of the pillars being education.

And I would always start with that because I am of the thought that education is the foundation to a lot of the issues and concerns that happen with people, because if you're properly educated, then that gives you the opportunity to take that information, to do something with.

You know, to change the trajectory of your life, to change some of the situations that you're in understanding and knowing, and being educated about what's available, who's there to help.

What could happen is in my opinion, key.

So, education for me is broader than just sitting in a classroom, learning something from a particular teacher.

Education is more so learning in every facet of life.

So, that pillar of education to me is huge.

And it is like intersectionality of all of the other pillars.

Education is, you know, ingrained in that.

So, I just really wanted to lift up and start with education.

That's just extremely important.

- I'll dive in.

(indistinct) is another pillar of food.

You know, we know food is definitely a very important piece to all of our lives.

I'm talking about basic needs.

You know, a person can't even concentrate on other things and, you know, if they're hungry and their basic needs are not met, we can take that to the Maslow's hierarchy.

And so, one thing that we've seen over the last year, even with the pandemic, you know, we've been all doing a food distribution over last year and collectively we've distributed over a half a million pounds of food to our community, especially our BIPAC community, Washington Heights and post Franklin here in Battle Creek.

From my last understanding, are both like 26 to 27% below the federal poverty level core (indistinct) And so, just being very intentional about getting healthy food to our community as well.

Thinking about being able to grow our own food and sustain our own self, knowing what goes to our food and things of that nature.

And so, just to touch on that for a second, food is another very important pillar.

- Absolutely.

Thank you for that name and Kyra.

And, kind of coupled with food is industry.

Under that pillar, kind of to reiterate what both Kyra and Damon had been saying is we look at our pillars as being a way to holistically support our community.

And, we see a continuum with the entire household, with youth on a continuum of academic and education readiness.

And our adult health, adult populations moving towards the end of the continuum of economic readiness and onboarding into economic participation in our local economy.

And so, we also have personal growth and advocacy where we really, that's where we take a look at how do we support kind of those soft social skills that support the opportunity to grow in line in community.

To prosper in community and to engage and be connected in community.

And then, also too we have the health and wellness, which we kind of put under the sports pillar because we also understand that we wanna capture our youth attention, right?

When it comes to taking care of them being mindful of not just their physical health, but their mental health as well.

And so, you know, we look at all of our pillars as opportunities to holistically wrap around our community members to provide unique services and opportunities for them to be connected to resource.

Because at the end of the day, one thing that we are moving on is that we acknowledge that systemically our communities of color have been kind of left out purposely and oppressed purposely.

And so, this work really is about creating systems that work specifically for our predominant communities of color in Battle Creek.

And really building that out, so that there's touch points throughout the entire community and connection to existing systems.

- And when you say creating systems, what's really interesting in this program, it's creating systems for and by the BIPAC community, it's all really, I guess, integrated in that community element and starting from the inside, working their way out.

Damon, I know you had said, you know, Rise Up has been out in the community, doing food drives, doing outreach.

How do you think an initiative like this can help to expand that level of outreach hitting the community members?

- Yes.

The collectiveness of it.

I think it's just great.

I mean, we've seen that throughout the pandemic, you know, how are we being able to come together.

And our reach has been able to just be so widespread and, you know, sharing resources, sharing information.

It's just been great.

Cause again, we've been able to grow all together.

And again, be able to share resources.

And quite frankly, we're all in this together, you know?

We're all going through the same things, you know?

This is all of our problems.

But so, to be all addressing it together is great.

- Absolutely.

And I know, Kyra.

You were saying earlier, you know, a heavy part of the population that you serve as the African-American population and being part of this program, has it taught you anything or have you been able to teach other communities anything about the differences and barriers?

Cause obviously so many are systemic and so many may affect in similar ways, but they all may be unique to different racial groups.

- Yes.

See, that's the beauty of being able to work like them.

We're saying collectively, because we have our colleagues from the Burmese community, from the Latin X community that we're working with.

And as we continue to gain closer relationships, we are understanding better the plights of each of these collective or each of these ethnicities, right?

And yes, there are some differences and we recognize that there are a lot of similarities.

And so, when we talk about the changes necessary, when you get down to the root of it, the changes necessary are systemic because it's not just our group or just African-Americans, it's the BIPAC community.

So, being able to work together and understand the differences, but also acknowledge the similarities, allow for the work to be more authentic, more genuine, and to actually happen and be more impactful for those communities that we're serving.

- Absolutely.

And I know I might be putting you on the spot right now, you guys, but I know that you're in meetings right now with different community members.

Have there been any standout moments where you've said, wow, this is really working and I can feel the collaboration coming together.

- Absolutely, absolutely.

We've just wrapped up our education-focused first round of knee conversations with second rounds actually underway, some actually moving into their third round or planning for their third round.

And so, the things that we've been hearing and able to take to decision-making tables, we're seeing immediate response (indistinct) And so, you know, what is to come for our community in response to their voice in the form of action, is really exciting, really exciting.

And so, you know, I think too, we'll learn through some of the programs that we have running this summer.

The education supports programs that each of our organizations are running through the summer.

And what we learned from that will further help us determine next steps for how you can support into the school year during out of school time as well.

- And I love to hear you talking about programs, cause I wanna talk about the triumphs that, you know, we're working towards.

Obviously we've discussed and we've addressed some of the barriers.

What are we looking for moving forward?

Anything that you're excited to bring?

- Absolutely!

Well, at the end of the day, what we wanna do is improve conditions.

We wanna improve access and by improving that, we have to improve knowledge.

We have to give knowledge.

We have to share learning.

And through that, I think what we're most excited to see happen is to see our K-3 youth go into the school year better prepared, and be able to achieve a successful academic outcomes.

We're looking at from an economic development community, economic development purview, how can we impact change in the workforce, right?

We're looking at really, How do we incentivize onboarding into working opportunities, right?

And then how do we even communicate with our corporate partners around wages?

What is a thrivable wage?

Not a survivable wage, but a thrivable wage.

How do we ensure that there's benefits happening in spaces so that families have proper health coverage and dental and all of the things, right?

So, we're working on some things in that area as well.

So, hopefully as we move through it, are able to report back from some of the preliminary programs that we have running right now for education with K-3 and our youth, and then going into the school year with out of school supports.

And then even with collaboration, with our workforce development partners, around community economic development opportunities to compliment one another's work because that's another thing.

Is we are not trying to duplicate work that is already happening in our community.

To us, it's really important that we connect to what's happening, so that we can add to versus duplicate that we can compliment the work that is happening and then really fill the gaps that are unique to our five hot communities.

- And when you talk about, you know, making connections and making sustainable connections that will feed into the children who will then have children, and continue on in this mission, did it seem like, I guess, a natural relationship to come together with all of the different BIPAC communities?

So often we hear about obviously pride within someone's own community.

But, this is a really unique initiative where it brings together all different minority communities in the area.

- Absolutely.

But there's always the challenges, right?

We don't hide from that either.

But, whenever you're bringing people together that are passionate about the work that they're doing, and they've already been on their own paths or as organizational leaders and in their geographic locations.

And so, you know, we've had to bring in supports to help us work through that as a group and connect as a group.

And we'll continue to do that.

We acknowledge that when you, again, when you are working with a group of people that are passionate about, you know, very specific areas that they're serving in, then, you know, there's gonna be times where we don't always agree, right?

And we've had to make some shifts and pivots within the group in terms of how we operate, just so that we can make sure that we're always centering communities at the end of the day, that we're always centering the residents, that we are able to come to some sort of agreement together in a way that works for everybody.

And so, you know, I will not hesitate to be honest and say, Listen, it is difficult, but it is so rewarding too.

And, I think that's one thing that we all would agree on is that we recognize the opportunity in coming together and working together and uniting in doing something really profound for all of our communities.

And we also recognize and acknowledge that again, our liberation is tied to the other.

So, you know, in order to really have some sustainable change, we have to liberate collectively.

- I really want to chime in from that.

So, as Nakia was saying, there's absolutely challenges when you're bringing in a group of people that's been on the ground working and have a great passion.

But, one of the learnings that for me has been so powerful is understanding that it's okay to have self-interest, right?

What happens is how you allow that self-interest to show up when you're working with a group, you know?

You don't want it to be a matter of toxicity, right?

When you're working with others, you want to put it out there.

And so, that everyone is aware and, you know, everyone else's.

And then, you come to that common ground of what it would look like working together to ensure everyone is getting what they need based on what's available, right?

And so, there in lies equity, which is what we're about anyway.

It's not equality, everybody getting the same, it's everyone getting what they need.

- Damon, you looked like you were ready to say something.

- Yes.

- Do you want to chime in on that?

- Yeah.

Yeah, I mean.

They, you know, just said so much, and you know, here's so many great points.

I just wanna add that, you know, I love the passion that our group has.

And, you know, despite the challenges, again, we know everything that at his birth, you know, his wanting to move to go through birth pains, no local do Roman pains.

And so, you know, we welcome those things.

And I think that we accept those things with grace and we respect each other in those differences.

And again, we move in our passion and our love for what we do.

And, even understanding historically that all of our respective groups who have been oppressed at some point and still is going through oppression that we are collectively.

And so, again, coming out of that oppression and changing some of these systems is going to take a collective effort.

- Absolutely.

And in hearing you guys talk right now, I mean, it's clear that you have some concrete plans of things like programs that you would like to push forth.

It's really interesting to hear you all talk about the relationships that are growing, because those are things that can also be passed down generations.

Are you excited to see some interracial friendships forming with students that might carry over?

- Yes, absolutely.

I mean, even within, I'm referring to the Southwestern Michigan Urban League with this summer, we are in half partnered with the Burma center and (indistinct) on a summer program and partnership with GVSU as well on a London designer thinking program with high school youth.

And so, we have youth from all three ethnicities that's involved and have been working collectively for the past six or so weeks through this particular program with a couple of adult leads from both or from the African-American community, as well as from the Burmese community.

And it has been phenomenal to see them work together and come together for a common purpose for a common cause and reason.

- Wonderful.

It's great to see collaboration across the board.

We are running a bit low on time.

So, Nakia.

I'm gonna throw it out to you.

I know that the W.K.

Kellogg Foundation along with United Way has been also a big part of this project.

Do you wanna talk with me about how they're involved and just, you know, last thoughts of what to expect?

- Sure!

Well, we are definitely strong supporters of this work and will continue to be for the long haul.

We're committed to really supporting and serving our communities more deeply.

And I think that's what's important as community funders and partners in this space, and really passionate about the outcomes in the conditions of our households, our families, our children in Battle Creek.

It's really important to us that we continue to step up and make sure that the work is well resourced, to make sure that the work has the technological and capacity expertise necessary to continue to support these great leaders in the work that they're doing in the community.

To continue to respond rapidly and effectively to our residents' voices.

What they need now and what they want in the future, and really building a legacy for our BIPAC communities, again of generational asset and wealth building.

And so, you know, with that, what we would just continue to ask is that for our community to keep in mind that this is a movement building body of work, and it is being developed in real time.

Because it is so important to us that we listen to community, that we seriously respond to what we're hearing.

And so, that takes time for our research team to transcribe those conversations theme that bring that back, take that back to community.

Confirm with community what we heard them say, take that back now into the actual activity action work of the plan and programs and services.

And then after a little bit of time, then it kind of fizzles out.

This is something that can not fizzle out.

- Well, thank you all so much for your insight and your time today.

We so appreciate it.

And thank you for watching.

For more information about The Village and its people head online to wgvu.org/mutually-inclusive.

That's all the time we have.

We'll see you soon.

- [Male Announcer] Support for Mutually Inclusive comes from the W.K.

Kellogg Foundation, a partner with communities where children come first.

(relaxing piano music plays)