Lakeland Currents, your public affairs program for north central Minnesota.

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Hello again friends.

I'm Jason Edens, your host of Lakeland Currents.

Thanks for joining the conversation today and thanks for your ongoing support of Lakeland Public TV.

We talk a lot about inclusivity but does everyone really have a voice or a seat at the table?

Oftentimes in community conversations and within decision making circles we see the proverbial usual suspects, those committed folks who have the ways and means to lean in and participate time after time but whose voices are we not hearing or even neglecting?

Well the Beltrami Area Resiliency Team is working to ensure that everyone's voice is heard through an initiative called 100 Cups of Coffee.

Here to help us understand this initiative, its intent and its findings are my four guests, Dr. Anna Carlson, Joe Boudreau, Mary Fairbanks and Wendy Thompson.

Thank you all so much for making time for the conversation today.

I really appreciate it.

[Thank you for having us, thank you, thank you] Jason: Absolutely.

Well first of all I'm curious, what's the origin 100 Cups of Coffee?

Was there an incident or an event that kind of catalyzed this initiative?

Wendy Thompson: I'm the director at Beltrami Area Service, Service Collaborative and we support the well-being of family and children and there is a statewide initiative going on called, A More Resilient Minnesota so as a part of that we had a community conversation and I know that Joe attended that and that was in July 2019 so if you want to say a little bit more about what we experienced there Joe.

Joe Beadreau: Well, we had I believe seventy-five to eighty people and there were different people from the community, stakeholders if you will in different organizations from the schools, from our from Sanford Health and so we all did some brain storming.

It was a day of some mini workshops.

They had pulled in a couple speakers that were doing similar work.

I remember a gentleman from south Minneapolis and so we continued.

It's been slow but we, we've from that, from that date we've, we've come a long ways actually and it seems like it's kind of hard to believe that two years has went by.

Wendy: The group really challenged us to find more people to be involved in the conversation too.

We looked around the room and as you said it was the usual suspects that we had around us and we we recognized as a group that we are really missing voices that need to be a part of the solution so that community conversation, they really challenged us and they said we need a group that is going to figure out how to bring those voices to the table so it was, it was an exciting challenge for us to get and that's how the resiliency team formed, was around that challenge.

Jason: You know I want to follow up on that because one of the questions I've been eager to ask you all is why is it that some voices are ignored or not a part of our community conversation?

Dr. Mary Fairbanks: One of the findings that we found in the 100 Cups of interview was what you talk about, what we call is looking for connection or a lack of connection within the community and so that I believe that speaks to what you're saying, is voices not being at the table and I know organizations try to reach out but I think there is mistrust amongst some of our community members in the, in the sincerity in that because sometimes you get to the table and your voice isn't always listened to and so I think there's some that mistrust is in the community and and we saw some of that in the through the interviews and, and it's hard to connect with people that don't have that trust and so they may pull away from the community and not want to be involved.

Jason: I want to ask you all about a quote that I read on your website.

It's at the very end of the presentation that you share and if I'm not mistaken it says, "We can't go back to sleep.

We need to forge ahead through transformation."

In what way are we asleep?

Dr. Anna Carlson: That is an excellent question.

I think there's many ways that we have become... whether it's asleep or numb or not aware of a lot of different issues that surround ourselves, our families, our communities every day and through this conversation, through these 100 Cups of Coffee.

I think what Mary was speaking to when we would hear the lack of of trust or the lack of connection at the heart of what this process did was to build relationships with people and really get to know them on a more personal level, not just kind of getting input but really in the process itself building those connections, not just the end of the process being okay, now we're going to figure out how to build those connections.

It was the all baked right into the process and so as we heard these stories and built these relationships you start to become more aware of other people's realities and other people's experiences and I think in that way we can't go back to sleep.

We're, we're where our ears are open, our eyes are open, our hearts are open to respond to what we're to what we're hearing and seeing from our community.

Jason: How did you decide who to interview and who were some of the folks that you interviewed who may not typically have an opportunity to chime in if you will?

Joe: Well, so I wasn't part of the interview process.

Actually I was interviewed by Wendy and so there were, there were times when she interviewed me, it a lot of those questions were really thought provoking about you know, what as as myself as being part of this community, what, where, where my place would be and what my wants and what I view as, as community and, and you know in going forward with this work?

With that in mind you know what can we do to make those, those things change to so that we don't go back to sleep and we don't have I call them you know the stale, the stale gatherings and in conversations and I've heard that so often that you know things come and go but there's a part of me that believes in this work, that you know it'll sustain and some of those questions that were asked were, were [please] kind of particular with that with honed in on on me as a community member but it would across the board it was you know very I guess I thought, thought-provoking.

Jason: I guess I'd like to know a little bit more about how you selected the groups that you did in order for them to participate in these conversations, so can you tell us anything more about who was selected to be interviewed?

Mary: I can tell you about my connections.

I came to the resiliency team through an invitation through Peacemaker Resources.

I'm on the board of directors there and Barb Houg, I believe she was a sponsor of the res.. they were a sponsor of the original conversation event and so she invited the board members to if they were interested in becoming part of the resiliency team and in my joining that team I bring some connections in the community that I participated in over the years.

I''m a public health nurse and I've been practicing in tribal communities and BSU with my students for, for a long time and so I have connections with different groups in the community focus you know in education and you know a lot of the service organizations and so I was I you know, and serving people in those organizations, their clients, their patients so that was kind of a natural connection for me to say, well I can connect you with people that are served by them or members of a, a group I'm part of such as I'm on the District Curriculum Committee.

I'm also a member of the local Indian Education Committee.

I'm a tribal member so it was really natural for me to have an ability to connect with Native Americans in the community and, and, and I think we recognize that those are voices that are not often at the table.

Jason: So if I sat down with one of your interviewers what type of questions would I hear?

Can you share some of the actual content of the Cups of Coffee conversation?

Wendy: We started off by asking people about what they thought the values were of our community and then we moved on to some thought-provoking questions as Joe said.

Things like if you could imagine a place in the community that would support wellness what would that place look like?

What would it be and those types of questions to get them thinking and imagining what is missing and what they would like and what strengths we have that we can build off of in the community, so I think there were thirteen questions that we went into and all of our interviewers were trained as to how to present to each of their interviewees to kind of make sure that they were comfortable and that they understood that their answers would be confidential.

They wouldn't be tied to a person's, a given person's name.

We kept track of all the people we interviewed but we didn't connect their name with their answers so that left them more open to really sharing their experience in the community.

[Well I, oh please] Anna: One of the questions that I really appreciated and I appreciate that that has continued to be asked in our presentations and continued outreach is what's something you know that you wish other people in your community knew and paid attention to and I think to me that question really gets at a lot of value including like we we know that you have a particular viewpoint.

You have particular experience, expertise that, that we really would love for you to share if with others that you might think don't know what's going on in your world so I really appreciated that question and continued to appreciate hearing people's responses to that question.

Jason: And what type of responses did you get to that question?

Anna: For that particular question there was an emphasis on the existence and experience of racism in our community, the mental health needs in our community, homelessness in our community, the need for understanding, to establish empathy and common ground were really some common things that were experiences and reflections of people interviewed that was shared throughout this, this process in the report.

Wendy: Yeah I think connection was a big piece of that... is you know how can we come together with empathy as Anna said and be together, understand one another's stories and how can we create welcoming environments that all people feel welcome?

Another piece that came through was the the need to learn about trauma and the impacts on the brain and the need to learn about what resiliency is and what well-being is in our community and that was another thing during our community conversation event that we had in 2019 that people said you know if we were all speaking a common language about what it is to experience trauma and how that creates a fight flight or freeze reaction from people that we would come together in a different way so this isn't just about projects that we create, it's also just about how we are with one another when we gather.

Jason: Well how do you all intend to use your findings and do you think that what you've learned from this process will in some way shape or form, be incorporated into decision making going forward or community conversations going forward?

How will this be used?

Joe: Some of the conversations we've had on our meetings is to make sure that the, the people that we talk about that are at the table would be leadership.

You know in our in our community here those are the people that hold public offices and spaces and to make sure that when we get together that we're, there, there's a mix of people of all walks of life.

You know, in like I said leadership and people that are and then even some of those people that you know that are that are homeless and so that everybody is at the table and heard now.

You can imagine a big huge table but you know it's a slow process you know when our work is really... the pandemic didn't shut us down, we kept going and then when things kind of eased up here over the winter we started some momentum and now we're at a place now where we have some really good things coming up even for the summer projects and different things, getting my employer, Sanford Health involved.

Jason: So the 100 Cups of Coffee, is it still ongoing?

Are you still interviewing community members?

Mary: We did complete 100 Cups of Coffee interviews in December and you mentioned the, the, the last sentence on our report so that is the report with all the findings from the 100 Cups of Coffee interviews and so we aren't doing any more interviews.

We're moving into exactly what you're asking, what are we going to be doing with this and so we're, we're talking about we want to share the results.

We told our interviewees that they would have, get a copy of the report and they and as Joe said we are inviting them to participate with us in ways that they feel comfortable to do that and so we're still figuring out, we're not, we're not figuring out.

We, I think we have some really good plans for sharing this on a community-wide basis, sharing it with the you know, decision makers within organizations so they can see these results and what would be helpful for them to be able to serve the community the best way they can and making sure they're reaching out to everyone that uses their services and understands you know where their, what their situations are and perhaps even adopting the Cups of Coffee modeled in accessing information from their, their constituents from their, their, their customers because it's, I think we, we've really learned a lot and it was very empowering I think for people to participate and so I can see this model being replicated again so we have ideas and we're right now we're in the process of raising awareness about the report and hopefully garner more interest, kind of have some ripple effects of how that might be useful to those in the community and certainly being there to support how they do that.

Anna: I'd like to share a kind of a unique way that, that I became involved with this and how I see this team really as this dynamic, evolving process and team that, that's really exciting to be a part of is because a couple of colleagues and I at Bemidji State University are working on a resilience plan but it was kind of coming from a very different frame.

We, our, our President, Faith Hensrud, two years ago had signed a climate commitment that included not only reducing our carbon footprint but looking at our actions within the community to build resist, resilience and so we started asking ourselves and our, our community members around us what does this mean?

What does resilience mean for our community and was introduced to this Beltrami Area Resiliency Team and I think that the synergies that we've had in our conversations about how much our community needs and respects the environment and, and environmental issues as well as each other needing to understand how our relationships to the land, to the water and to one another are really central in this concept of resilience and so we've kind of been learning and evolving as we go with the various work being done in these spaces.

I think that's a really exciting thing to see happen and evolve through these partnerships and various conversations.

Mary: I should mention that one of the key findings you know, Wendy brought up, what people found valuable or what was, what did they appreciate about the community and one of the top items that came out was the connection to land and water that people feel about living in, in Bemidji and Beltrami so it's really cool having Dr. Carlson's project and her team come in and talk to us about how the environment is also looking at the environmental effort is looking at resilience in our community so it's really a nice connection.

Jason: Mary, I want to follow up with something you said a moment ago about how some of your interviewees felt a sense of empowerment by being invited to be a part of this conversation.

I'd like to know more about that and I'd also like to know if there were any unexpected challenges in terms of reaching out and starting these conversations?

Mary: You know, I think that just being asked to participate and understanding that their input was valuable and to be able to do it in a one-on-one type of situation in an interview with someone who was trained to do it, I think and having that opportunity and then once again having these kinds of questions about what they think is important and what they think the community needs and then getting this beautiful report at the end that shows that their words are there.

I think you know, we didn't ask them if they were happy or satisfied with how it went but I would think that it would be very empowering to to be recognized that your voice is being listened to.

Wendy: I even had a couple people who I was going to interview that said, I'm not sure if I have anything to share and they were a little unsure of themselves and then as we talked I mean the, the colorful answers that they had in the input and the insight that I haven't heard before came out and it was just very striking that they would have thought they didn't have something to share.

Jason: Interesting.

What was the most memorable thing that you heard during your interviews?

Wendy: I think one of the things was just the the big heart that people have for one another.

We're talking about tension, we're talking about you know coming out of a pandemic and there are a lot of things that people have conflict about but just in talking to people how much we have in common and how much people want community and want connection and some of the answers were really selfless.

Like one of our questions was what could the community do right now that would help you and your family and they were hesitant to answer that one but they really jumped in when we asked what could the community do to help your friends and family?

I think sometimes you know, there was an appreciation for I have enough but I'm worried about these people in my life and that was kind of a... it was just really a beautiful statement on their part to have that generosity.

Jason: Indeed.

Well a follow-up question for you Wendy, the Beltrami Area Service Collaborative is related to the resiliency team, correct?

[Right, yup] The team is part of the collaborative.

Is the part of the county?

Who's behind this effort?

Wendy: Actually we are separate from the county.

We have a board that's made up of different partners in the community who are concerned about family wellness and children's mental health, educational success so we have the United Way and all of the schools and mental health agencies in the county are part of that joint powers entity which is BASC, Beltrami Area Service Collaborative.

There are ninety collaboratives throughout the state and as I mentioned before there is a movement toward a more resilient Minnesota but the resiliency team in Beltrami County I gotta say, they're creating a lot of buzz in the state because they're moving so quickly with this idea and I'm getting a lot of phone calls about how can we replicate this in other parts of the state, to do the 100 Cups and so I'm just really proud of their work.

We facilitate and, and they get out there and create the excitement and create the connection with people so yeah it's very exciting.

Jason: Thank you for the segue because I was going to ask you if you're going to try and replicate this work elsewhere in the state?

Tell me more about what you're hearing from communities and how did those communities learn about your work?

So I believe they learn through it through our collaborative meetings.

We get together with, the Department of Human Services facilitates the work of all those different collaboratives so they've kind of highlighted our work and then the Minnesota Department of Health got wind of it as well so that's how the the, the word has gotten out about 100 Cups.

There are two other communities that have used it but those two communities didn't do it in the same way.

They, they interviewed leaders of the community and, and we added the extra challenge of trying to find people who hadn't been at the table.

So... Jason: Was the 100, oh, I'm sorry please, after you Wendy.

Wendy: Yeah and so we, some of those collaboratives are we use your materials to set this up and we set up a whole procedure that we're sharing with them so if they would like to, to move forward they can do that and just spare them the work of reinventing the wheel.

Jason: So did you all generate this notion of 100 Cups of Coffee or was it a particular theory of change or an existing model?

Wendy: So an epidemiologist who worked for Minnesota Department of Health came up with the idea about three years ago and she used it for a substance abuse community scan to find out what people were thinking about what needed to happen in order to reduce substance use in that particular community and so the questions and the process were different but we worked with her to kind of develop this for our area and yeah, changed it up and kind of tailored it, working as a group I think it took us three or four months, maybe longer because we really wanted to do it right.

We changed that up and and made the questions relevant to our area and our mission with the resiliency team.

Jason: Well we only have time for about two more questions here one of which I'd like to hear from each each of you actually.

If more communities were to facilitate these inclusive conversations and ensure that everyone's voice is heard how would society be different in the future?

What's your vision for how this can change, affect change in our communities starting with Dr. Carlson?

Anna: I think we'd have to slow down and listen and have a lot of compassion.

I think that often times in our society decisions are made really quickly and often out of sight or out of mind from a large population in the community and I think that it takes intention and it takes slowing down and it takes listening and it takes leading with inquiry and curiosity and compassion so those are the way, those are the ways I see it changing and I think that there's a lot of good that comes out of that.

A lot of powerful transformation that comes out of of doing all of those things.

[Joe] Joe: So I had been thinking that you know, in this last year of course we've all been using the theme we're in this together and so truly you know worldwide we were in this together.

Unless you wanted to move to the moon or mars we were here so I learned a lot through that just from my own self.

You know, in, in being in the community of Bemidji and what that would look like and my vision for that was you know, the a blueprint you know, we're about fifteen, sixteen thousand strong but that's not really big but it's you know, even still small enough where we can make those connections and so that those people that really have this, this passion you know to, to look at us and and look at our community and who we are that you know, we are in this together.

Now that the pandemic is we're hoping is winding down but we still are in this together and we should never forget that.

Even with the things that went on last summer and in the fall that, that were pretty much focused on trying to be divisive in different ways and what happened in Minneapolis and things we still are, we still are here and we're still together and if, if I think we adopt that with the pandemic showed us that yes we are in this together and we can sustain that.

Jason: Well said.

Well unfortunately we're nearly out of time and I just have one final, quick question about something I learned on your website, the chickadee.

Tell me how the chickadee has inspired this effort?

Wendy: So we chose that for our logo because we learned that the chickadee is a very resilient breed and I wish we had our person on who is the expert of on the chickadee so but, but we found that, that chickadees help others too.

I think that was the other piece of that as well.

Does anybody else remember more about the, about the story?

Joe: They nurtured, they're a nurturing bird and they never go away.

They stick around even in the cold.

Jason: And if I remember correctly they nurture other species as well and we'll be sure to direct people to your website but I just want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for sharing your perspectives and for the work that you've done with the resiliency team.

[thank you, of course, thank you] Thank you for joining me today.

I really appreciate it.

Anna: Thank you for your attention to our, to our work really good to have this out there.

Thank you and I want to thank all of you for joining me once again.

I'm Jason Edens, your host of Lakeland Currents.

Be kind.

Be well.

We'll see you next week.