A Snowy Practicum in Winona
It was truly special to welcome the Civic Bridgers Fellows to the beautiful Winona. Not only is it the community I serve, but the place I call home. Especially with the purpose of a practicum and a nice local lunch.
My host site, Engage Winona, works to strengthen the community through conversations, support, and training. My mind went right to conversations when thinking of how I wanted to frame my practicum. Dialogue is incredibly powerful in community work, and seeing as all the fellows are tapped into a unique network of knowledge, I focused on promoting conversations that would draw on learnings we’ve gathered at our host sites. With this, I knew I wanted to unravel and discuss power networks in communities; Engage Winona and Civic Bridgers have increased my understanding of these networks tremendously. Big task, but I landed on looking at how our organizations leverage trust with the local community to invite others into an allied power source. Of course with a fun asset-mapping activity after.
So, how did the day go? Very well! Kinda. The morning started pretty snowy up in the Twin Cities, and with a 2 and half hour commute to Winona, travel was taking longer than expected. Luckily, the first group of Fellows arrived pretty close to on time. With their input, a few phone calls to the other fellows still driving in, and some deep breaths, a new game plan formed pretty quickly. With the help of those there, we trudged through the snow during a quick walk to Cafe Sapori and brought back lunch for everyone to enjoy as I guided the fellows through my practicum. Looking back, I could not have planned a better way to start their visit to Winona. It exemplified why the fellows are such resources to each other, not only as community-minded people but also as professional support as we navigate a lot of this work for the first time.
It was during the first part of this dialogue that many intriguing thoughts came up that I still catch myself reflecting on. We began with a discussion on power, what it means to us, and how powerful we feel in the community. The question was intentionally open-ended, allowing Fellows to take charge with the way the conversation panned out. The Fellows articulated their thoughts fabulously and worked through the question with curiosity.
During our retreat at the beginning of the Fellowship, we learned about the community kitchen model of democracy, which promotes civic responsibility by focusing on what the community can do to support itself rather than what the government should do. I shared with the fellows how Engage Winona has showcased this model in action, through supporting community members with lived experience to become more engaged with Winona and therefore bringing more people into the community kitchen. It was really rewarding to hear that other Fellows have a lot of the same observations with their organizations. However, I think it was even more rewarding to discuss what our organizations would look like without trust, or what happens when there is a loss of trust within our communities. We were able to lean on each other a bit and use the knowledge from our growing professional experiences to analyze how organizational trust lends itself to actionable change.
My favorite part of the day came right at the end. Engage Winona’s office is inside the Winona County Historical Society, so I got to show off the museum to the Fellows and immerse them in the history of Winona. The actual activity was drawing on asset-based thinking when entering a community, but more importantly, it was a fun way to learn about a more rural town. I loved seeing the Fellows climb up in the steamboat, read about historical figures whose names litter the town, admire the stained glass, and feel the ripple of living on the Mississippi river. It’s refreshing to see the town through a newcomer's eye, so I hope I can keep this perspective in mind when continuing my work in the community. I'm thankful to have had the opportunity to share my learnings and my beautiful city with such an incredible group.
