Greater Visions

Capacity building for leaders of color in greater Minnesota to uplift their voices and organizing as they create solutions in their communities

Greater Visions centers the leadership of People of Color and Indigenous leaders working across Minnesota and in their communities to advocate for racial justice. Our approach is building the capacity of organizers in Greater Minnesota through racial justice organizing training grounded in culture and healing. We are committed to lifting up the visibility  of leaders in Greater Minnesota who are the experts in policies and issues impacting their communities. Our Greater Visions leaders have joined us as guest trainers in our cohorts, and we’ve hosted place based training cohorts in Duluth and Worthington.

Our goals are:

to build racial justice, community organizing, and issue-area organizing capacity to advance community-defined and community-led priorities in rural areas 

to continue building a statewide network of racial justice leaders to begin developing a community of practice and support network

to change policies and practices that reinforce racial disparities in areas of concern to each community, including education, health, employment, and criminal justice

The cohort design has decision making with community leadership, cultural and healing strategy at the center and the  local community vision for change as the number one priority. As a team we re-envisioned what support could look like for rural organizers.  The cohort model is year-long with participants through shared learning, building a race justice lens and also defining that together. The culture and history of the folks we work with in each geography help inform how we talk about organizing. We don’t assume we know what’s needed or best in greater Minnesota, instead we build collaboratively and are transformed and shaped by the wisdom of those outside of the metro. We continue ongoing conversations during and after cohort ends to build more networks of support .  Key markers and values that guide us in this work are: being place-based; respecting the natural pace of the community; community shapes the process; shared decision making process; deep engagement; shared community evaluation. 

Watch the Greater Visions Worthington video above to learn more about the powerful vision shared by our cohort.

Do you want to be connected to Greater Visions? Email Monica Bryand at bryand@s546885879.onlinehome.us and get involved today.