Equity

Herocrats Spotlight: Becky Gross is taking on the housing crisis and supporting older adults with creative community-centered solutions

Becky Gross is the LA Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) Accelerator Program Director at the City of Los Angeles. We spoke to her about LA’s new program that connects low-income older adults who are at risk of being displaced from their neighborhood with homeowners who have ADUs, or backyard homes. She shared how courage and creativity is helping her address the City’s housing crisis and homelessness.

“I am on the Innovation Team in the Mayor’s Office and I run the LA ADU Accelerator Program. The purpose of this program is to provide affordable housing for low-income older adults by partnering with homeowners who have ADUs.

We were awarded a Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayors Challenge grant in 2018 to address a pressing issue in our city. At that time, we knew we wanted to do something around homelessness and the housing crisis in LA, but the concept was a little bit nebulous.

When we were designing this program, we saw an increasing trend of homeowners building ADUs in our City. ADUs comprised 22% of all the new housing production, which was staggering. Since this housing typology can be added to a lot with a single-family home, they can increase the housing density without drastically changing the character of the neighborhood. At the same time, data showed that gentrification and rising rents were displacing low-income older adults who were living on a fixed income, resulting in an increasing number falling into homelessness for the first time.

Tenant and homeowner at lease signing

We analyzed these trends and saw an opportunity to create a program that assists older adults who were at risk of becoming homeless. We engaged residents and subject-matter experts to identify older Angelenos' unique challenges, and used these insights to design a program that is holistic and responsive to their needs, while also incentivizing homeowners to partner in this effort. Participating tenants pay 30% of their income in rent, ensuring they do not have to sacrifice other essential items — such as food or medicine — to afford housing. ADUs are an ideal housing type for older adults, as they offer private but non-isolating living spaces and are often near public transit. The goal of this pilot program is to provide immediate interim housing for older adults while they wait for permanent housing placements. By providing housing in ADUs and supportive wraparound services, the program prevents older adults from falling into homelessness. 

As is the nature of a pilot program, the ADU program was new for the city. Departments were hesitant to take it on at first because innovation can be risky, and it was counter to their ‘business as usual’ approach. It took time to get buy-in internally to test this concept. But this program was something that I deeply believed in. Hearing from older adults who had to make the choice between paying rent that month or purchasing their prescription and groceries was heartbreaking. It made me feel like our system was broken. I was committed getting creative and pushing boundaries to figure out a housing solution that would serve this community.

When we first were developing this program, I heard ‘no’ frequently. But it just reignited my fire even more. A ‘no’ is just a redirection. It’s not the end of the story. After each ‘no’ I heard, I continued to tweak the program until our partners were supportive of the concept. It made our idea even stronger and more effective than we could have imagined.

Carrying in groceries!

One of the things that inspires me the most about this program is the connection that our homeowners and tenants have made with each other. We started moving our first tenants into their new homes at the height of the pandemic, and we were concerned how people would feel about their health and safety. Luckily, homeowners were welcoming to their new tenants. I've heard from some homeowners and tenants that they consider each other as family. Homeowners have their tenant over for dinner, they have Thanksgiving meals together, and help with small chores like carrying groceries. They’re building a real bond. Those stories inspire me to continue this work and gives me hope that our community is wanting and willing to be part of the solution.

So far, we have placed 32 seniors with homeowners and we’re making the pilot program permanent so we can help more older adults. The program has transitioned over to the City’s Housing Department so it can persist there. We're working on ways to scale it and share out our lessons learned so we can support other jurisdictions who are interested in creating similar programs. I’m excited about this because ADUs are a growing trend, not only here in California but also across the country. I believe that if used effectively, ADUs can be part of the solution to the housing crisis in a myriad of ways.”

Herocrats Spotlight: Faith Jackson is Fearlessly Strategic about Racial Equity

When Faith Jackson began working for the City of Bloomington in Minnesota three years ago, she was thrilled to break new ground as the City’s first racial equity coordinator. Faith previously worked in racial equity and inclusion for the Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, but her dedication to social justice started long before then:

 “I am a very proud daughter of Mississippi, and I grew up learning at the feet of elders. I always say that. My parents advocated for themselves and others while I was in the womb, so I feel like I was born into it.”

Faith grew up in a racially hostile environment in Mississippi. When she was young, her family moved into a white neighborhood for her father to meet the residency requirement for a county job. They were the only Black family in their neighborhood, and she and her brother were the only Black students at their elementary school. There, Faith’s family experienced racism and discrimination:

 “No one wanted us to stay. We had the Klan members burn crosses in our yard. We would make copies of all our homework assignments so that we could track at the end of the year what our grades should actually be. And all we needed to do was cross over the train tracks, and I would have had an entirely different experience.”

Photo of two people working together

Faith interning at the City of Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights. Pictured with Velma Korbel, the former Civil Rights Director.

 Being required to navigate racism at a young age shaped Faith’s perspective of her world. Growing up, she knew she wanted to help improve other people’s lives. This motivated her to work in government. Faith attended Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi, “the cradle of the civil rights movement.” After receiving her bachelor’s degree, she moved to Minnesota to attend Hamline University School of Law.

 Throughout law school, she interned at the City of Minneapolis Civil Rights Department and discovered a passion for policy work. After graduating, Faith was offered a full-time job in the Civil Rights Department. Within a week, she went from an intern to the newest member of their leadership team.

Photo of Faith at an awards ceremony

Faith accepting an award from Minnesota Lawyer

 Faith worked for the City of Minneapolis for several years before taking her experience to St. Paul and, ultimately, Bloomington. In the fall of 2019, she was hired to build the blueprint for embedding equity and inclusion throughout the organization’s fabric. 

 Very quickly, Faith faced unprecedented challenges that required courage. After George Floyd’s murder in neighboring Minneapolis, Faith was put in a position where she had to be a mediator between the City of Bloomington and the community. Growing up as an activist, she felt conflicted being on the other side of the table, and she thought a lot about the City’s strategies to progress racial equity and what they wanted to accomplish.

 “I made it through those moments by remembering why I chose to work in government in the first place. I reminded myself of the need and ability to influence change from within the system. I promised them that I would use my position in local government to hold the City accountable to its commitment to racial equity. I asked them to hold me accountable to that promise.”

 It takes courage to disrupt systems, and Faith is leading racial equity work in government fearlessly. It can be scary to make big decisions in unprecedented times without best practices or a blueprint to rely on; to help, she leans on her professional and academic achievements, as well as her personal experiences of growing up as a Black woman and a descendant of the civil rights movement. Faith’s bravery, connection to the community, and strong sense of self help her know the right thing to do in each new situation.

Faith writing on a wall

Faith participating in an event with the City of Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights

2021: A Year in Review for Bellwether Consulting

Happy holidays from Bellwether Consulting! We have so much gratitude for our community of changemakers, and the work we have been part of in 2021.

Our Team

Our Work

  • We partnered with the Humphrey School of Public Affairs to build leadership skills among 36 senior leaders across the State of Minnesota through a 10-week program.

  • We worked with regional partners to build and operate a Federal Funding Hub, and helped to secure a Build Back Better Regional Planning Grant.  

  • We did two cohort-based workforce projects with the Department of Labor and Industry:

    • An intensive DEI workshop that brought together changemakers from 27 companies to discuss strategies, share experiences, and produce action plans, and

    • A comprehensive Train-the-Trainer workshop aimed at building up equitable training infrastructure and best practices at 22 healthcare and manufacturing companies.

  • We supported an assessment of the Minnesota Department of Human Services’ Integrated Service Delivery. 

  • We conducted focus groups and interviews with people experiencing homelessness, people with a history of incarceration, refugees, and other Ramsey County residents to understand and document their barriers to wellness.

  • We featured 9 Herocrats from 7 states who are leading with courage, creativity and connection in their communities.

What’s Next?

Our team is energized for the work that we will be a part of in the new year, and we plan to lean on our “simple rules” in order to see bigger, work deeply, and build more just and equitable communities together in 2022 and beyond.

Herocrats in Action: Alex Jackson Nelson

Imagine you’re in a meeting at work. It’s the weekly one with all the managers and supervisors. This meeting is a prime influencer and the play that your organization puts on to perform its culture. To an outsider it might seem like a boring government drama, with some tired comedy mixed in. But this meeting serves real purposes: it communicates the organization’s values, delineates the hierarchy, rewards those who have behaved according to the norms and ignores or possibly punishes those who haven’t.

You know what your task is in this meeting, and you’re nervous. Last time you had the same item on the agenda and it didn’t go so well. You had suggested a change to the way the organization does business, but it didn’t take hold. You got a few head nods but no culture change. After talking with your boss, you decided to go for it again this week.

As you sit in your seat, waiting for your item, you feel like you don’t quite belong. You’ve gotten the message that as a new employee, your voice doesn’t matter as much. You don’t look like the other people around the table. Or perhaps you look like them on the outside, but you feel a chasm between yourself and them in terms of your values.

After failing to move the group to action last time, how are you going to approach your item this week? How can you make them see how important it is to make your proposed change? What tactics can you use to persuade them?

~ ~ ~

Maybe you’ve never been in this exact situation, but we’ve all had similar experiences. If you’ve worked in government, you’re familiar with performative, formal meetings. Most of us have been at organizations in which we feel we don’t fit the mold of the typical employee. And if you’re a Herocrat, you’ve been in lots of situations in which you’re advocating for a change that others don’t see the need for. Yet.

Alex Jackson Nelson is someone with a lot of experience with all these things. In fact, the above story is his own, and later on I will tell you about what he decided to do, and what transpired afterwards.

But first there are some things you need to know about Alex. He’s a trainer, supervisor, licensed therapist, American Sign Language interpreter, and longtime equity advocate. He’s most definitely a Herocrat.

When I met him for coffee at 7am a few weeks ago, his passion was powerful, his analysis was shrewd, and his stories were funny. He claims he’s not a morning person, so I can only imagine what he’s like when he’s at the top of his game.

His track record gives us some clues. In just three years at Minnesota’s Department of Human Services (DHS), he’s led nothing short of a cultural revolution in his corner of the sprawling agency of 7,500 workers. Alex is a training supervisor in the Child Safety and Permanency Division within Children and Family Services. Among other duties, the 20 people he oversees are responsible for training all new child protection workers across the state.

Prior to coming on as a state employee, Alex was a contractor to DHS, creating curricula and training employees on LGBTQ issues. After years of asking, his DHS contact finally convinced him to make the leap to full-time employee. As he put it, “it was time. I trusted my friend who said, ‘now is the time.’” And after years of working in nonprofits, the dental insurance also didn’t hurt.

As an employee, he was affected by the bureaucracy in ways he hadn’t been as a contractor, including having to wrestle slow, inefficient processes and outdated technology. But what really got him was the culture. As he describes it, “there’s something that occurs when you enter this building . . . All of the sudden you’re on a different planet.” Communication is uneven and sometimes nonexistent. One day he walked into the office to find out an entire team had been reassigned to him, even though he knew nothing about their work or the system they used. But he was up for the challenge!

And then there’s the hierarchy. While he understands how agency power structures work, he doesn’t buy into them too much. When it comes down to it, he’s not impressed by titles, he’s impressed by courageous leadership and action. And that is exactly what he has provided to his unit.

Alex’s Herocratic superpower is boldly being himself, which creates an environment in which others can do the same. Amid a stifling culture, he lets the full force of his personality shine. He keeps his eyes fresh, refusing to start seeing the negative aspects of the culture as “normal.” He stubbornly rejects mediocrity. He adapts to the system enough to get things done, while never compromising his values.

Among those values, his top priority is always people: the families that DHS serves and his own staff. He demonstrates this value to his staff by investing in relationships with them, understanding each person’s unique strengths and needs so that he can “meet them halfway.” As HR seemingly coaches supervisors to build cases for employee dismissal, Alex instead dives deeper into relationships to better understand the needs of his staff. He has learned that employee communication and learning styles are sometimes not understood or valued in the dominant culture. So together he and his supervisees make minor adjustments to their team practices, including how they structure meetings, which has had a positive impact on several employees.

Flying in the face of Minnesota Nice, his unit has instituted “radical candor”. This practice, which requires the foundation of strong relationships, has helped staff members to grow individually and as a team. He and his boss have created a more collaborative decision-making process. Staff are able to have autonomy in flexing time to promote work/life balance and they are trusted, and held accountable, to getting their work done.

A trainer and therapist at heart, Alex not only coaches his staff on how to deal with difficult situations, but he also role plays with them. Through this practice, they are fully rehearsed and ready to bring authenticity to those performative meetings.

And perhaps most revolutionary of all, Alex and his team have fun. They’ve infused a unicorn theme throughout their work, culminating recently in “Camp Unicorn,” a retreat in which they successfully revised a nine-day training curriculum as a team. About this experience, Alex said, “It was amazing. I can't even believe it. We did it. We met our goal, and everyone was together for five days in one giant room, working in small groups. And we had camp activities. It was so much fun!"

The culture change within his unit has taken a lot of hard work and will require diligence to maintain. But it is taking root and paying off. Staff morale and productivity are up. People like their jobs and each other. The folks who didn’t like this leadership style have left for other units or organizations. And everyone else is helping to build a new culture of openness, candor and true partnership, fostered by Alex’s Herocratic leadership.

More than that, they are creating a ripple effect. Given their role in training child protection workers across the state, one can imagine how the team’s openness and positivity will radiate out to the families that DHS serves.

The next frontier for Alex? The rest of DHS, of course! As he knows, it’s one thing to change the culture of the team you lead, and it’s quite another to affect the broader organizational culture that it operates within.

One tactic to spur a more open, inclusive culture in DHS has already begun to emerge. To a veteran social justice activist like Alex, it’s almost embarrassingly basic: institutionalizing the practice of sharing one’s pronouns during the introduction round at meetings when new people are present. This is something that has been commonplace in many professional settings for years. But not at DHS.

As straightforward as it might seem, it took a lot of courage on Alex’s part to get it started. Here’s where the opening story about the stuffy meeting comes in.

Alex first proposed the practice at one of the division’s weekly manager and supervisor meetings. He was nervous, and despite his best efforts at explaining it, the practice did not take hold. The next meeting, nothing had changed – people did not share their pronouns with the meeting’s visitors.

It wasn’t until Alex brought the item back another time, and changed his approach, that the practice started to take hold. This time Alex told his own story of being a transgender man, explaining why the practice of sharing one’s pronouns is important to him personally. Although he was already very much “out” at work, it was still uncomfortable for him to talk about this personal topic at that large, formal meeting, in which typically no one shares anything personal. But Alex said that’s what it took: “I was really being vulnerable and talking about what inspires me, and that inspired other people.”

Alex flexed his Herocratic superpower – boldly being himself – to make the change. It worked, and now because of it, he’s helped to create an environment where more people can be themselves.

Introducing one’s pronouns has taken off in his division. People are doing it without any prompting. Some employees have taken it on as a personal mission. One woman hung up a poster about it in her cubicle. It’s becoming a norm.

A recent community meeting was a hopeful example. When the round of introductions reached a community member who is a Native American woman, she paused, noting that she had not introduced herself with her pronouns before. And then, building on the exercise, she also shared her Ojibwe name and said “good morning” in Ojibwe, as she does in her community. It is these spontaneous, intersectional moments that makes Alex excited. As he says, “It's not about the pronouns. It's about bringing what you do in your community, and who you really are, to the table.”

Despite all this, Alex is uncomfortable talking about “the pronoun thing” as a success. To him, it seems wrong that it’s revolutionary. The distance between where DHS culture is and where it needs to be is crushing. And he doesn’t want people to think it’s enough to say their pronouns and carry on with business-as-usual.

At the same time, he recognizes that pronouns are serving as a gateway for change. Introducing one’s pronouns is a conspicuous sign that employees are using to say, “I’m open to learning and I’m open to change.” Other employees and community members see that signal and it changes the conversation. It is creating space and energy to have larger conversations about equity at DHS. As co-chair of the division’s new equity committee, Alex has plenty of ideas for future issues to take on.

Watch out world, because unicorns and pronouns are just the beginning. 

~ ~ ~

I’d love to hear from you about your experiences leading or taking part in organizational culture change!

What does Alex’s story bring up for you?

When have you chosen to boldly be yourself? Or have you witnessed a co-worker who does this?

How did it enable others to do the same?

Have you ever used the tactic of sharing why something is important to you personally as you made the case for it? How did it feel? What were the results?

Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

 

 

Herocrats in Action: Joy Marsh

“ We need people to save the babies who are drowning, but also people to fix it so that fewer babies are falling in the water.”

As Director of the Division of Race and Equity at the City of Minneapolis, Joy builds infrastructure to advance racial and transgender equity in the city’s policies, programs and practices. She and her team work with elected policy makers, staff, and residents to accomplish these objectives. She also oversees a federally funded grant program to address trauma related to systemic oppression in all its intersectional forms.

In our conversation, Joy reflects on the nature of her work and the personal qualities needed to be a system changer.   

What brings you to the work and keeps you there?

A lot of my motivation around the work is deeply personal, deeply tied to my own faith, and my own faith expression in the world, and what it means for me to live out my faith. I fundamentally believe that we are in a world where there are more than enough resources to go around, and to meet all of the needs of the people who are in the world, but that we also wrestle against systems that withhold resources from those who need it in order to benefit the few.

This is how I show up and model my commitment to that vision of abundance in the world. It means working to dismantle the systems of oppression that actively operate and recognizing that my own position is also intricately tied to that of the person next to me. I can't be my very best unless everyone is their very best.

I’m working to create a world that allows for everyone to be their best, so everyone has access to whatever it is that they need to live that life. I feel like that's part of why I'm here, part of the charge that I have as an individual in the world. So that's why I show up every day.

What does success look like? What would be different in Minneapolis?

I'm a very deeply systems person. I view community as more than just the residents that we serve, but also our staff and our elected leaders in the City of Minneapolis. So it's really important to be equipping those individuals with the tools that they need to think critically about the impacts of their decisions on Black, Indigenous, other POC, and Transgender people that we're serving. And I believe that if we're successful in this work, that the residents that we serve locally, and those that are connected to us both in the region and beyond, will benefit from this work.

I see success as seeing racial disparity trends being reversed. It’s also about marginalized communities having the ability to exercise greater agency to inform the ways in which governing systems are operating. So the decision making within City Hall is going to be more collaborative, and those who are most impacted by decisions are going to have a place in shaping those decisions.

What are you most proud of in your time at the City?

There's a lot that I'm excited about. I think ultimately the biggest point of pride that I have -- and I struggle with that word, pride -- is that when I started in this role in September 2015, I was the only person. There was no real vision in the city for this work, to include anybody other than me. And now, here we are, almost four years later, and not only do I have a team of people who are working in this work, but that structure has become normative inside of the city, and expected. And we even have other departments imagining what it would look like for them to also have dedicated staff to do the work.

That to me is a tremendous growth for the city to be in that place, and I believe that a lot of that is informed by the fact that we've been able to demonstrate the relevance and the importance of having staff. Just so few jurisdictions across the nations have a dedicated office with this amount of staff in it. That's exceptional.

What challenges do you face in this work?

Minneapolis shares the same sorts of challenges that any jurisdiction or organization faces when they're trying to be bold in advancing racial equity. There's always going to be intraction and people who are fearful of the change. There's going to be white fragility popping up. There are going to be individuals, even People of Color, who have internalized racism that they're dealing with, and all of those are going to create barriers to progress.

What I think is unique to Minneapolis, and can sometimes be problematic for us, is that we enjoy a significant reputation for being really progressive. I think that fundamentally, it's a well-earned reputation. But at the same time, it can lull people into a sense of complacency when it comes to being bold in our thinking. We have historically rested on that reputation and our belief that because our intentions are good we haven’t pushed as hard historically as we should to ensure our solutions actually reversed disparity trends. Since we are good people doing good work, the outcome is always good. This mindset is changing under our current administration that is pushing for metrics and outcomes tied to racial equity goals. This means thinking critically about race in the decision-making process and being willing to be held accountable, and hold ourselves accountable, to meet those goals.

It also means shifting the culture of the City so that staff who implement policies and execute the support processes do so with full awareness of how matters of bias can show up. It’s about deepening our language around anti-racist work entirely and creating the mechanisms by which we can all be successful in reaching the goals regardless of where we are situated in the enterprise.

Things don’t always land in the way that we want them to, despite all our good intentions. Applying tools like racial equity analysis have not historically been normative for the City. We don't have a good track record, necessarily, of doing that in any sort of enterprise fashion. Which isn’t to say that people don't think about race, or that people don't use racially disaggregated data. But getting us to the point that that's an enterprise value that we exercise all the time, that's the mindset shift. Through our strategic and racial equity planning process we are centering this type of analysis. Our administration is asking for it regularly from staff to support the decision-making process. That form of leadership is paving the way for the internal culture shift we need for long term systems change to happen.

What qualities does a public servant need to overcome these challenges?

Ultimately, I feel as though systems work is not the type of work for people who are looking for either immediate impact or seismic change. Systems work is slow and incremental, and there are lots of fits and starts, and lots of effort goes into moving the dial even the smallest possible amount. Systems change is for those who are committed to working for future generations. It's not going to be for me. I'm not going to eradicate racial inequity in the city of Minneapolis in my lifetime. I'm not going to eradicate transgender inequity in my lifetime.

That's just not possible, and it's not the expectation I should put on myself every single day. Nor is it the expectation that I should put on people that I'm working with. This change, while it's urgent, while the impact of not acting is literally life and death for so many people, it's also still going to be slow.

We have to continue to stick with it while also creating space for people to move at the pace in which they're going to move. I think it's really, really hard to be a systems-oriented person who's focused on future generations and still be able to live in a period of time where you literally see people dying in the streets. It doesn’t mean we don’t charge people with stretching or that we are complacent when fear stops movement, but it does mean we never lose sight that we are all on a journey. We have to find creative ways to come to a shared understanding and set of values upon which we can build a path forward. That takes time and the humility to know that we can’t get to the desired end state simply by moving everyone out of the way who you feel doesn’t believe what you believe. At our base, we are often more alike than we are different in what we value. When we start with those shared values, we can change the world.

We need to have people in our society who do both. We need people to save the babies who are drowning, but also people to fix it so that fewer babies are falling in the water. And attempting to do both is not sustainable. Trying to be the person who is saving babies from drowning -- within this government structure, which doesn't do direct service outside of the rare exception -- is going to be very, very frustrating. Because it's not a role, and there really isn't the space to do that in any long-term sustainable way. But if that's how you're oriented, this is a space for you to be super, super frustrated every single day.

It’s particularly difficult for people who are trying to dismantle these systems, while also experiencing daily the impact of inequitable systems. That's a very, very, very difficult place to stay in, and it can be overwhelming, and it can be traumatizing when you see people who look like you being impacted. So it’s important to have a pretty intense and deliberate practice around self-care. I don't know if this is a sustainable place for Black, Indigenous, or People of Color to really stay in for the long term.

You may have to cycle out. You may have to cycle out to a place of doing just something entirely different. Like walking dogs for a living, whatever it is. Or shifting to direct service, or something to feel like you're doing something that's more tangible for today. But ultimately, being aware of where you are in your season, and what work you can do, is important.

And be honest with yourself. Stop and pause and say, "Is this still the space for me?" Because again, these are not your problems independently to solve, and just because you step away from doing systems-based work doesn't mean that nothing else happens. It doesn't mean that somehow, you've given up. There are many expressions and approaches to how we dismantle systemic oppression and by stepping aside, you are also making room for someone else to step up and bring their perspective to the equation. We all have a responsibility, I feel, collectively, to address these issues, in whatever way we address them. But sometimes it’s my turn to be at bat, and sometimes it’s my time to sit on the bench. And that's really okay.

Last question: what’s your superpower?

I think my superpower is the fact that I’ve led large scale systems change work in a lot of different types of organizations – private, public and non-profit. I’ve managed projects that impact people across continents and those that only impact small departments. This experience allows me to understand a lot of different motivations people bring to challenges. It has also taught me immense patience and just how much I need to rely on other people to make any sort of meaningful change happen. I’m old enough and discerning enough to know what work is my work to get done and what isn’t. I’m past the point in my career where I’m swinging at windmills and I’m able to be more strategic in my approach. I’ve learned the importance of developing the leadership of others because I also know this fight continues on long after me.