Episode 76, 31 min listen
In this episode, I'll take you along with me on some of my local journeys as others and I work to build a more inclusive and equitable community right where we live. This is the first in a series of episodes where we explore what it means to practice Self Work and GroundWork on the issue of immigration justice. At a time when our nation feels so divided on this issue, you'll hear how a small group of community members is working to make a difference by starting "close in."
AUDIO PLAYER
You can access this episode wherever you listen to podcasts via our pod.link.
ADDITIONAL REFERENCES
A special thanks to my classmates Valerie Wetzel, Jeanette Christian, and Becca Gardner for sharing their experiences from the class.
Learn more about Village Enage and attend one of their events.
Learn more about Just Faith Programming and find a session near you or one that is offered online.
Learn more about World Relief and their support for refugees and immigrants.
Learn more about Immigrant Connection and their support for refugees and immigrants.
INTERVIEWEE'S BIO
Alecia Brewster is a passionate advocate for children, families and neighbors experiencing poverty. She currently serves as Program Director of Village Engage, an enterprise of Mill Village Ministries that mobilizes people of faith to take action for justice.
In addition to her work with Village Engage, Alecia co-chairs the Greenville Mentoring Collaborative, an initiative dedicated to strengthening youth mentoring organizations and expanding access to quality mentoring relationships across Greenville.
Alecia is also a passionate entrepreneur and an active community leader. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Piedmont Health Foundation and she is on the board of JustFaith Ministries, a national organization that offers small group programs designed to educate and inspire action to address the root causes of injustice.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
-Introduction
Ame Sanders 0:11
This is the State of Inclusion Podcast where we explore topics at the intersection of equity, inclusion, and community. In each episode, we meet people who are changing their communities for the better, and we discover actions that each of us can take to improve our own communities. I'm Ame Sanders. Welcome.
For this episode, I'd like to start with an excerpt from a poem "Start Close In" by David White.
"Start right now. Take a small step you can call your own. Don't follow someone else's heroics. Be humble and focused. Start close in. Don't mistake that other for your own. Start close in. Don't take the second step or the third. Start with the first thing close in, the step you don't want to take."
So, in my last episode, I promised you that in the podcast this year, I would take you along with me on some of my local journeys as I and others work to build a more inclusive and equitable community right where we live. As David White says, "close in."
-Signing Up
At the end of February, I arrived a little rushed to a monthly community discussion hosted by a local nonprofit called Village Engage. There was a crowd at the door, and honestly, I didn't listen well to the instructions the greeter gave. I put my name on the sign-in sheet and sat down for the session. As our host closed the meeting, she thanked those of us who had signed up for the upcoming Just Faith class on immigration justice, and she encouraged others that were there to join us. As she held up the sheet, that was when I learned that I had not signed in. I had signed up.
I'd done a Just Faith class before. Last summer, I'd taken the Just Faith class, "The Land is Not Our Own: Seeking Repair Alongside Indigenous Communities." So, I knew what I was in for. I knew Just Faith classes are a commitment. Eight weeks of meeting as a group for one and a half to two hours each week, plenty of reading, research, watching videos, a lot of self-reflection, and some deep and challenging discussion with classmates. Also likely a full day immersion experience somewhere along the way, and then at the end, a call to action. And in addition, you know, I'm not a person of faith, and the class is definitely from a Christian perspective. I knew I'd be welcome, but the biblical perspective gave me a moment's pause. You know, I even thought that I could put it off, do the class later, maybe just not now. That moment is when I could have easily admitted my mistake. Taken my name off the list. No harm, no foul. And believe me, I thought about it. But I didn't. Instead, I decided to go with it, and I'm ever so grateful that I did. Sometimes you don't choose your self work. Sometimes your self work chooses you. The universe happened to know better than I what I was going to need this year.
-Self Work and GroundWork
If you've listened to State of Inclusion for a while, you know that we have identified six practices for building a more inclusive community. In this episode, we'll talk about two of those practices. First is the practice of Self Work. It's about looking inward before looking outward. We believe that Self Work has a cycle that involves waking up--that means seeing and understanding in a new way. Listening up--deep and empathetic, listening to our neighbors and those with different lived experiences. Opening up--opening our hearts and minds. Then speaking up--finding our voice and using it. Stepping up--committing ourselves and taking action to advance equity and justice. And then when we fall down, make mistakes or falter--and we certainly will--it's about getting back up. But I'll also mention the idea of resting up. This work is hard and can be triggering for so many of us. We need to feed a deep well of energy in ourselves and our teams for this continued work. We need to practice self-care. So, this episode today is all about a very specific part of my Self Work journey from this year.
But, as we zoom out and look at the broader community, we also see a practice we call GroundWork. GroundWork is about the work to prepare the community soil for the work of equity and inclusion to take root and grow. In the practice of GroundWork, we include things like touching the heart, community, learning, shifting the culture, holding space for, and creating the conditions for a new and more equitable and inclusive community to emerge. In this episode, you'll hear how a nonprofit in my hometown practices GroundWork, and you'll get to hear how their practice of GroundWork has touched me, but also how it has touched others in my community.
-My Class Experience
So, back to my story about the class. When all of this happened, it was the end of February, just a month after the inauguration of President Trump for his second term. Immigration had been a heated and critical topic during the campaign. No doubt you remember rhetoric like "they've been eating the cats and dogs." But I had no way to know all of the things that would lie ahead in the coming year. The class proved to be a gift for me, which continues to give. It was honestly a blessing to have a group of compassionate and thoughtful people to learn with and a facilitator to guide us. To have the opportunity to educate ourselves on our deeply flawed immigration system and the role our government has played, publicly and not so publicly, over the years that has directly fueled, or even created, many of the immigration challenges we now face.
I did not know all I would learn at the beginning of the class, but I knew there would be deep learning. Perhaps the most impactful part of the Just Faith class for me was the opportunity to put this moment of immigration in the context of the history of our country and how we have handled immigration since our country was young, times when we've stopped welcoming immigrants altogether, and times when our doors were wide open for some while tightly closed for others, and times we've had even higher immigration levels than now as a percent of our population. I had honestly been so immersed in the current story of immigration that I had not taken time to consider what those who came before us had done, and to learn about our somewhat checkered past and what it actually looked like. But you know, there was a second part beyond the learning that I could not have foreseen. That was the opportunity to discuss and process together all that was happening around us, all that was being done to our immigrant neighbors, here in our community, and across the country. This class offered me a safe and welcoming space to share on current events. We often started the class by saying, "Have you heard what happened this week? What do you think?" Also, the opportunity to share anger, frustration, and even shame at actions being taken at all levels, locally, nationally, and internationally by the government that represents us, as we closely watched and followed week by week the unfolding US immigration actions. So, that's a little of how I came to take this Just Faith class and a small part of what it has given me. I asked a few of my classmates to share why they took the class and to share its impact on them.
-Classmate Valerie Wetzel
So let's listen to what classmate Valerie Wetzel had to say about why she chose to participate in the Just Faith class on immigration and how it impacted her.
Valerie Wetzel 8:06
I was first drawn to the Just Faith immigration class after hearing about how immigrants were being treated at the border, both in Trump's last administration and then this one. I felt helpless and wanted to find out if I could help in some small way. I guess trying to understand the subject matter was my first step. One of the most powerful moments for me was learning about the process for immigrants to become US citizens from Matt Miller with Immigrant Connection. I was completely unaware of the amount of paperwork as well as the length of time it takes just to get in line and become a citizen. It is overwhelming. Our immigration system is broken, and it will need both parties to work together to even have a chance of being successful or even improving things as they are now. We must do better as we are called to love our neighbors, whoever they may be.
Ame Sanders 9:03
-Classmate Jeanette Christian
Let's hear from Jeanette Christian about her class experience.
Jeanette Christian 9:07
I was interested in the immigration workshop to get to know some people in Greenville and to learn about the Greenville area. I'm new here. I was interested in being in Just Faith workshop, and also very interested in immigration problems. And in this current political climate, wanting to know more about immigration in general, and some of the ins and outs of the laws. And so that's the main reason I joined the class. The immigration workshop touched me in several ways. The video that we saw about the history of immigration reminded me of the cruelty that our country can inflict on people who are different or who are the "other," who we consider as a threat. I enjoyed our discussions about the term "alien" and trying to put a face on who people are that are immigrants. I was quite taken by the process that people have to go through in order to try to gain legal entrance to the United States. The forms were overwhelming. There were too many of them, too much legalese. Just very difficult. Knowing how hard English is to understand to begin with, I can't imagine how hard it would be to go through that process. Also, in terms of refugees, I guess I always felt like the United States was welcoming and we would welcome and help people who are in crisis. But I've learned through this workshop that that's not always the case. That was hard for me to swallow and just accept the fact that, you know, we're not always nice people--which I knew, but just became more real in the context of the workshop. I enjoyed being with the women who attended the workshop, the frank discussion, learning about the nonprofits in the area, and what work is being done. I don't have a plan for myself at this point, because I'm honestly still trying to adjust to being in Greenville, but I am looking for opportunities, and possibly will be an opportunity to do some tutoring, since I'm a retired teacher, and think that's a gift that I have.
-Classmate Becca Gardner
Ame Sanders 11:44
And finally, Becca Gardner shares why she chose to participate in the class and how it touched her.
Becca Gardner 11:50
I was drawn to the course through Just Faith on immigration because I really wanted to strengthen my knowledge of the history of immigration in the US and to grow my skills and be able to communicate with members of the faith community regarding immigration. Through my job, I've been working with refugees for almost a decade, and just as the environment has become less and less safe for refugees and immigrants in our country, and as caring for asylum seekers and refugees and immigrants has become overly politicized and so much misinformation has been shared, I really wanted to feel more confident in my knowledge and in my ability to communicate with our supporters, with people in my sphere, to be able to hopefully help combat disinformation and also help educate people on what's really happening and the real needs. So, that's what brought me to it, and I'm really glad that I took it. One of the most poignant moments for me during the immigration course through Just Faith was when we watched the documentary called Harvest of Empire: The Untold Story of Latinos in America. I feel like it should be a required watch for everyone. It was incredibly hard to watch, but I learned so incredibly much, and it made a lot of pieces regarding the history of the US involvement in Central and South America. It made so many different events and pieces kind of come together for me. There's just so much that is not taught regarding our involvement in conflicts and our involvement in creating the destabilization in many of the countries that people are now fleeing from. Yeah, that was an eye-opening and enraging but really important documentary, so that was probably the most meaningful session for me.
-Alecia Brewster, Village Engage
Ame Sanders 14:17
So we've spent some time exploring the practice of Self work, but now, as promised, I'd like to dig into the practice of Groundwork, and I want to do that by interviewing Alecia Brewster, the Program Director of Village Engage, which is the host organization for our Just Faith classes. Alecia is also on the National Board of Directors for the Just Faith organization. So, let's hear how her organization, Village Engage, serves my community here in Greenville, South Carolina, through their unique version of Groundwork. So, Alecia, tell us a little bit about Village Engage, maybe about your mission and the work you do in our community.
Alecia Brewster 14:56
Okay, I would love to, I'm really just thrilled to be a part of Village Engage. We were started about eight years ago, and the founder of Village Engage, Susan Stall, and the executive director and founder of Mill Village Ministries, had the opportunity to go through a Just Faith program. Just Faith Ministries is a national organization with several programs on different issues of justice. After going through their program, they realized that there was so much there, and they wanted to just continue to make the Just Faith programs and ways for people to get engaged in issues--not just in the issues, but also in addressing the root causes of some of these issues of injustice in our community. And so Village Engage was birthed originally as Just Faith Greenville, and then about four years ago, it became branded as Village Engage under the Mill Village Ministries umbrella. Our work really is to provide pathways to activate the power of individuals and communities working together to build a more just Greenville. We do that by helping to organize Just Faith groups throughout our community, hosting events where people can come together to learn about issues from experts in our community, as well as helping people get involved in different legislative opportunities and advocacy opportunities, as well as just becoming a part of organizations that are doing the work each and every day.
Ame Sanders 16:39
So, I love the Village Engage motto: Have faith, speak up and take action. You know, I really feel that every time I engage with your group or participate in one of your sessions. Maybe you could talk a little bit about that motto and the three core pillars. You know, how you live those out every day.
Alecia Brewster 16:58
Yes. So, thank you, and I love it too. Have faith is kind of foundational. At the core of Village Engage is the faith community. The programs originally were being held in several churches in Greenville. So, for many years, churches like Christ Church, which is a large church here in Greenville, and First Baptist Greenville have been coming together or bringing together individuals within their congregation to study different issues like poverty or systemic racism or immigration. Several churches have been doing that program, and once they have looked at and really seen the way that these issues are connected to their faith, from there, the thought is that we can help people really take it from just being a personal challenge that they're struggling with to a more collective movement or a more collective action. So, our work is really to get people to animate their faith and put it into action. And so to speak up, you know, using your voice, whether it be an advocacy capacity or in a capacity where you're having those one-on-one conversations, and the spaces where you live in your community or in your church. Then, of course, the action part, whether it be again, participating on the legislative side, whether it be at a city council meeting, going and participating as a group or speaking at those city or county council meetings, or being a part of a larger network here in the state of South Carolina. So, we really are all about, again, helping people move from just knowing that something is wrong and believing that it's their responsibility to do something about it to actually doing something.
Ame Sanders 19:01
So I love that. The idea that it moves from your own learning and deep reflection into action. And I will also say, as a person who's not a person of faith, all of your sessions make room for folks like me who may share values with you but may not have a church group that we belong with, or feel that that's necessarily where we want to put our focus, but we can still align with the programs that you have and participate in those freely, which is lovely. Absolutely, one of the things I want to say is Village Engage has really helped me tremendously in my own Self Work journey. I know you and I have talked about that before. And last summer, I participated in a Just Faith session that you led called This Land is Not Our Own, and it was focused on indigenous justice. And then this spring, I joined another Just Faith session on faith and immigration justice. These sessions are a great illustration of the work that you do and how you create these lasting containers for learning and actions. So, I think the way I think of it is that you guys, and those of us who participate in the sessions and the actions following that, we create ripples, not waves. So, we're not creating breakthroughs. We're not necessarily transforming the community in a big step, but we are creating ripples throughout the community. Maybe we could use the immigration class as an example and tell us about how Village Engage used all of your assets and resources to move from the class into action.
Alecia Brewster 20:44
Yeah, absolutely. Given the moment that we're all living in right now, I think that program in particular has resonated with so many community members. We've probably had three or four immigration focused Just Faith groups this year alone. So, we're talking about 40 people plus the people who they are connected to, who heard about what we're doing. So, just to give a little bit of context, Just Faith programs are all meant to create a community of people who are learning deeply about a topic. So, over the course of eight weeks, we come together for about two hours every week, and we are reading books written on a topic. We are looking at video content on the topic. We're researching the topic, and we're engaging not only in our own self-reflection but also in conversation within that community of 10 or so people. While we're doing that, the ultimate goal is for us to be discerning what we as an individual, to do with what we're learning as well as what we might want to do as a community of 10 or so people. At the end of that program, because there were several groups that were going through the program at the same time, we decided to host a big event. During that event, we had over 300 people come to hear from leaders in our community who are working at the intersection of immigration and the legal system, who are helping refugees navigate being able to access the resources they need while they're here in our country. It also brought in a pastor who pastors a group of Haitian immigrants in our community. During our big event that we had not only those 40 or so people had gone through a Just Faith program, we also had, you know, a larger number of people, almost 300 as a matter of fact, who were able to come and hear firsthand from people who are working deeply on issues around refugees and immigrants.
Ame Sanders 23:23
One of my favorite parts of that event was, first, we shared a meal together, which is always helpful to bring people together. But we also went through a simulation, which was, as a facilitator by training and experience, it was one of the most elegantly simple and still yet quite powerful simulations for those of us who are not immigrants and don't have that lived experience. It gave us just a moment to reflect on what it might mean to leave everything behind. So, I found that to be a very powerful part, in addition to all the people that you mentioned who spoke with us and shared information. To have that simulation was really, really powerful.
Alecia Brewster 24:09
Yeah, I agree it was. It was so powerful. And that's the other beautiful, beautiful part about the Just Faith programs. There is usually some kind of simulation that you experience, even in that smaller group setting, that really helps things just kind of hit home and really become real or get a little closer to the issue. So, in addition to the big event that we had, we also decided, as a group in community with some of the other groups that we would continue to work on things to bring light to the challenges that immigrants in our community are facing and refugees in our community are facing, as well as to stand with those immigrants and refugees in our community. So, groups of us have decided we're going to help with lifting up stories of our immigrant neighbors. In Greenville, there are folks who are working to create more events that, again, shed light on the challenges and also provide a simulation opportunity for our community to get a little closer to the issue. We've hosted a vigil in the community that just promoted awareness for the general public. We have and are participating in advocacy events that World Relief is doing here in our local community. In the fall, we're planning to take a pilgrimage to a detention center in our neighboring state, in Georgia, where immigrants are held just awaiting to find out what their fate is going to be. So, we're really continuing down this road of trying to identify where we can best show up and truly be a neighbor to our immigrant community.
Ame Sanders 26:13
I also want to mention something that you have scheduled, and it's also part of what you guys do regularly, which is your Fourth Friday discussions. So you have a Fourth Friday discussion planned around immigration later in the year.
Alecia Brewster 26:27
We do. In September, we'll have an immigration forum where we're partnering with another organization to host a deliberative forum. The goal for that will be, again, to be able to engage folks who may not already be as knowledgeable or may even have a different experience than others who are doing this type of advocacy work. So, the idea is to create a space where we can have true dialogue versus just the back-and-forth rhetoric that you might hear in some of our mainstream media.
Ame Sanders 27:07
So you just went through a lot of actions that have come out of these classes. And I, I am particularly as a personal participant in one of those sessions, I'm finding that to be just lovely, because it has given me time to reflect, time to join with others around this and learn even more, and then also to really begin to think about what does allyship and action look like for me, and what kind of role can I play in our community to affect change and to recognize our neighbors who are maybe immigrants that have been here a long time, and are, you know, a fundamental part of our community, as well as the ones who've just arrived, or ones who may be fearful At the moment for all the things that are going on. So I think that that is just a really lovely example of the work that you do in the community, and I'm finding it a pleasure to be part of that. So, is there anything else that you wanted to add that we haven't talked about?
Alecia Brewster 28:18
Well, I would just say, you know, when you talk about the beauty of the work and the opportunity to be able to engage with people like you, Ame. Honestly, you have, I think, really demonstrated what we are aspiring to do, which is just create a space where people who want to use their gifts or talents, their passions, and so it looks different for different people. And I feel like what you've demonstrated is that you know you can plug in really where you feel you can be of most use, and it's just been amazing to see your leadership skills and your technical skills be able to help to bolster the efforts in our community.
Ame Sanders 29:12
Oh, that's very kind. Thank you so much for talking with me today, and thank you for the work you do every day in our community.
Alecia Brewster 29:13
Oh, thank you as well.
-Conclusion
Ame Sanders 29:14
So, in this podcast episode, I've shared a little about my Self Work on the issues surrounding immigration. This episode focused mainly on the steps in Self Work of waking up, opening up, and listening up. But, as the action groups that we formed out of our Just Faith classes begin to move forward locally, we will begin to move out into the community to speak up and step up. And you can bet I'll be sharing some of that journey in upcoming episodes. And no doubt, as we speak up and step up, we'll have moments where we make mistakes, falter, and have to get back up. And I don't yet feel a need to rest up from this, but I'm sure that moment will come. But in addition to my Self Work journey, you've also heard from a local organization, Village Engage, that is deeply committed to the practice of GroundWork in my community. They don't set out to change people's minds on an issue. They create safe spaces and opportunities for individuals to learn, to reflect, to discuss, and determine how they can contribute to a more just and compassionate community and world.
And so I'll close with a quote from the author Omkari Williams that I really love. Omkari says,
“Because I don't believe that we ever change anyone's mind on anything. I believe people change their own minds, but they only change their minds if they have experiences that give them a reason to.”
I'm personally grateful that Village Engage offers me and others in my community those kinds of experiences.
This has been the State of Inclusion Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, the best compliment for our work is your willingness to share the podcast or discuss these ideas with others. If you'd like to hear more about the practice of building an inclusive and equitable community, head over to theinclusivecommunity.com and sign up for our newsletter. Also, feel free to leave us a review or reach out. We'd love to hear from you. Thanks so much for listening and join us again next time.
CONTRIBUTORS
Guests: Valerie Wetzel, Jeanette Christian, Becca Gardner, Alecia Brewster,
Host: Ame Sanders
Social Media and Marketing Coordinator: Kayla Nelson
Podcast Coordinator: Emma Winiski
Sound: Uros Nikolic