Collaborating to reach unheard populations
Kae Jae Johnson is the founder and executive director of Residents of Color Collective (ROCC) in West St. Paul. When Johnson moved to West St. Paul from Chicago in 2018, she brought with her decades of community organizing and nonprofit experience.
“When I got here, there were no resources for black people,” says Johnson. Her friends and family told her she should move to where more black people lived. But she saw better educational opportunities for her grandchild in West St. Paul and decided to stay.
Johnson founded ROCC to provide a sanctuary of empowerment for the BIPOC and unheard communities. ROCC works to develop programs to address the needs and issues in marginalized communities, including supporting voter education, nutrition, leadership opportunities, youth development, mental health awareness, and more.
Authentic partnership
She says many organizations want to partner with ROCC, but not always with the right approach. “When building ROCC, many white-led organizations wanted to come in and take over what we did and lead the work,” Johnson says. “As if, ‘you don’t know as much as we know about your community.’” She says those groups were guided by community surveys instead of what she was doing at ground level – experiencing it from living in the system.
As ROCC started, Johnson did not have the funding and resources other well-established organizations had. Much of her work, she funded herself. To partner with other organizations would require Johnson to conform to their vision or plan. She felt they did not know the people she was serving the way she did. She was not interested in partnerships with organizations looking to “checklist” because it looked good.
When Johnson first met with 360 Communities President & CEO Jeff Mortensen, she was wary. But then she recognized something new and promising. “When Jeff came to me, he came in a different way. Not all organizations do that,” says Johnson. “He said, ‘360 Communities has access to resources. I know you don’t have the resources to do what you need to do. But you are doing an awesome job reaching people. You hold the relationships and we want to follow your lead in order to provide help.’”
Johnson says Mortensen valued her leadership and her deep connection and trust with the community she serves. Most importantly, she says, “He listens, reflects what I say, and says, ‘This is how I see we could line up.’ He heard me, and I didn’t have to tell him I don’t want anyone taking over ROCC.” For Johnson, being heard in that way means progress for her organization and the people she serves.
Trust
For both organizations, it comes down to trusting relationships. Trust is necessary to reach populations who have been historically marginalized. The relationship between the two organizations has developed intentionally over the past two years, and we will continue to fortify a bridge of trust in the future.
Today, you will find 360 Communities and ROCC at some of the same community events, connecting people with resources like food, clothing, domestic and sexual violence services, and more. It is the beginning of an authentic relationship that aims to center unheard communities and leverage the strengths of each organization to support more people.
Learn more about ROCC at ROCCmn.org.
