Congratulations to Neighborhood Leadership Academy & Neighborhood Leadership Fellows, programs of Creating Whole Communities, a collaboration between UMSL & MU Extension, winner of our 2020 Award for Growing in Equity & Antiracism.
The Award for Growing in Equity & Antiracism recognizes a person, organization, institution, or initiative that:
Demonstrates a deep and honest commitment to transforming their work so that it is more equitable, just, and antiracist.
“Walks the talk”—goes beyond verbal commitments to ask hard questions, point out inequities where they exist, and embrace and push through discomfort.
Actively works to dismantle systems of oppression.
Humans of St. Louis storytellers Maleeha Samer and Colleen O’Connell Smyth met with Dwayne T. James and Claire Rippel, Community Engagement Specialists at Creating Whole Communities, to learn more about the people who make Neighborhood Leadership Academy and Neighborhood Leadership Fellows happen. Here’s some of what they had to say.
Dwayne T. James (left) and Claire Rippel
“Systems needed to change yesterday, and development is happening in your community with or without you. As much as you want to sit back and enjoy a glass of wine, it’s time to get to work.
As an elected official, you know you’re looked at as a politician, and I was part of the system. How do you become not a politician but a community representative? I lived 2014. I was on the City Council for the City of Ferguson. There are things I could have, should have, and would have done differently. Even when you’re in that seat, you don’t always get the change you want to see. You still have to fight, and you have to have the community backing you to make things happen. When people say they want to develop in your neighborhood, sometimes you have to be the lone voice and ask them, ‘Excuse me, is that what’s best for our communities?’ So, how do you mobilize and work with the community even when they don’t think they have the power to use their voice? Because they’re sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
- Dwayne T. James, Community Engagement Specialist, Neighborhood Leadership Academy and Neighborhood Leadership Fellows, Programs of Creating Whole Communities, a Collaboration Between UMSL and MU Extension
Dwayne T. James
“I come from a family of teachers. I’ve seen teachers who love and care for their students in different ways. I had a 4th and 5th-grade teacher, Mrs. Johnson, who cared about her students, but she was mean –– mean in a loving way. She was going to support us 100% to help us see right from wrong. If we went astray, she didn’t belittle or disrespect us. She showed us tough love, and we had some honest conversations. Luckily, I couldn’t go home and complain about Mrs. Johnson because my family members understood her. Then I had Mrs. Henderson in 8th grade, and she made us memorize the poem ‘If’ by Rudyard Kipling. We had to know exactly the way it was said, and I thought, ‘Why are we learning this stupid poem?’ We had to get his name right, too. Now, I recite the poem to this very day: ‘If you can keep your head when all about you, Are losing theirs and blaming it on you...,’ That’s community. These teachers knew what was best for us down the road. My friends and I talk about how we all had the experiences of the Mrs. Johnsons and Mrs. Hendersons, and now we understand what they were saying. I see myself doing that today when I work with youth. I show them I’m right there with them, and I respect them just as much as they would respect me.
There was a young man who joined the Ferguson Youth Initiative, and there I was trying to support him and better his life. I kept asking him questions: ‘What does that tattoo mean? How old are you? What’s your name?’ And he was like, ‘Dude, who are you?’ I was about to say, ‘I’m the founder of this organization. I’m the adult in this space. How are you going to question who I am?’ But I stepped back and realized, before I bombard him when I really want to uplift him, let me tell him who I am. If he wants to share with me, then he can. I said, ‘I’m Dwayne. Sorry about how I came off.’ And I stepped back to allow him to see me and get comfortable with me. We became good associates through the program. I saw him years later, and he came up to me to say ‘hello’ and compliment me on how I helped him. It showed me that if you’re going to do this community work, you have to be a part of the community. You have to expose your flaws and be authentic. If people don’t see that you don’t have it all together and don’t have all the solutions, then how are they going to connect with anything about you? Some of my best teachers had that edge about them. And we had something to connect on to see they were the same as us.”
- Dwayne T. James, Community Engagement Specialist, Neighborhood Leadership Academy and Neighborhood Leadership Fellows, Programs of Creating Whole Communities, a Collaboration Between UMSL and MU Extension
Claire Rippel
“When I was 21, I had my first in-depth experience working in the community. I was in Old North teaching photography and media literacy to kids, which I was not qualified for. It was hard and did not go how I had envisioned. So, I was upset about it, and my co-facilitator who was older and wiser said, ‘You're not Michelle Pfeiffer, and this is not ‘Dangerous Minds.’’ It was a good reminder that this is not about the movies, this is not about me waltzing into a community like a white savior. That was the best criticism I ever received, and that conversation has stuck with me. The way you build trust is not just through everyday interactions, but also through conflict. I want to see people, particularly those in power, listen to understand, not hear to respond. I listened to her and thought, ‘You’re totally right.’ And that helped me set my trajectory for getting myself in that mindset of doing long-term work with a community.”
- Claire Rippel, Community Engagement Specialist, Neighborhood Leadership Academy and Neighborhood Leadership Fellows, Programs of Creating Whole Communities, a Collaboration Between UMSL and MU Extension
We hope you can join us to celebrate community builders like the Neighborhood Leadership Academy & Neighborhood Leadership Fellows team at our 8th Annual Community Building Awards on July 29!
Photostory by Humans of St. Louis, Maleeha Samer, and Colleen O’Connell Smyth. Photostory narratives represent the opinions of the speaker(s) featured only and do not necessarily represent the views of the Community Builders Network of Metro St. Louis.
