Hope in Action leaves campaign leader with organizing insights

This post was generously contributed by Church of the Holy Spirit Mattapan's Relational Evangelist Kendyll Hillegas. It is a reflection upon what she's learned through working as a community organizer with the Hope in Action Campaign, 2009-2010. 



Key Learnings, CHS 2009-2010

Don’t make assumptions – I guess this idea should be a no-brainer. And to be fair to myself, I did understand it to a certain degree before I went to CHS, but at that time, it meant something more like “don’t make assumptions about people before you know them” or “don’t judge a book by its cover.”

What I learned at CHS, is that “don't make assumptions” really means that if you want to understand a person or community and work with that person/community where they're at, you'd better not assume anything about even the most basic circumstances. (For example, assuming that the directory at a church will be public because every church you have been to has always had a public directory).

On a deeper level, in its relationship to organizing, the specificity this phrase makes room for has really been a key learning for me as well. In the past when in a coordinating role on events or projects, volunteer recruitment was often a task I'd undertake. However, after this year as an RE I've noticed that all those previous years wearing the hat of volunteer recruiter, I'd had a gap in a crucial moment – the ask. “Don't make assumptions” has allowed me to see what I was doing wrong in those situations - assuming that the person I was asking had understood or taken the meaning I'd wanted them to take.

I think before I worked with this program, before “don't make assumptions,” even though I was very organized, I had a sense that everyone would naturally connect in their communication. If by chance things didn’t go well (i.e. I had asked a volunteer to be somewhere at 9:30, they’d said yes, and then shown up at 10:15) I was always baffled. “Don’t make assumptions” has really become a broad principle for me, and has informed the way I interact with individuals and communities who have access to potential resources.

People are more ok with emotions that you’d think, Kendyll – As a highly emotive person, I have in the past felt like I was more emotional/looked at the world through a more emotional lens than many people around me. Consequentially, over the years (in certain circumstances) I have become reserved with emotional displays and tend to focus much of my emotive/creative energy on intuitive problem solving, and coming up with very efficient systems.

This year I was very surprised at the level of positive response from young adults upon initiating simple activities that seemed to me invitational of low-key levels of emotion, and interaction. One such exercise (something we did regularly) was the passing of a candle from one team-member to the next, along with an invitation to speak “1 word for where they found themselves that day.” Inevitably the team would respond with a Niagara Falls of heartfelt and honest reflection. There was no “1 word” about it – ever. The first time it happened, I remember thinking, “Oh, wow, they really like this.” And I just couldn’t believe it because these were not individuals known for their gushing emotional displays or protracted reflections. But that really taught me that no matter how a person's countenance appears day-to-day, everyone needs a chance to integrate their emotions into their experience of the world.

Everyone can be a leader (everyone) but not every role is suited for every person – Another phrase I would have read before this year and thought, “obviously that’s true, I don't need to learn that.” This year however, I really saw it in action and learned what it means on the ground. Seeing Irmine Mode, Joseph Jean-Charles and Janell Duberry (I could go on) rise up into leadership positions has been so profoundly encouraging to me and has really reaffirmed that idea that everyone can lead. I still get chills on my spine when I remember how leadership at CHS told me I was wasting time with one young woman - she simply wasn’t leadership material - too shy, too quiet, too afraid. Now she has now spoken publicly a half-dozen times, she’s just finished volunteering to earn her own cello, she has a good, stable job.

There was one point in the year though when I think I took that egalitarian ideal a little too far – I was convinced that everyone could do the same job (Recruiting, for example) regardless of their gifts/talents. I’ll be honest, I still have a large bent in that direction, but after this year it’s so clear to me that God created us to function as one Body with many parts. Some team-members simply do not do well in a particular role, while they may thrive in another. I think if we hold those two ideas in tension - everyone can lead, and we’re meant to lead as one body with many parts - we can do really incredible things.