Committed to Rural Community Engagement 

As a statewide community foundation, the Women’s Foundation has renewed and resourced our commitment to being with our partners from rural areas and larger towns in greater Minnesota like Duluth, Rochester, and St. Cloud. This summer, we brought Community Connect, one of our Community Impact team’s hallmark events, on the road and in person, generously hosted by the Rochester Area Foundation, and sponsored by the Mayo Clinic. Dedicated to networking, the event is an informal, biannual gathering for community members to meet and find connections to their next funder, accomplice, or co-conspirator.   

On the way to Rochester, we stopped in Faribault to speak with staff at Ruth’s House about the housing and safety services they provide to an increasingly diverse community, then stopped in Owatonna to speak with staff at Community Pathways of Steele County about the way they center the dignity of their clients in their mission to clothe, feed, and provide wraparound services to those most in need in their county.  

We invited all our local partners and friends to join us for our first in-person Community Connect. Our goal was to create lasting connections by meeting, hearing about local issues, and networking with an emphasis on our intersecting and varied identities. At the Women’s Foundation, our Intersectional Equity Framework informs grantmaking, policy, and research. In Rochester, we explored how our intersecting identities shape our experiences of barriers and solutions through an intersectional interview that was developed as an experiment for facilitators Francisco E. Segovia, Executive Director of COPAL and Rose McGee, President & Founder of Sweet Potato Comfort Pie. They had a conversation centering intersectionality to discuss relationship-building, networking, empowering, and building bridges between communities. 

Below, Community Impact team members LaCora and Hannah, and Wenda Weekes Moore Intern, Jackie, reflect on their experiences. 

Community Anchors Serve Many Basic Needs 

The Women’s Foundation is on a journey to continue being responsive and present in rural communities, partnering with organizations that are closest to the disparities and solutions in their areas. We believe that equity in design leads to equity in outcomes, and that to achieve systems change, we need to understand the challenges that exist to create the change we want to see. 

In Faribault, Owatonna, and Rochester, we listened and saw that these communities are strong and generous. For instance, Community Pathways successfully launched a capital campaign, raising nearly 90% of the funding locally in their county, demonstrating their valued role as an anchor organization providing basic food and clothing with kindness and dignity. However, we also learned that these communities are lower-income and under-resourced. Organizations like Ruth’s House of Hope fall just outside metro areas, which often makes them ineligible for many grant funding opportunities restricted to the metro counties. 

Additionally, these vibrant communities are experiencing growth in the number of Black, Latine, and immigrant families, bringing new restaurants, grocery stores, and businesses to the region. 

During our Community Connect event, we heard powerful stories of generosity, kindness, and a deep compassion to serve. The most common sentiment was a yearning for more connection and conversation. Despite our different identities and struggles, we share similar goals and understand that we are stronger together. 

— LaCora Bradford Kesti, Vice President of Community Impact 

Meeting Vital Community Needs 

As the Grants Manager, this was my first time on the road with my team. Having started during the pandemic, I had never participated in an in-person site visit before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Traveling through areas I had never seen before was truly eye-opening, as I realized I rarely visit southern Minnesota in my personal time. The drive was beautiful, with scenic landscapes and picturesque towns that felt wholesome. 

Our site visits to Ruth’s House of Hope and Community Pathways were eye-opening. These direct-service organizations were bustling with activity, with employees and clients alike working together to provide and receive help. It was heartening to see how the surrounding communities were stepping up in various ways, from offering spaces to house people to building new facilities to provide more resources.  

This experience highlighted a paradox: even though the community is actively supporting these efforts, there is still much more to be done. The work is ongoing, and the needs persist. I left feeling both humbled and energized, with a renewed commitment to supporting our community members. The needs will always be there, so we must continue our efforts to make a difference. 

— Hannah Elias, Grants Manager

Connecting our Past, Present & Future Intersections  

Storytelling can tell us many things about a person. The past, present, and future play a key role in how we defines ourselves. As the Wenda Weekes Moore Intern at the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota, I am just starting to understand the work. Comprehending intersectionality and acknowledging it is just the beginning. Being able to help plan the event was wonderful, but seeing it happen left me wanting more. The stories shared by the panelists, Rose and Fransico, truly resonated with me as I continue to navigate the world.  

We have long been told that we need to deny parts of ourselves to exist, but we are all composed of stories. We have lives that are distinct from one another, yet we are still connected through our remembrance of generations past and our wishes for the future. We are humans with stories, humans with identities, humans with intersectional identities that interact with others. To be in the present builds on who we were and what we hope for in the future. Like Francisco said, it’s a way of leaving yourself, or a place, better than you found it. 

Rochester is a beautiful area with such amazing people, food, and culture. Coming together for an event like this gives me hope for our society as we tackle the unjust systems and structures that we all face. We are stronger together and this event was just a reminder of that. 

— Jackie Chavez, Wenda Weekes Moore Intern