Villages in the city

If my work life were a movie, my adult life would be foreshadowed. Scene one: I beg my big sister to hold me while I watched “Rama of the Jungle.” The cobras and marauding tigers terrify me, but I want to see India. Scene two: The first hardcover book I purchase with my allowance is “The World’s Great Religions.” Fast forward to 1973: I’m studying anthropology, an impractical choice for someone with two sons to raise. Instead, I complete a degree in communications and find work in nonprofit public relations, development and public information.

Such was my work life until I was approached by board members of Riverside Plaza Tenants’ Association asking me to join their organization. I had developed an immigrant advocacy program for a former employer and was recommended for the job. Working with an immigrant population intrigued me. About 3,500 people live in 1,303 apartments in Riverside Plaza in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis. Ninety-two percent are immigrants with the majority from Somalia and sizable numbers from Ethiopia, Eritrea and Vietnam-villages within the city. This is a good place to begin one’s life in America with management willing to listen and respond to tenant concerns.

It was a leap of faith into a chaotic first year. Loyalty to my tenant board members kept me here, and they have repaid me with their kindness. When I confessed to our treasurer that I was working at home to nurse my dying cat, she told me beautiful stories from the Koran about our responsibility to animals.

Our mission is to serve and advocate for our tenants. I wanted to create a workplace that didn’t create unnecessary stress for staff, modeled on the servant leadership approach. Working together, we have become the largest and most successful ESL provider in Minneapolis, in collaboration with Minneapolis Public Schools and Brian Coyle Center. We provide computer access to students and tenants and provide bilingual advocacy as well.

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Ninety-two percent are immigrants with the majority from Somalia and sizable numbers from Ethiopia, Eritrea and Vietnam-villages within the city. This is a good place to begin one’s life in America

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While the work of an executive director is full of irksome detail, the people more than compensate me. During my difficult first year, a small delegation from a neighborhood mosque visited me to tell me that I was “a good woman.” A dear Eritrean woman comes for a visit with freshly roasted and brewed coffee. Safely removed from war, tenants are enjoying a small baby boom so I admire the new generation every day. An elderly Vietnamese woman stops to tell me about a problem and bows as she departs. It’s my pleasure to celebrate the successes I see daily. This is a community grateful to be safe in the United States and willing to work diligently to stay here and prosper. Who could resist being part of it?