Q: Tell us more about the collective resident leadership model:

Dre: The organizing model at my organization, Justice for the People, includes setting up a Resident Board as the most fundamental step. Creating this decision-making body sets the tone for how efforts unfold, authentically led by the community and not an outside organizer like me. Because it can be very harmful for organizers who don’t live in the community to make decisions, we must foster a sense of autonomy. We instill in community members the belief that their power creates change, and we limit outside intervention to guidance, training, and resource sharing. Establishing a democratic governance structure that is rooted in healthy values and that provides everyone opportunities to voice their opinions and vote on different decisions is paramount.

“We have to be ready and anticipate the flux of life by preparing many people who can fulfill prominent roles. The more leaderful the community, the healthier and better equipped it will be to support transitions.”

~ Dre Chiriboga-Flor

In community, the process of leadership development is ongoing. Board members might move in and out of roles based on their life circumstances – health challenges or a job loss, for example. We have to be ready and anticipate the flux of life by preparing many people who can fulfill prominent roles. The more leaderful the community is, the healthier and better equipped it will be to support transitions. Developing a Conflict Resolution Committee aligns with this thinking, to help prepare other residents who could step into various leadership roles that will be required once they become full owners of the park.
With a board composition of mostly men, we were intentional about recruiting women for the Conflict Resolution Committee as a way to balance power positions within the Montevista community. This has also translated to their negotiation of power with outside entities, such as the interim owner and management company. In the end, no big decision is made without residents’ input and both clear and transparent communication connects everyone involved.

Throughout the three years of monthly board meetings and active governance, it has been powerful to see the growth. Residents have shared their stories with the press, some speaking to media outlets for the first time. People also testified before their city council members for the first time and developed strong relationships with their representatives. Three residents and two of their children traveled with us to a conference in New Orleans and, despite some nerves, spoke before an audience of 500 people from around the country to share the Montevista story. Moments where people take their leadership to the next level are transformational.

Q: How did TLC inspire you to invest in training these leaders around conflict? Why is this so important?

Dre: One of the most powerful memories I have is from a TLC Fellowship retreat, where two leaders courageously addressed their tension by doing a conflict resolution circle in front of everyone. We are usually taught that conflict is something you go into defensively, thinking the outcome is to be right and that there will be a winner and a loser. Yet witnessing the powerful moment between my peers in front of our whole cohort was transformative. It solidified the importance of approaching conflict from a place of understanding, where we truly hear where everyone is coming from. This experience taught me that conflict transformation is nuanced.

Unresolved conflict can be disruptive and its damage irreversible. The Montevista community is not immune. I have heard of this happening at other parks where their resident-owned projects fell into receivership, which means their parks will likely be sold off to a corporate landlord. That is why educating residents, partners, and funders about fostering a culture of transforming conflict in healthy ways is as important as the capital project itself. The Montevista residents are not only committing to buying together, but to living together, potentially for the rest of their lives. There is a lot at stake. If we don’t establish governance structures and practices that sustain this community for the long haul, all that has been achieved so far could be lost.

Celesté: During my experience at the TLC Fellowship, it was integral for me to see other women of color and queer folx of color as full-time facilitators and coaches, and it offered me inspiration to pursue a similar path. TLC helped plant the seed to launch my consulting business. Consulting often gives me the vantage point of viewing things from a 30,000 foot view of our Colorado ecosystem, and I see a major capacity gap around conflict transformation, and especially for those who support Spanish speaking and bilingual communities. Our movement spaces need to grow more comfortable with moving through conflict to heal and deepen connection, and they need more practitioners to offer this type of support. The reality is that people are really hungry for these opportunities. As I stay engaged with TLC and connect with fellows over the years, I continue to hear that moving through conflict resolution has been truly impactful and transformative for people.

In the work with Monte Vista residents, Naomi and I were able to explain the historical context behind our frequent desire to win in conflict stems from the roots of both colonization and conquest. This inheritance often unfolds in our interpersonal interactions and communal dynamics, and we are often unconscious to these dynamics. This is why tending to the many aspects of communities and culture must include stewarding conflict and learning the art of compromise, so people can come into alignment and right relationship with one another.

Seeing participants personal growth from their experience in this committee and their desire to share learnings with the greater community was transformative. In one example, two leaders experienced a moment of conflict during the training and Naomi and I were able to move through it by applying approaches we were teaching. Instead of reenacting a victim-perpetrator binary, the leaders involved took the time to reflect on their own contributions to the tension and committed to compassionately reconnecting and continuing their working together. People’s willingness to self-reflect was evident and powerful to witness.

Q: What is the connection between conflict transformation work and solidarity?

Celesté: Addressing the culture of competition is part of solidarity building, and I see this as an antidote to address divisions. “Oppression Olympics” insists on identifying whose suffering is the greatest, which fuels interpersonal and communal conflicts. We tend to compete for the same resources in the nonprofit sector, especially in these times, as foundations further hoard resources or shy away from investing in innovative community strategies. In this way, our communities are intentionally pitted against one another, so we must find opportunities for collaboration and knit together points of intersection.

As people with oppressed identities who experience direct violence – because of the melanin of our skin, our immigration status, our gender, sexuality, ability, and so much more – we are often reacting out of self-preservation. A lot of times, we respond from an activated nervous system response or from a trauma response, and we don’t often have the opportunity to come back to equilibrium within our bodies. One of the most important pieces of our work with the Montevist committee was cultivating spaces for nervous system regulation, because this is a major root cause of the unaddressed or unresolved conflicts that disrupt our potential for connection.

“As people with oppressed identities who experience direct violence – because of the melanin of our skin, our immigration status, our gender, sexuality, ability, and so much more – we are often reacting out of self-preservation. A lot of times, we respond from an activated nervous system response or from a trauma response, and we don’t often have the opportunity to come back to equilibrium within our bodies.”

~ Celesté Martinez

Dre: Justice for the People is a law firm that thrives in winning cases. While it’s true that we intend to win when we go to court, we also recognize that these fights occur within a colonial justice system that doesn’t work for our communities, that upholds laws that don’t work for us. We recognize that lawsuits are not a silver bullet; they are a tool in the toolbox that has largely been inaccessible to our communities, which we are slowly but surely trying to change. As leaders, we can’t solely depend on these strategies and systems to “save us”; we need to continue to organize and create practices for our movement spaces and for our people, like the Montevista residents, who are trying to live and thrive together. There are so many outside forces that want this resident-owned project to fail, that want to buy up this property and both exploit and displace people. When tensions come up in interpersonal connections, we need to remember that we are not each other’s enemies. If we don’t have that foundation, we are not going to be able to care for and protect each other. Our job is to create spaces to heal and resist duplicating punitive practices that ultimately disrupt the fabric of our communities. There are other solutions!