Leah Obias: There's a way in which integrating grief and loss and being able to mourn fully and experience what that means--while also engaging in social justice work--has been a big part of my past year and a half.
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Jennifer Ching: Our grant making decisions are made by New Yorkers who together have decades of grassroots organizing experience. Many are connected to current or former North Star Fund grantees. And so who are the people that make our funding decisions? Well, let's meet two of them. North Star Fund program associate Leyana Dessauer comes to us with a depth of experience in the climate justice movement. And in this episode, Leona interviews two of our grantmakers, both of whom have deep local organizing roots in New York City, as well as national and international experience. They're a great example of how hyperlocal doesn't actually mean small. When you connect hyperlocal work across issue areas and borders and geography, its impact is greater than people generally understand. Let's listen to how our grantmakers are meeting the moment.
Leyana Dessauer: I'm Leyana Dessauer, and I'm the program associate of North Star Fund. For this episode of Meeting the Moment, I'm interviewing two members of our Community Funding Committee, which we sometimes call our CFC. First, I'm going to talk with Leah Obias, then Rob Robinson. Together, they've served 15 years on the CFC and reviewed literally hundreds of grant applications, sat for many site visits, and helped shape the strategy of North Star Fund's grant making. They were both engaged in leadership in our grant making during the pandemic, even as we shifted to a streamlined process and welcomed some new grantees. I want to welcome Leah to Meeting the Moment. Leah was part of the founding team of former grantee Ugnayan Youth for Justice and was campaign coordinator for Damayan Migrant Workers Association for over a decade, where they worked on many campaigns for safety and justice, particularly for domestic and care workers. We invited Leah to the podcast because of their commitment and leadership on the CFC, and I'm excited for them to speak with us about the challenges of organizing and grant making during the pandemic.
Leyana Dessauer: I wanted to ask about some of what you've been doing since the summer of 2020 to start us off.
Leah Obias: Great. Yes. I'm excited to be here. Thanks, Leyana and the team at North Star. It's been a journey with North Star Fund, I'm always happy and engaged and energized by North Star Fund's work and being part of the North Star Fund community. You know, in thinking and reflecting on what to talk about today, the first thing that comes to mind when I think about the past year and a half is like what I've been up to--the first thing that comes to mind, honestly--is really about holding space and supporting my family and my community just in terms of the enormous amount of stress and grief and loss of the pandemic. And I just wanted to start off by naming that and recognizing that we're in a very tender time and the communities where I live and love have been experiencing a lot of loss. Loss of loved ones, loss of elders, loss of close chosen family and friends to COVID. So, you know, just to recognize that each of us are engaged in social change work and we're engaged in the day-to-day work of transforming society, that we're also deeply embedded in our relationships. And so the impacts of this time are also felt in a deeply personal way.
Leah Obias: I was not immune to that. I went through times where my family contracted COVID. Both my parents did, and they survived it. And we had to sort of go through a period of stress in terms of separation from them and not knowing how to care for them from a distance. And then we went through an enormous loss during the summer as well in our family. So, and I guess it sort of sounds strange to say, it's not something to be proud of necessarily to have sort of gone through the past year and a half and and sort of just survived it. But also there's a way in which integrating grief and loss and being able to mourn fully and experience what that means--while also engaging in social justice work--has been a big part of my past year and a half. Embracing ceremony, lighting candles, holding each other and being in relationship with each other has been a pretty defining feature.
Leah Obias: I wanted to just kind of lift up, there is this piece that was written by Malkia Devich-Cyril called "Grief Belongs in Social Movements. Can We Embrace It?" And I think that that piece was really helpful and important to me as I was navigating some pretty tough moments over the past year and a half and also thinking about how we as a movement, like what we're experiencing in the pandemic, has movement-wide implications in terms of how we--not just individually--how we integrate grief but how we as a movement integrate grief while sort of meeting the moment, which is a moment of a lot of loss. But you know, in 2019, pre-pandemic, I made a move to national work. I had been doing, as you mentioned, local community organizing in New York City for many years. In the Filipino community in particular, and then prior to 2019, the past couple of years before 2019, with more of a focus on labor and worker protections in particular, through New York City's Labor Office.
Leah Obias: So through the organization that I'm working with now, Race Forward, we've been sort of leveraging resources and this broad national platform to support local groups that are organizing for climate solutions in particular. And one thing that we found is that as our movements are deeply engaged in waging campaigns, engaging in policy change, fighting for those policy wins, that there's also this tremendous need for interventions at the level of narrative and culture. Meaning to say, support around how to tell the stories of our communities and how those stories build up to a deeper narrative of what it is that we're fighting for and what is the vision that we're fighting for for a transformative world. And so we did some work with grassroots groups on storytelling and narrative strategy early on in the pandemic as we were going virtual. And working with particularly groups doing climate justice work in their communities around the country. And I think it was a new realm of social justice reform. So I learned a lot from cultural workers and storytellers and story weavers on how to engage in those fights when the right has their narrative around the false solutions around climate, around denying climate chaos in general, but also just sort of thinking about how to make more visible the stories of the impacts of climate on Black, Indigenous and people of color communities, but also how BIPOC communities have been pushing for climate solutions and have the solutions from the ground up. That's been sort of a focus of the past, I would say, year and a half since I have started doing national work.
Leyana Dessauer: That's very cool and kind of ties into some of what I wanted to ask you about, about the connection between the national work you're doing and the local organizing, which you have the deep history with. Can you share a little more about some of the things you're most proud of that you've been able to do since last summer in the context of that work?
Leah Obias: In the context of the narrative strategy work, we were able to engage with other field building organizations who are doing work on story based strategy. It was originally going to be a convening and became a web series that really focused on storytelling strategy, culture, and narrative strategy. And part of that was also being able to leverage philanthropy to follow the lead of grassroots organizations and really leverage resources to the ground in that time where groups really needed resources that were less bound by grant guidelines and restrictions, and people were doing a lot of rapid response work, mutual aid work. And this was, again, earlier on in the pandemic. And so as part of that initiative, we were not only providing frameworks and tools around narrative and cultural strategy, but we were also leveraging resources to the organizations who were participating in the series and in this convening. And so I think one big part of the work at the national level has also been to engage philanthropy. And I think a lot of the practice of North Star really informed the way that I show up in relationship to philanthropy because North Star, of course, is the model. So when the pandemic hit, a lot of what North Star was already doing sort of became the direction and showed what was possible for funders. So things like the trust-based philanthropy framework of deep, multi-year investments, general operating funding, these are the things that we were able to really push for, for funders particularly in the climate realm, to really think about how to support our communities.
Leyana Dessauer: What are the things you've been most proud of in the last year and a half?
Leah Obias: North Star has been able to be really nimble in very unpredictable times, where there has been an urgent, really urgent need on the ground for resources, and has been able to be incredibly responsive by renewing funding without putting a burden on the local groups to submit regrant proposals and things like that. And so I think just that model of really relying on the organizations that we know to continue meeting the needs of our communities in this moment and really trusting that the community based organizations in New York City that we are in relationship with as North Star, that they have the solutions and that what our role really is, is to support them and mobilize resources in support of their work. I think that that's been something I've been incredibly proud of and as I was saying before, I think is a model for the way in which I engage with other funders who are working in potentially other areas around the country.
Leyana Dessauer: What are some things that you're glad that you didn't do in response to the crises of the last two years? You kind of touched earlier on taking time for for grieving and for being with loved ones?
Leah Obias: Yeah, definitely. One thing I'm glad I didn't do is sort of try to power through those moments of needing to pause and mourn. That's definitely true. You know, one thing I'm glad I didn't do is I'm glad I didn't move. I think working for a national organization, but also knowing that some of my friends and neighbors left the city. And people did that out of necessity, in a lot of ways, and needed to be closer to family, and having different work opportunities, and wanting to engage in movement in different ways. And so I think it made sense for a lot of folks. But I love New York. I love the city, and I love the movement work that happens here, and I feel deeply committed to it. And it feels right to have been in the city during the uprising, during the actions, in response to anti-Asian violence, I think was important to engage on the street to have been witness to and on some level participated in all of the mutual aid that was going on around the pandemic and to just to sort of feel what it was like to be in the city during this time. I'm glad that I stayed in New York.
Leyana Dessauer: Gotcha. Yeah. So who is inspiring you most these days? And we are not fishing for you to say North Star Fund, but in general, the work or organizations or people who are inspiring you these days?
Leah Obias: Oh, well, North Star Fund always inspires me. But I think one initiative that has really been energizing to witness and support has been the Red, Black and Green New Deal and work that launched and has been anchored in the South through the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy and other groups in the Gulf South, in partnership and through the Movement for Black Lives. I think this initiative is really essential as a movement that puts forward a framework around climate that is comprehensive and that centers is Black liberation and Black leadership in a field that has really been largely mainstream and white led. When we think about the environmental movement, and the attention and resources that have gone to white led organizations and big green organizations, I think to have an initiative come out during this time that really looks at climate from many different perspectives and what they call pillars in terms of thinking comprehensively around the transformative change that is really needed at the scale that it's needed. The fact that it is coming from the South and that the political and historic importance of supporting a movement, initiative and framework that comes from the South and impacted communities along the Gulf Coast, I think has been really inspiring to see that that has been launched. And the way in which they're organizing, I think has been really inspiring.
Leyana Dessauer: Yeah, awesome. A little bit more about your experience on the Community Funding Committee. I wanted to ask, looking forward to 2022, what are you excited about with work on the CFC?
Leah Obias: I'm excited to learn basically about new organizing that's been going on. I think that it's been really, really essential, as I was saying, to support the organizations that North Star has been supporting, to continue those deep investments in communities and organizations that we know and trust. And know that they know the work and are doing the work. I think moving into the next period, I'm excited to, as I mentioned, learn about new organizing that has been birthed or seeded in the pandemic and in this uprising, and to support new organizations, which is, I think, what is so beautiful about North Star. North Star has always been that funder that takes risks on new organizing initiatives and models. And I'm excited to do that again, to take those risks again by really learning about what groups on the ground are doing, what young people are doing and what new strategies have emerged.
Leyana Dessauer: For sure. Awesome. So I wanted to just thank you so much. Thank you so much to Leah Obias for having this conversation with us.
Leah Obias: Thank you!
Leyana Dessauer: Rob was a member of our Community Funding Committee, which we sometimes call the CFC, from 2010 to 2021, making him one of the longest serving members. And like most CFC members, he has a really deep history with local, national and international organizing, particularly around housing and human rights. Rob Robinson is a member of the Campaign to Restore National Housing Rights, a policy and research organization supported by Partners for Dignity and Rights, which was formerly National Economic and Social Rights Initiative. And he is also a member of the Land and Housing Action Group of the Take Back the Land National Movement and a member of the U.S. Human Rights Network. And to kick us off, I would like to just ask what has this time of the pandemic been like for you and what stands out to you?
Rob Robinson: It's been a good time for me to reflect Leyana, and thank you for inviting me. But you know, as I look back, I would normally attend meetings in person. And there was a lot of Zoom meetings and online meetings that I suddenly found myself into. And sometimes as many as six a day and I constantly had people push back on me and say, How come you're so calm? And I think a lot of it has to do with my own personal history, of which I think you know quite a bit about, I'm formerly homeless. And you know, there was a lot of wondering what was in front of you during that time. I would wonder when I woke up in the morning what that day would bring. How am I going to eat? What's going to happen? But suddenly, through this pandemic, I found myself with a home, money in my pocket, and just trying to help other people solve problems and particularly the ones amongst homeless folks who were told to shelter in place. Well, what did that mean if you don't have a shelter? And it just gave me a good time to reflect and sort of lift up my organizing a little bit.
Leyana Dessauer: Definitely, yeah. Can you share a couple of the things you're most proud of that you've been able to do since last summer?
Rob Robinson: Yeah, I think, well, a couple of things. One, I was able to set an example for folks like myself in New York City who are on fixed or low income. I moved into a new apartment in Harlem, which is a Section Eight apartment, and many people were frustrated with a process in New York City to achieve affordable homes called New York City Housing Connect. But that process was seemingly seamless for me. Why? I don't know. I always attribute a little bit of it to saying that people involved, the elected and appointed officials or the agencies involved, knew who I was as an activist and an organizer, and they made sure that that process went a certain way. That's my own conspiracy theory. I don't know if that's so true. But it also reinforced to me how difficult this process could be for other folks. So that process from start to finish was close to a year, 11 and a half months. So can a family who's desperately waiting for a home wait 11 and a half months? I was privileged enough that I could wait, but others couldn't. So that's probably the biggest achievement, but also the fact that we got an eviction moratorium in New York going back to March of 2020. That was huge. That's something that I've been working on, period, because evictions are violent, but working with the Right to Counsel Coalition and Housing Justice for All. We sort of put pressure on New York State's Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, and that started around March 12th, which I believe was a Thursday. And if I'm correct, by Sunday at five o'clock, we had a hand typed letter from Janet DiFiore saying I surrender, there's a three month eviction moratorium. I took that document and I passed it to comrades all over the world. This is how you do it, folks, and this is a process we went through. And here's the official document. Push your courts, push your government agencies, etc. So that's it. Those two moments that were huge for me during the pandemic, you know, one change in the conditions of people living in precarious situations and then myself, not so much that my condition was precarious, but I know there's been a struggle to get affordable housing in New York City, and I was able to obtain it through a process laid out by the government. So that offers some encouragement to people who are going through struggle.
Leyana Dessauer: Right. Thank you so much. Huge victory too, with the eviction moratorium.
Rob Robinson: But let me be clear, right? They kept reinstating it along the way. And we suddenly realized we have to stop calling it an eviction moratorium because the moratorium means it stops. You know, these eviction moratoriums that we were getting had a limited life span, right? So we started calling them temporary protections, pushing back on the system. Let's change what this actually is because it's not a moratorium. You're not stopping, you're just temporarily protecting us for the time being. And that led to a lot of anxiety and many of the people living in the city wondering what's going to happen at the end of that timeframe. So just wanted to put a little clarity on that.
Leyana Dessauer: Yeah, thank you. So you were organizing for many years prior to the pandemic. What about your work before 2020 prepared you for the times we're in now, where we're dealing with many crises, all at the same time?
Rob Robinson: So I would think, Leyana, that the biggest preparation that I went through was the work that I was involved in of Take Back the Land. It's also a sense of pride for me. Take Back the Land was a movement that was born out of the financial crisis and the foreclosure crisis of 2008. We saw low-income people of color in marginalized communities suffer the most from the foreclosure crisis and evictions. And our methodology was to move them back into those homes that they were evicted from and use international human rights law and standards to protect their right to be in that home, versus the civil law that this country has adopted some 400 years ago, written in good old boys language that was there to protect a select few. But having the access to foreign constitutions in different countries that were created in more recent times, I really got a view on how a constitution can be written to work for the people. And many times it's those countries that we point our fingers at that we say are not doing the job. So I would say South Africa, Brazil, those are two constitutions in the world that really protect people's rights and guarantees the right to a home. Now I want to be clear, they don't always actualize it. It's a little tough to actualize it, but it is written in that constitution, so you have a tool for organizing once you have a document that's written like that.
Leyana Dessauer: Interesting. Got it. Can you share some of the experiences in your time on the Community Funding Committee that have been the most meaningful or stood out that you're the most proud of?
Rob Robinson: Well, going in that work has been special to me. I think for me personally, it meant being committed to social justice in New York, working directly with North Star Fund, a funder that is really embedded in the community and supporting real community struggles of which people of color are going through. What has always stood out to me is the number of groups that surface, and I'm one that knows many of the groups in New York, but every time we go through this process and I find there are groups doing good work in New York that I didn't even know. And I think that's the fantastic part. But I also think the other good part of it is meeting the good organizers who were part of that community funding committee that you get to collaborate with, think through with and and really build with. Because I may not be one who is interested in education, but all of a sudden I'm sitting next to an organizer who cares quite a bit about education and is working in that field. I work housing, most of the time I was working around the land and housing, but there's a direct correlation and you start to build those links and you understand what has created social injustice in this country and that it's all linked, so you can map it and put threads through all those different issues.
Leyana Dessauer: Mm-Hmm. And making those connections.
Rob Robinson: Absolutely. The connections are endless. And they continue. Yeah, I stepped down after 11 years, but the connections I've made over the years are connections that I'll hold for a lifetime.
Leyana Dessauer: Yeah. So this might connect, but who is inspiring you these days in terms of organizing, the organizing work you're seeing, or as a member of the Community Funding Committee? And we're not fishing for you to say North Star Fund, but in general, who is inspiring you?
Rob Robinson: I think there is quite a bit of of inspiration that I pull. I'm probably the senior member, not only by length of service on the funding committee, but also by age. So I'm watching young organizers take control of the situation well, understand the forces they're up against and really build collaboratively to make social change. So, you know, I would look at the folks working in education, I think is huge. The folks working on workers' rights. Those rights have gone unprotected for years. Even with unions in place. There are shops that don't have unions. The unions haven't been as strong as they could be, right? The role of unions has decreased over the last few years, and workers have paid the price to rank and file. The upper members of the union have prospered from the situation, but the rank and file, the people on the ground have suffered. Unions don't take care of the people the way they used to. So to see folks organizing workers is pretty incredible. A lot of undocumented folks rising up and pushing back, right? I could go through the different groups, groups that North Star has funded, groups that I get to work with. I'm on the board of the Laundry Workers Center. I think many of you know their story. That's a sense of pride for me. Like, OK, I was asked to be on the board of these fierce workers who are pushing back on the system that's been oppressive over a number of years and really making dynamite change. I could wax poetic about all of the groups that North Star funds, the people that serve on the Community Funding Committee, but it is, you know, it's a communal effort. It's people working together and supporting one another, which is a big part of the way I like to do the work. I think if you're going to make real social change, you need collaboration. You need people building power by coming together collectively.
Leyana Dessauer: Yeah, definitely. What do you think that organizers need the most right now to meet the challenges of the times that we're in? And obviously funding is a big part. But in addition to funding as well.
Rob Robinson: I think resources, I think we have a real need and opportunity to provide ongoing political and popular education. If there's one big criticism that I have of our work, it's not being able to provide that to organizations and their members. I think we need organizational education. People need to understand how to run an organization. Their intentions might be well, but they may not have the skill set to run an organization, to receive funding, to distribute wages, et cetera. And you know, this organizational structure that needs to be part of an ongoing educational series. But I do think overall, if we're to make social change, we need to institutionalize popular and political education. And it can't just be in the moment. It can't be in the moment. All of a sudden it's COVID. We have to organize and we have to run out in support. It has to be ongoing, right? And then, you know, I again, I hate to keep doing this, but this is my connection to Brazil with the MST school and the people who are structured, understanding the theater of the oppressed. The MST school is built upon the theories of Paulo Freire. And you you really want to have people understand the conditions that they're living in, how to make change and how to move forward, and I think that's so important. But unfortunately, sometimes we're suffering so much that we just don't have the time. So how do we create those spaces? How do we make time to implement and to put in place ongoing political and popular education? That's the big wish for me. I think that would make a lot of change.
Leyana Dessauer: Cool, thank you. What are some of the biggest lessons or what is the biggest lesson that you're taking from this time?
Rob Robinson: If you provide your voice and you work collaboratively, you can make change. We saw that with anti-Black racism and after the killing of George Floyd, we saw people come together, particularly young folks, I have a huge sense of pride for the young folks that took it to the streets right after George Floyd was killed. I would sit in this very office and hear the chants on the street down here by South Street Seaport. I'm not of an age where I can go back in the streets like I used to. But those young folks were in the streets and what was a moment of pride for me was when I would see photos of young Black folks in the street protesting. But there are white allies standing next to them, and in many instances, when the police formed a line, the white allies would step in front of their Black allies and say, "If you're going to start shooting and swinging, you're going to have to hit us first." And that was, you know, to see those photos. To me, that was a change from a historical context that didn't always happen. And I think that made a change. I think the other thing is you saw divisions that I've always witnessed in my time organizing in New York suddenly congeal. And what do I mean by that? The housing movement came together. They realized when the government is chanting shelter in place and people are facing eviction and the violence of eviction court, you saw movements, housing movements and organizations come together like never before in my opinion, for the 13, 14 years that I've been doing this organizing in New York. So those are two huge moments during the pandemic. And then I think the third thing was an ability to share, much like I shared the story of sharing the eviction moratorium, you know, strategies were talked about across the country. Some cities were more successful than others, but the cities that were successful got with the cities that weren't so successful and said this is the strategies and tactics that we use. And you know, you can highlight it and this is how we won it. So the hope was that that would spread across the country. And I think it did in many aspects. Eviction moratoriums started popping up all over the place because they realized the government can't talk out of both sides of its mouth. By that, I mean, you can't say shelter in place at the same time that you're overseeing state violence by evicting people from their homes. It's a total contradiction. So I think the movement highlighted that and was able to change the landscape with respect to that.
Leyana Dessauer: When you think about 2022, what are you going to be focused on and what are you most concerned about?
Rob Robinson: So the biggest focus for me is creating opportunities for homeless folks to be housed. I think just before the pandemic, we saw homelessness in New York rise to unprecedented levels and particularly street homelessness. We saw storms come across recently that just destroyed people's homes in Queens. When you think about it, those folks are facing homelessness. But at the same time, there is an existence of former hotels that have shut down in New York City and have shut down permanently. It's an opportunity for our state government and our city government to move in, take those buildings and create housing for those most in need. Even though I'm homeless, I will go to my grave saying shelter is not the answer. People are homeless because they don't have a home. So how do we provide homes? And I think we have an opportunity like never before. I'm also optimistic because we heard something come out of our president's mouth that I've never heard from any other president. And that is, "people have a right to a home." Hello? Say that again. Say that again, President Biden. People have a right to a home. So now it's up to us to really push him and say, What does that mean? What does that mean to you, President Biden? And how do we provide those homes? You're the leader of the free world, provide us the path. Provide us the blueprint to get people housed because homelessness has risen to unprecedented numbers not only here in New York, but clean across the country.
Leyana Dessauer: Awesome. Thank you, Rob, for taking time to talk with me today about meeting the moment.
Rob Robinson: Thank you.
Kathleen Pequeño: Meeting the Moment is a North Star Fund podcast. Thanks so much to our magician of an audio engineer, Greg Lakhan. If you visit northstarfund.org/moment, you'll find all the episodes, including transcripts and links related to each episode's guest. Thanks so much for listening.