10:06am | In Part 1 of my interview with Eric Leocadio, he spoke about the transformative processes that led him to the creation of the Catalyst Network of Communities which, since 2006, has supported the missions of other organizations, and helped to facilitate and sustain connections between them, and with the community at large.
In Part 2, we discuss the unique role that Catalyst has played, and how Eric’s leadership has helped to solidify and strenthen many emerging community organizations. I asked him how the process began.
Eric: It was early in 2006 when I realized a broader vision, to see all parts of our city connect more meaningfully. I’d seen and been to events, plenty of them, but I wondered how much ‘relationship’ was actually happening. This led to a natural question, for me: How can we facilitate relationship? so, my process began with wondering how does one catalyze tangible relationships within the community?
Sander: Can you help me to understand exactly what you mean by ‘relationship?’
Eric: I describe ‘relationship’ as an intentional ongoing connection where trust and authenticity progressively develops. I would like to see a community where people trust each other more, or at least begin the process of building that trust. Community events are great, but they are simply a context that facilitates ongoing relationship. If we don’t see each other or talk with each other after the event, then how meaningful was the connection?
Sander: There’s also a qualitative component to this communication. I mean, talking about the weather can be a basis for further dialog but, eventually, individuals need to be willing to open up a bit, to take risks, and share what they really care about.
Eric: But qualitative doesn’t always mean serious. I think that when people “connect” around shared interests, that begins the process. Eventually the connection develops. But something as simple as follow up can be powerful in beginning the process of building relationship. So, in much of my process, I wanted to explore this concept of building relationship. What does it really look like? If we can start there, we can build community in a much more sustainable way. Events bring people together, but they don’t keep people together. So, in trying to catalyze community, we start with building trust between individuals.
In 2006, I didn’t have much “program.” I incorporated the organization in April of 2006 as Catalyst Long Beach and, on the surface, it looked like I wasn’t really doing anything because all I was doing was getting to know people, and letting them get to know me. I’d always ask them about their vision and heart for their organization, and for the City, and about the things they were doing: Their programs and events. I’d ask their permission to tell others about them. I wanted to be their biggest cheerleader, so this meant I wasn’t a threat. In a community where, sometimes, organizations see each other as competition, this was important.
As I spoke with people over coffee or lunch or dinner, I told them about others that I had met
and, if I found similarities or common interests, I’d mention “my friend that you should meet.” So in terms of my process, once I built trust with individuals, I then facilitated introductions between those individuals, and encourage them to stay connected.
Sander: What was the first connection you facilitated that bore fruit?
Eric: In the beginning, since I was still pretty fresh in terms of my journey with faith & sexuality, they were connections between individuals, not just organizations. I’d speak with people about my journey, and theirs, and often times they wanted to meet other gay Christians. It seemed like an oxymoron, but some of the first connections that i helped facilitate were between gay individuals on a journey through faith. Eventually, I found myself having connected with a lot of gay christians who weren’t connected to a particular church,
so I helped them to build community amongst themselves.
I have found that the relational approach translates across various interest areas. If we can help people to build familiarity with each other, then that begins trust. As trust develops, relationship builds and authenticity is offered. As relationship develops, shared interests become known, and then they naturally develop partnerships with each other.
At the core, this is the process I’ve applied in every context. Events are never the goal. I see and plan and organize events as a simple way to facilitate familiarity between people, and I encourage them to just keep showing up. I’ve found that the “catalyst” in this process is introduction and edification. Facilitating introductions between people is the bridge building. Then I edify people to each other, that is, I speak well of them. I extend my trust and say, “Hey, you can trust this person too.” It seems really basic, I know, but it’s surprising how much you don’t see it.
Sander: One of the challenges I’ve struggled with is that people in the community get an idea, but don’t take the time to assess existing resources, and develop competing efforts. How do we help people let go of the desire for ownership and, in its place, establish a desire for collective effort and mutual benefit?
Eric: First, we have to cast common vision, while realizing that it is natural and okay that individuals have their own vision, mission, and agendas. The key is to help people to see how their own personal or organizational vision is, or can be, in alignment with a common community vision. I think it’s exciting when someone has an idea, and I want to encourage that, but we’ve got to do that in a way that doesn’t squash their enthusiasm.
On a broader scale, we’ve got to look at the city and, if we want to go in a direction where people share resources and reduce redundancy, we first have to map what currently is out there. Most of the time, when someone has an idea about something, they don’t know what else is out there that is similar and, most importantly, they don’t know how to look. One of the things Catalyst is starting to do is chart or map what’s already happening. We don’t have this map yet, but we’re starting with the connections we’ve made, and then connecting with other entities that have some sort of listing or database. The thing that I think is unique to what we’re trying to do is that we’re not simply wanting to create just another database. We want them to know each other, to know about each other, then to work with each other.
Imagine the City with all of its buildings and walls and streets. In your mind’s eye, remove all the concrete and asphalt and physical objects and see what’s left in the City: Large clusters of people, pockets of people throughout the City. Some are connected, and some are not. What I want to do is begin to connect these clusters and pockets of people together, and form relational bridges and roads throughout the city, so that if anyone wanted to do an event, campaign, project, or anything all that he or she would need to do is navigate this relational network. I call this the Relational Infrastructure of the City. It’s there, invisible. We just need to bring it to the surface so that people and organizations can connect. So, back to your question: Mapping is key.
Second is building the willingness to share resources. That’s where trust comes in. If we continue to engage that relational process, trust will naturally and gradually build and, as we continue to cast common community vision, the willingness to share resources happens. Because we’re catalyzing that shift in people’s paradigms from me to we, from my to our, I also think that sure we’ll have entities with similar efforts. That’s okay too. We don’t need one organization doing one thing, and only them. One organization can’t effectively serve the needs of the entire community. What we do need is for similar organizations to collaborate around a common community vision. If they are serving the same demographic, we need to encourage similar organizations to collaborate, share resources, and to shift away from seeing each other as competition. They are partners in serving the same population.
Sander: Absolutely! I do, however, see that, sometimes, having competing efforts can cause problems. For example, most people have one phone book. I get two or three each year, and recycle all but one. On the web, we have many sites that are serving as cultural portals for Long Beach. Each has a unique flavor, perspective, and voice. Still, I believe that if they were to combine their efforts into one site, they would collectively have far more impact than they do individually.
Eric: Yeah, I see that too. That’s where mapping is important. Relational mapping requires us to connect with all the phone book makers (directories), and cast a common vision. We first have to get to the heart of why they are producing it in the first place. That’s important to preserve. If we can help connect their “why” to the common vision, in this case the value of centralized information, then they can gain some ownership over the concept. Now, that said, I’m all for balance. I don’t necessarily advocate all the time for the centralization of information, but I love to see the coordination of information.
If we can get them all in the same room, whoever “them” is, and help them to own a common vision that is consistent with their own organizational/personal missions, then I think they will be able to find more effective ways of coordinating within their context. Ownership is key, though. For me, as a catalyst, it’s more important to cast vision for direction, and let people come up with their own directions for how to get there together. It is ‘direction vs. directions.’ I don’t tell them how to do it, just why they should figure it out together.
To a large degree, being a catalyst differs from being an activist. Being a catalyst is a much more relational approach that involves letting go much quicker. Being an activist involves rallying people around a common cause and leading the charge. They are two different approaches, with similar aspects, but both are absolutely needed. Activists raise awareness above the surface. Catalysts forge relational connections under ground to keep things sustainable. Imagine if activists and catalysts worked and coordinated together!
Sander: Can you site any specific successes in your Catalyst efforts where you were able to help people find a shared vision?
Eric: In about February and March of 2009 Elliot Gonzales heard about Catalyst, and learned about our vision for seeing our City inspired with a greater sense of community, collaboration, and citizenship through meaningful relationships. He had an idea for having a festival that brought together all of the various Green organizations from throughout our city, but he knew that he needed help to see his idea become a reality. I told him that the festival, as an event, was a good idea but since Catalyst is about ongoing connections, we needed to help all these organizations stay connected beyond the festival.
We were excited about the prospect of doing both so, in March of 2009, we partnered together to host the first annual Green Long Beach! Festival in May of 2009. [laughs] That meant that we had two and a half months to do this. We formed a core team of people who represented several different organizations. Each person owned a piece of the festival. Each person tapped into their own personal and organizational networks. The reason why we were able to pull it off in such a short period of time was because we took this collaborative approach. We brought together over 270 artists, performers, businesses, and organizations.
Sander: In organizing the festival, aside from establishing and maintaining the organizational relationships, how was success for the event defined?
Eric: Considering we started with zero budget, success was defined by the willingness of all those 270 entities to come together. All of the artists and performers, bands and all, did everything in-kind. So, from our perspective, we knew that the success of our efforts with the festival would be measured by how well they connected after the festival.
So part of the festival planning process included post-festival planning. We told all the participants, ahead of time, that we were going to meet together after the festival to discuss ongoing connections and partnerships, and that’s what we did. We gathered about 60 people in someone’s backyard and cast vision for a collaborative community, with the shared vision of seeing a Green Long Beach.
Sander: It seems, though, that if the sole goal was organizational relationships, then the planning and post event planning could have taken place without the event itself. I say this not to be snarky or anything, but I think that this is a key and fundamental mistake that many people make. They plan the event, but don’t plan on marketing it to the public. When I was there, it felt very much like something the participants organized for each other.
Eric: I think the festival was a catalyst for the process.
Sander: That makes for a good process, but not necessarily for a good festival.
Eric: Much of that has more to do with the two and a half months of planning, with a grassroots approach and zero budget. If we take a step back and look at most events that Catalyst does, it’s always less about the event and more about the connections. We always debrief the event afterwards, and identify areas of growth. That’s kind of Catalyst’s approach to leadership development. It’s not academic. It’s hands-on. We tell people, “it’s okay to make mistakes. It’s okay to just do it. If you have an idea, rally people around the idea and do it together.” The ‘together’ part is our measure of success. We can always do another event.
Sander: Since that first Festival, how have those relationships blossomed?
Eric: That first post-festival meeting led to the creation of our first collaborative community, using the same name as the festival that brought them together: Green Long Beach. In the past two years it’s been a process of them figuring out how they wanted to work with each other.
There are many relationships that have blossomed in that process. A relationship was developed with Kelly Curry and The Living Love Foundation. Aside from the personal friendships,
they worked together to develop a community garden in the Cabrillo Villages, on the West Side. (Stella Ursua helped at an information booth for an organization that was present at that first festival.) She soon got connected with the Green Long Beach team and, with her passion for creating Green Jobs, helped to facilitate workshops for the community.
On the same day as that first Green Long Beach Festival, Project Oasis spearheaded the Top of the Town Festival in North Long Beach. So, after the festival(s), I reached out to Carina and Antonio, who led me to Peter and Keith from Project Oasis. I organized a meeting so that we could discuss how we could collaborate in the future. We realized we had shared vision for bringing together arts groups, and that eventually led to the creation of the LBCreative! collaborative, which has led to numerous collaborative projects and events.
Catalyst, as an organization, helps to provide the context that brings people together. The rest is up to them!
We provide an infrastructure that supports collaborative communities like Green Long Beach and LBCreative, and also our three new ones: Long Beach Theatre Arts Collaborative (LBTAC), Helping People Share With A Purpose (HPSWAP) Collaborative, and the Teen Empowerment Colaborative. We also support collaborative projects like the Catalyst Space, the HUB, Urban Rhythm, the East Village Farmers Market Stage, and Dancing with Long Beach.
Sander: What’s HPSWAP?
Eric: It is comprised of resource-sharing organizations. Instead of creating a single database of resources (as if that’s a new concept) we decided that it’d be better to network all of these databases of resources. Granted, some of these aren’t actual databases but, in their own way, they provide material or volunteer resources to their communities. This collaborative will help them to develop ways that they can do this together more efficiently so that the scope and impact area is multiplied and, with the broader community tapping in to this network of resource-sharing organizations, then anyone can practically get or find or be pointed in the right direction for whatever resource they are looking for, be it volunteers or blankets.
Not only does Catalyst help launch these various collaboratives, but we network each of these collaboratives together so they literally can connect with new audiences, new resources, new pools of people.
Our next big event is April 2, 2011 when we will host our first annual Assembly of the Catalyst Network of Communities. The location is to be announced, but this will be a gathering of all of our collaborative communities, including all of the partner organizations, and individuals involved in each. Everyone brings everyone, not just a representative. The idea is to see and experience the Network in a tangible way. Each of our community catalysts from each of the collaboratives will have an opportunity to creatively address the Assembly about their respective collaboratives, and share their vision, their resources, their needs.
In addition, we’ll showcase the collaborative projects and the various partner organizations that participated so that everyone can see the tangible impact that we’re having by collaborating together. We’ll also have sponsors and funders at the assembly so they can see, and meet first hand, the people who are in the trenches, doing what they can to create a healthy and vibrant community.
This will also be a way for the general public to find specific ways to get connected, while helping those who are already connected in the Network to see that they are a part of something much bigger than their own project or collaborative. This won’t be just another conference. This is the literal gathering of our local community: A community of catalysts. This is how we, us little people, will gather the numbers for greater impact, with the hope that the City will recognize the intrinsic potential of such a body.
Sander: Are you planning any other efforts in the New Year?
Eric: Starting in January, I’m really hoping to begin our new Catalyst Emerging Leaders program. In a nutshell, I want to gather Executive Directors, Founders, and Business Owners who have been operating for LESS than 5 years, and help them to build relationships with each other. This will involve site visits to each person’s place of operation so that we can build a tangible and relational support system among these groups of emerging leaders while connecting them with what I call “5+ operators.” These would be Executive Directors, founders, and business owners who have been operating for more than five years. They would develop the sharing of experience, wisdom, and lessons: Mentorship.
Anyone interested should go to www.GoCatalyst.org and sign up to Become a Collaborative Partner. Any individual who wants to find ways of volunteering or meeting new friends should sign up and fill out a Connection Planner. Also, anyone who has volunteer opportunities can submit them at the website too. Our goal in the coming year is be more efficient at helping people to “connect and affect” in this city.
—
Next Monday, I’ll talk with Eric about the organizations he’s helped to foster, and what they’ve accomplished.