Stories of Philanthropic Leadership in Advancing Regional and ...

Yet the interpersonal dynamics of cross-coalitionbuilding can be both complex and at times, tentative.“Just because we share a passion,” remarks MOSES’organizer Victoria Kovari, “it doesn’t mean it will bea smooth ride or that the relationships will deepen.The trust doesn’t come right away. It’s built whenyou have shared values, vision, and commitment—it’s built when you deliver for each other.” AddsMOSES’ executive director, Ponsella Hardaway,“Our coalitions can be fragile because they arecomplex due to diversity and various self-interests.But the payoff is powerful when we agree to enterinto the struggle for equity together.”ResultsChicagoSince 1998, the Metropolitan Alliance ofCongregations (MAC) has fought for and won thecreation of a partnership with ten banks, providingup to $1 billion in loans for 13,000 families through2005. To ensure that the set-aside funds would beutilized, over 100 MAC member churches and sisterorganizations based in Aurora, Hazel Crest, Joliet,and Chicago, Ill., agreed to recruit and train familiesin homeownership. More recently, following the fall2004 closure of a Chicago West Side Hospital and amove to the suburbs, more than 3,000 individuals(white, African American, Latino, and others) andunion leaders gathered in Chicago to challenge whatGamaliel’s director of metro equity, Mike Kruglik,terms, a “landscape of abandonment and neglect thatis morally wrong.”At that meeting, veterans of the civil rightsmovement openly supported civil rights forimmigrants. And together, they found commonground with the health care workers union, ServiceEmployees International Union (SEIU) and its 400rank-and-file in attendance. Together, their crosscoalitionagenda called for immigration reform,expanded health care, fair school funding, andtransportation equity.Invited and responding to MAC’s communityagenda were Illinois Congressmen Luis Gutierrez,Danny Davis, and Jesse Jackson, Jr. Also inattendance and speaking was then Illinois Senatenominee, now U.S. Senator, Barack Obama.Congressman Gutierrez’s participation also providedan opportunity to highlight federal immigrationlegislation he sponsored in 2004. The SOLVE Act,introduced in May 2004, is an acronym for “TheSafe, Orderly, Legal Visas and Enforcement Act.”Earned legalization, strengthened worker protections,and family reunification are key issues that the billaddresses.DetroitIn Detroit, from 1997 to 2003, regional mass transit,new housing construction, and high target drugenforcement areas termed “Safe Zones” were all apart of the MOSES agenda. In fall 2004, afterregistering over 11,000 new voters, MOSES drewnearly 4,000 people to the University of Detroitcampus on a Sunday afternoon for a “RollingThunder” gathering. Rev. Kevin Turman, MOSES’president, opened the session with a fiery messageakin to his sermons at Detroit’s historic SecondBaptist Church: “When it’s praying time, we’ll pray.When it’s marching time, we’ll march. When it’slearning time, we will study. When it is workingtime, we will work. And when it’s voting time, wewill register, educate, activate, participate and thenmake sure every vote gets counted … We aredetermined to either change current politics orchange the current politicians.”Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm addressed the “Rolling Thunder”meeting in Detroit, September 26, 2004. (Source: Detroit MOSES).Sitting among the crowd and its chorus of “Amens”were two of Michigan’s most powerful electedEQUITABLE PUBLIC INVESTMENTPart III: Section 1: Promoting Equitable Public Investment 26