Celebrating Community Power and the Development of Community Ambassadors: Insights from Wildstyle’s Keynote at the 2024 Common Ground Gathering
Note: This is part of a series of posts related to storytelling the experiences of the 2024 Common Ground Gathering, held in Indianapolis (May 14–17) in celebration of The Learning Tree's 10th anniversary.
On Day 2 of the 2024 Common Ground Gathering, we celebrated The Learning Tree’s 10th anniversary with a powerful morning keynote by Wildstyle Paschall, a longtime member of The Learning Tree and lifelong practitioner of asset-based community development, who often goes by Wildstyle. His speech highlighted the transformative power of asset-based community development (ABCD), storytelling, and grassroots organizing while focusing on the evolution of the Community Ambassador project from the Roving Listener model. His keynote relayed the history of the Community Ambassadors, which is a collaboration between the Indianapolis Foundation and The Learning Tree designed to cultivate grassroots power and hold institutions accountable to communities.
Evolution from Roving Listening to Community Ambassadors
Wildstyle’s speech traced the journey from the initial Roving Listener model to the development of the Community Ambassador project. Initially, the Roving Listener model involved individuals like DeAmon Harges walking through neighborhoods, engaging with residents to uncover and connect community assets. Wildstyle explained, “When DeAmon started out, it was him strapping his kids on his back and walking around the neighborhood and talking to people.”
As the practice continued, institutions like The Indianapolis Foundation began to wonder how the Roving Listener approach might be able to influence their practices and decisions. This led to the creation of the Community Ambassador project, which formalized and expanded the principles of Roving Listening. Wildstyle shared how community ambassadors like himself used their unique skills — photography, videography, and storytelling — to document and promote the strengths of their communities. He stated, “As the roving illustrator, I work similar to the roving listener but approach things from a more visual way.”
Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD)
The essence of ABCD remained central in both models. Wildstyle emphasized the importance of recognizing and leveraging community assets instead of focusing on deficits. He mentioned, “We believe in abundance in our community,” and how this principle guided both Roving Listeners and Community Ambassadors in their work. Wildstyle also pointed out that this abundance is a source of community-based, grassroots power.
Storytelling as a Tool for Change
Storytelling is a powerful tool in both the Roving Listener and Community Ambassador roles. Wildstyle highlighted how stories were used to showcase community strengths and foster connections. “Stories are my currency, and my love for my neighbors is in my toolbox,” he said, referring to his own practice of using photography and videography to share the rich narratives of his community.
Community Ambassadors
The Community Ambassador project is built upon the foundation laid by Roving Listeners. Ambassadors acted as translators between residents and institutions, ensuring community voices were heard and respected. Wildstyle mentioned, “We are often connectors between residents working to make changes and institutions that are charged with the same task.” He shared a story about how ambassadors held institutions accountable during the pandemic when many social service agencies remained closed despite receiving significant funding.
“During the pandemic,” he said, “when the community social service agencies, which are affectionately called the community centers, in all of our neighborhoods, got hundreds of thousands of dollars in pandemic money to help support the community, most of them continued to have their doors shut with signs out there with a phone number to call. Meanwhile, people are under the threat of losing their homes… And I can tell you that the community, the Community Ambassadors caused a lot of trouble and said a lot of stuff that other people in the nonprofit industrial complex couldn’t say and keep their job.”
Importance of Relationships and Trust
Building trust and relationships was a cornerstone of both models. Wildstyle pointed out that Community Ambassadors operate like “wizards in the Lord of the Rings, using the slow, indirect magic of love, trust, relationships, and the knowledge of gifts and talents in our communities.” These relationships enabled ambassadors to move at the “speed of community,” facilitating change through social capital and trust.
Resistance to Inaction & Telling the Real Story
Both Roving Listeners and Community Ambassadors played critical roles in resisting inaction from the local government and demanding accountability. Wildstyle recounted his experience with the Central Indiana Community Foundation’s commitment to dismantling systemic racism and shared a poignant story about a die-in protest to highlight the city’s neglect of homicides in their neighborhood.
“In early 2019, not soon after the Central Indiana Community Foundation announced the ambassador program and a seismic shift in their mission statement to dismantle systemic racism,” Wildstyle said, “we did a lie-in and a die-in in front of the City-County Building downtown Indianapolis because the mayor and his people had said there had been no homicides in one of our neighborhoods for a year. Many of us personally knew the people that had been killed. It turns out that leadership from the Central Indiana Community Foundation and The Indianapolis Foundation were up in the mayor’s office while we were lying in the streets in front of his office. It was an awkward moment, but it was also a powerful statement about the neglect of homicides in our neighborhood.”
Grassroots Organizing
Grassroots efforts and local leadership are fundamental to the Community Ambassador model. Wildstyle shared how he and his neighbors took action to improve their community, from organizing protests to advocating for affordable housing. He recounted working with his friend Andy Beck to push for a community land trust in Indianapolis, which eventually led to the establishment of the Indianapolis Community Land Trust.
Critique of Institutional Practices
Wildstyle critiqued the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors, highlighting the challenges of working within what Majora Carter calls the “nonprofit industrial complex.” He stressed the need for accountability and genuine engagement, sharing frustrations when institutions failed to listen or act on community input. He described the early skepticism and challenges the Community Ambassador program faced and how they navigated their independence from institutional control.
“We work with CICF (Central Indiana Community Foundation),” Wildstyle said, “not for them.”
Personal and Collective Empowerment
Both models encourage community members to take action and participate in shaping their community, albeit in slightly different ways. Roving Listening is a street scanning process where individuals walk a neighborhood, converse with neighbors, and collect and share stories. The Community Ambassador model claims to use these stories as social capital, using them to shape and challenge institutional policies, leveraging grassroots power to check the power of institutions and local governments.
Wildstyle shared stories of how his community members came together to create art projects, organize community dinners, and support each other’s initiatives. One memorable project involved creating art on donated doors, which transformed into a community art exhibit showcasing the residents’ artistic talents.
Understanding the Limitations: A Cautionary Tale About the Macon, Georgia Experience
Wildstyle’s keynote not only celebrated the successes of the Roving Listener and Community Ambassador models but also provided a critical examination of their limitations. Drawing on specific examples, Wildstyle offered valuable insights into the challenges these models face.
One of the most striking examples Wildstyle shared was the story of Macon, Georgia, where the Roving Listener model faced significant challenges. Initially, the project was celebrated for its promise to build trust and connect the community through arts and engagement. Wildstyle recounted, “We actually went down to see this a little bit later on… It was quite the rage, and the work… seemed to be capturing what community was saying.”
However, the reality soon diverged from the initial promise. Wildstyle explained that after the project had been implemented and the Learning Tree staff returned home, it seemed like the project was being used to push out members of the community instead of protecting them. Wildstyle displayed an image of a local newspaper headline that read, “Fired artists claim Mill Hill project will displace poor blacks.” Despite the efforts of the roving listeners to capture and amplify the voices of the community, the institutions involved were not genuinely listening or acting in the community’s best interests, and the local leaders for the project were unable to maintain commitments to the community.
Limitations of Institutional Listening
Wildstyle’s experience in Macon highlighted a critical limitation: the effectiveness of roving listening and community ambassadors is significantly hindered if the institutions they work with are not committed to genuine engagement and action. He emphasized, “The institutions weren’t listening. The collaboration between the church, the centenary Methodist Church, the Arts Council, and the city of Macon was not working.” This resulted in the displacement of residents rather than the promised community empowerment.
The Importance of Genuine Institutional Commitment
For models like the Roving Listener and Community Ambassador to succeed, the institutions involved must be willing to listen and adapt based on community input. Wildstyle stated, “It takes more than that. Making the Mill Hill arts village today… they said ‘we want diversity.’” However, the implementation fell short, demonstrating that without authentic commitment, such initiatives can inadvertently cause harm.
Navigating Skepticism and Independence
Wildstyle also discussed the early skepticism faced by the Community Ambassador program when it was proposed in Indianapolis. Reflecting on their Macon experience, he and his colleagues were cautious about the potential for misuse of the model. He shared, “This created skepticism when later on in 2017 and 2018 CICF approached us about starting an ambassador program based off the work of the roving listener… DeAmon wasn’t actually going to do it, but we were able to get him to reconsider.“
Ensuring the independence of the ambassadors was crucial to maintaining their integrity and effectiveness. Wildstyle credited Pam Ross from the Indianapolis Foundation for supporting this independence: “Pam was great about keeping it that way. Pam Ross… always made sure that we had our own guiding principles that we created, that we moved independently.”
The Need for Accountability and Flexibility
Wildstyle underscored that for community development models to be truly effective, there must be mechanisms for accountability and flexibility. He noted, “If it wasn’t uncomfortable, then why would you ever need community ambassadors to go tell you what’s going on in the community or what’s working or what’s not working or the abundance that’s being missed?”
Conclusion: Learning from Limitations
Wildstyle’s reflections offer valuable lessons for those involved in community development. While the Roving Listener and Community Ambassador models have the potential to empower communities, their success is contingent upon the genuine commitment of institutions to listen, adapt, and act on the input provided by these ambassadors. These models also require commitments to the community from those who lead these projects and an understanding of relational and asset-based practices. The experience in Macon served as a powerful reminder of the importance of this commitment and the potential consequences when it is lacking.
As we continue to develop and implement community engagement models, it is essential to remain vigilant, ensuring that the voices of the community are not only heard but also acted upon in ways that truly reflect their needs and aspirations. Wildstyle’s keynote was a powerful reminder of the potential within our communities and the importance of fostering and supporting grassroots initiatives. Wildstyle reminded the audience how vital it is that, as we move forward, we continue to celebrate and invest in our neighbors’ abundant talents and strengths, building a brighter, more inclusive future together.
