We have been honored to partner with Interfaith Action of Greater St. Paul for a number of years now. They are a local nonprofit whose mission is to “mobilize diverse faith and spiritual communities to engage in work that supports our neighbors’ stability and economic mobility.”

They recently sent out an update about their work, which we are passing along to the readers of the E-vangelist so you can stay informed about what we are helping them achieve in our area!

Interfaith Action: Building the Impact of Opportunity Saint Paul

Interfaith Action describes Opportunity Saint Paul (OSP) as “the doorway for congregations in Greater St. Paul to deepen their community impact in their own neighborhoods and beyond.” This program area has changed to meet the needs Interfaith Action sees in the programs they partner with, and now serves as an “umbrella” matching faith communities with volunteer opportunities right there in their own neighborhoods. Read on to learn more about OSP and how it’s changing to have the greatest impact in our community:

Rev. Rachel McIver Morey became Director of Opportunity Saint Paul in March 2023 and immediately set out to learn more from our member congregations  communities. From those discussions, she has identified key areas to strengthen the program. We asked her to share her thoughts and plans for the future.

In your conversations with houses of worship in these first few months, what have you discovered?
We are bone tired of talking about “post pandemic” life, but the truth is that trends already in motion were accelerated by COVID: the adoption of virtual spaces and tech-aided gathering, changes in giving and volunteer patterns, healthy skepticism toward large historic institutions, and “going deep and local” versus “going big and wide” in what a faith community wants to put its energy toward.

There are some new gatherings of local faith communities that emerged during the pandemic, and other ecumenical or interfaith gathering spaces have had a rough go coming back. It has been a joy to me to connect with faith community leaders of all kinds and many backgrounds to talk about what the future might hold. 

In your first couple months, what have you been surprised or delighted by?
Perhaps the biggest surprise is how faith community leaders are or are not in connection with others immediately in their neighborhood. There are some communities that are in deep relationships with others in a one to two mile radius; others have named some grief that they actually don’t have connection with the community or congregation just down the block. This is a place where Interfaith Action can add significant value as a convening partner, so I am exploring how we can help facilitate those neighborhood connections where they don’t currently exist.

For those that do exist, it is an immense delight to hear colleagues talk about the real and meaningful work they are doing together with schools, agencies, and individuals hyperlocal to their neighborhood. 
 
What are you planning for the future of Opportunity Saint Paul?
There are two significant early changes we have made. The first is around how we are connecting faith community volunteers with our OSP service provider partner agencies. Rather than focus on pulling individuals from congregations, we are using maps to help connect congregations and communities of faith to OSP partners that are very local to them.

For example, one of our partners is CommonBond, a housing agency that also has a Study Buddy program for children and youth living in CommonBond community housing. This housing is scattered all over the metro so when we meet with faith communities, we can use our maps to see who is close to what, and what natural and organic partnerships might make win-win situations for everyone involved.

The second change is that OSP is becoming the “umbrella” for Interfaith Action’s partner-facing programs: OSP PartnerConnect, Community Power-Up, and School Tools. While Interfaith Action has programs that directly serve people (Project Home, Department of Indian Work, and Faithful Hospitality), OSP supports other programs rather than directly serving clients. For example, PartnerConnect matches faith community volunteers with numerous program partners. Community Power-Up Clinics is a partnership with Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services to offer legal aid to help people build economic mobility, and School Tools provides school supplies both to our direct service Interfaith Action programs and to six other program partners.

What drew you to this position at Interfaith Action?
As a pastor and organizer, I have seen the power of faith communities wrapping their arms around the right thing at the right time; it can absolutely transform a neighborhood or a city when the congregations and wisdom gatherings of a given region all find themselves talking about the same problem and offering themselves as part of the solution. Interfaith Action itself was born from this very dynamic! When this position opened up, I was at a time in my life and career where I was ready to lean back into the community organizing side of my work, and the fact that I get to do it in the context of an organization like this one feels like an absolute gift. 
 
If you are interested in any aspect of Opportunity Saint Paul, contact Rachel at [email protected] or 651-661-9350.