Zeni Aly is woven into the fabric of our communities. Beyond working as United Way of Olmsted County’s Impact Operations Associate, she’s also a contract interpreter with United Way partner IMAA for Amharic and “sometimes, when there is a very desperate need,” Arabic. She is also one of the founders of the Ethiopian Community of Rochester, MN (ECRM), where she serves as Secretary.
Thanks to her role with ECRM, “I always have that back-end view of our work at United Way,” Zeni said. “I work directly with the people who are receiving resources. Some people do not have any other outlet even to understand the mail that is coming to their home until one of the program providers goes there.”
Identifying needs and working to meet them
Zeni has been with United Way of Olmsted County since 2016, and she is the driving force behind our recent Community Involvement sessions. “We serve the community, and we would like to learn what works. Where is the gap? And how can we work with the community?” she said.
One gap Zeni and her team identified is lower levels of civic engagement among our BIPOC communities. So, they decided to create a series of three Community Engagement Sessions. These convenings brought together members of our BIPOC communities “to allow that experience exchange and information to be in the hands of people who will be affected, directly or indirectly, by local policies” – and in the hands of people who have had less access in the past.
"For the longest time, we just go and see the same people are everywhere, but this will change that."
“We hear feedback that the BIPOC community are left out from key conversations and decisions,” Zeni said. “They do not have the information on the right timing – by the time they decide that they want to be involved, it is already past the due date. So hopefully, this kind of event can bring people's awareness to be better, and the involvement also will be enhanced that way, so our issues also have a better answer.”
“For me personally, I would like to see some representation in the leadership in different organizations,” Zeni said. “It can be in the local offices, boards of directors, school boards, the County Commissioner, or the City Council – I would like to see some representation.”
Creating these changes is no small task. "It's not a one-time thing, like we did the community engagement once and expect someone to come and be fully involved – but we can do as much as we can,” she reflected. “At least, we can create that space for people to come and comfortably share their opinion, learn from others, create that that information and experience exchange platform.”
Looking ahead
The Community Engagement sessions have been a success, and the team is toying with the idea of holding more in the future. “I'm happy that we have had some great panelists, and we have also great small group leaders who sign up,” Zeni shared.
"They say, yeah, sure, we are coming to share, and this is what we've been waiting for.’ Some of them even say, ‘For the longest time, we just go and see the same people are everywhere, but this will change that.’”