March 1995
Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina
Bridges
Continued from page 4
can win on the issues we’re con
cerned about unless we learn to work
together with middle-class people.”
Through workshops, role-playing
exercises and support work with
grassroots organizations, partici
pants in Building Bridges are taught
to recognize the subtle barriers that
separate people who may share the
same goal but not the same experi
ences.
“1 often think about the training
in terms of people learning to see,”
says Dottye Burt-Markowitz, a Peace
Project board member and Bridges
trainer. “People can be really well-
intentioned and motivated. But it
you’re not part of a group that’s been
discriminated against, it can be hard
to understand how other people feel.”
The Building Bridges program
differs from other training programs
in its practical focus and the degree
of commitment it requires from par
ticipants, Burt-Markowitz says.
The lessons taught in the pro
gram are rooted in the practical
experiences of Peace Project volun
teers active in voter registration dri
ves, Uteracy training workshops and
plant-closing demon'strations in the
Kannapolis area.
Bridges participants are asked to
attend training sessions over a three-
year period, although some programs
have been of shorter duration. Fees
are based on the size of the organiza
tion and the length of the training.
Laurie Schecter is a graduate of
the first Building Bridges program in
Boston. She was so inspired by the
training that she decided to move to
North Carolina to become a full-time
Peace Project volunteer.
“I’m not usually much of a course
person and not usually drawn to this
kind of training,” Schecter says. “But
the way they do this is so inclusive.
What they are doing is really cutting-
edge work. I feel a whole lot of people
are going to be thinking in this direc
tion in the future.”
Peggy Cleveland, executive direc
tor of the Cooperative Christian
Ministries in Concord, was
impressed by the way Bridges train
ers were able to address painful
issues such as racism and sexism
without being confrontational.
“Their trainings are done with a
lot of skill and humor,” she says.
“The intent is not to make people
guilty because guilt tends to make
people reactive rather than being a
spring for change. Guilty is not a use
ful response.”
The Bridges program now has
participants who have enrolled in
Ann Arbor, Seattle, New York City
and Atlanta. Participants in those
cities are paired up with activists in
low-income and minority communi
ties in other parts of the country.
For example, the Bridges group
in Ann Arbor has held fundraising
parties to assist residents of Kenova,
West Va., who are battling environ
mental pollution in their small, min
ing town.
“It’s really very rare that people
who are living in a low-income com
munity and people who are living in a
more middle-class community have a
chance to talk to each other and
learn from each other,” Burt-
Markowitz says. “There’s a real
depth to the kind of change people go
throu^ in their way of thinking and
seeing the world.”
Taylor and others in the
Cabarrus County Women’s Task
Force hope the Bridges program will
help them build on efforts to repair
frayed relations between blacks and
whites in their community.
Tensions reached a peak last
year when students at Kannapolis
Hi^ School protested the firing of a
popular black principal. Police
responded by arriving at the school
in riot gear and a lawsuit against the
school system was threatened.
Taylor says most of the members
of the Women’s Task Force work in
social service agencies, dealing with
clients from diverse economic and
racial backgrounds.
“These women are already com
mitted to making those relationships
work but are conscious of the fact
that because we are who we are, we
may be doing things we don’t even
see that are aUenating or hurtful to
people,” she says.
'Task Force members - who will
pay $750 each for five weeks of
Bridges training - know they won’t
see instant results.
“It’s not that you go throu^ this
training and all of a sudden the com
munity is a better place to live, “ says
Jenny Rokosz, senior staff associate
at the Cabarrus County United Way
and head of the Women’s Task
Force. “But you do develop tools and
make little steps toward positive
change.”
'This year’s budget for the Bridges
program is around $350,000, Stout
says. While the program has received
grants from the Z. Smith Reynolds
Foundation and the Foundation for
the Carolinas in Charlotte, the bulk
of support comes from contributions
from individuals.
Eventually, the Peace Project
hopes to establish a training center
that would extend the reach of both
the Bridges program and a parallel
program called Finding Our Voices
that is aimed at working-class
activists.
“We’re very excited about the
progress we’ve had from these pro
grams as well as the potential for
where we can go with them,” Stout
says. “Our dream is to change the
world.”
For information about Bridges,
call the Peace Project, (704) 938-
5090.
Jesse Wimberley (center) takes a group of Piedmont Peace Project orga
nizers on a tour of his family farm in Moore County as part of the non
profit's Building Bridges project to promote links across class and race
lines.
Photo courtesy of Piedmont Peace Project
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Chapel Hill Board of Realtors
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