The Organizations Holding Our Community Together

By Simone Hardeman-Jones, GreenLight Twin Cities Executive Director

These past several weeks have been painful. Fear and instability have become part of daily life for many individuals and families across the Twin Cities. The recent surge of federal enforcement activity has made it harder – and riskier – for our immigrant, refugee, Black, and Brown community members to leave home, go to work, or access basic supports like food, health care, and school.

We are clear about the harm this surge is causing. It created fear and trauma for families and placed enormous strain on the organizations working closest to them. We stand firmly with immigrant and refugee communities across the Twin Cities and throughout Minnesota. This moment is not abstract for us. It shows up in our own homes and conversations, in the way we check in on one another, and in the care we bring to our work each day.

In moments like this, what holds a community together is not policy – it is people and institutions that families trust.

Every day during this time, our portfolio organizations – Let Everyone Advance With Dignity, Irth, Inner Explorer, and Food Connect – are doing far more than maintaining programs. They are holding critical pieces of our community together.

Since late December, Food Connect has stepped in as a trusted logistics backbone – delivering more than 23,000 meals and completing over 500 home deliveries as in-person access to food has dropped by as much as 80 percent. When families are forced to avoid public spaces due to fear, Food Connect ensures that food still reaches kitchen tables. They are not only serving households; they are supporting schools, community centers, and frontline organizations that depend on reliable food infrastructure to meet basic needs.

At LEAD, program staff housed at Pillsbury House + Theatre continue operating as a safe haven in a highly scrutinized neighborhood. They are responding to crises in real time – supporting residents exposed to tear gas, de-escalating volatile situations, and helping individuals secure phones, shelter, rental assistance, and safe places to sleep. LEAD is functioning as both first responder and stabilizer, absorbing tremendous emotional and operational strain while keeping its doors open.

Irth is navigating a quieter but equally urgent disruption with long-term implications. Fear and instability are preventing Black and Brown families – including birthing parents – from attending medical appointments or engaging with formal systems. Families are making deeply personal and life impacting decisions about safety and health in the midst of terrifying uncertainty regarding their day-to-day wellbeing. In response, Irth is adapting outreach and trust-building strategies to ensure maternal and infant support does not fall away.

In our schools, educators have become de facto safety nets – coordinating food access, transportation, and basic supports while trying to sustain learning under immense pressure. Stress among students and staff is elevated, and Inner Explorer’s mindfulness program is exactly the kind of tool designed for moments like this, helping young people and educators stay grounded amid uncertainty. Interest in and partnerships with Inner Explorer continue to grow, underscoring the need for this work. At the same time, school budgets are tight and leaders are operating in crisis mode, which means social-emotional supports are often the first to be deprioritized. The need is clear – even as schools continue to stretch to meet the moment.

The work has not slowed. If anything, it has intensified.

Across all of these four organizations are not only serving program participants. They are strengthening partnerships, stabilizing systems, and carrying a shared strain alongside the communities they serve – many of them doing so while their own teams are personally impacted by the very conditions they are responding to. 

The immediate impacts are visible. The longer-term consequences – economic instability, widened health disparities, and disrupted trust – will take longer to surface and even longer to repair. Even if the visible signs of this surge recede, the effects will not simply disappear. Trust takes time to rebuild. Health and economic setbacks compound. And many of the communities most impacted were already navigating deep inequities before this moment. Recovery will take time – and it will not be evenly felt.

As a result, we are deepening our support so these leaders can continue to respond in real time – without hesitation and without interruption. Because when trusted organizations remain steady, families continue to find food, care, safety, and connection, even in uncertain times.

Our community deserves steadiness in moments like this. And the organizations families trust deserve partners who will stand with them – not just when things are easy, but when they are hard.