The Skillman Foundation

By now, we’ve all gone deep into the post-election analysis of the “blue-nami” that swept the country, disrupted entrenched expectations of ruby red states, and made history on several fronts. The Skillman Foundation is nonpartisan and does our work in a proudly purple state. We emphasize working across the state and across ideologies, so I write this not from a political place, but from a mission-embedded one.

The 250^th Anniversary of Our Country Culminates in a History-Making Redefinition of Who America Represents

We saw our country’s first Black, Native, and Latina women governors surge into office. In the U.S. Senate, the first openly gay man, the first Native American woman, and the first Muslim will be seated.  Michigan elected its first Muslim senator, the first Native American representative, our first transgender woman to the State House, and became the first state in the nation to elect two women to serve as governor and lieutenant governor

As we work in Detroit, a city that is 80% African American, 90% people of color, and the average age is 35, we know young people have to see it to be it. Looks like our country’s anniversary was spent writing a new chapter for what the next 250 years can be by first reimagining what America’s highest offices look like. This alone will have an impact.

Less of a Surprise and More of a Strategy

I remember over 10 years ago being at a conference and hearing from young Latino organizers who were deep in organizing across Texas. Texas?! I thought. Well, bless their hearts. They had a plan to flip the state blue, and to do so, they were organizing those often left out of policy conversations. It was about politics but more about kitchen table issues; it was about blue, per se—about blue-collar issues facing working families across the state.

Our People Powered Education strategy is bigger than political parties. It is instead a bet that the long game of community power building and bridging is the way to get to systems change. This is why we fund organizing and why we know community organizers see beyond corners we can’t. How we know they dream bigger than we ever could.

And so we fund their hope and vision. Someday their impact will light up the state, and we will marvel at the change. We might even think it has to do with the past two years or so.

But the reality is tsunamis grow over time.

Watching it grow means recognizing what the movement still needs, gleaned from where it stumbles. Watching it grow means adjusting as funders as we learn what isn’t helping or working. Watching it grow shapes how we adjust to needs and new moments, learning along the way. This is especially relevant when the field of organizing is deeply underfunded.

Yes, we will look at how we measure along the way, but when the wins come, don’t sleep on the strategy that was in place for years that led to that win.

Detroiters Showed Up and Showed Out

The past few elections have shown the youth vote in Michigan at the three highest levels in the nation, but the real story is how many Detroiters showed up and showed out. Nearly 210,000 cast ballots, and over 1,000 new registrations occurred on election day, with many reporting an influx of youth determined to use their voice and vote.

At polling stations across the city, when a first-time voter stepped forward, the poll workers would stop and announce to the room, “First-time voter here!” All would pause, and applause would rise throughout the schools, libraries, and other polling places. When I tell you Detroit was clapping nonstop on election day, you better believe it.

Understanding one’s power is the key to civic participation, and civic participation is the key to ensuring public systems, like public education, works. Go on ‘head, Detroit.

Election Integrity is Sound

Election systems and processes in Michigan and across the country held up. While there were a few aberrant issues as always, the big story was that there was NO big story. Our neighbors across Michigan who ARE the election volunteers—the poll workers, the observers, the voters—quickly and seamlessly rose to the occasion. Significant funding from our Federal Advocacy Response Fund this year went to local nonprofits working to make sure we had an airtight and, dare I say, boring election day. And we did. We had the largest number of constitutional observers in history, and it was a GOOD thing. We showed that Michiganders working together voluntarily across differences make incredible things happen.

Civic MInded

This year, The Skillman Foundation helped to stand up an initiative that attempts to knit together the civic fabric across Michigan. Called Civic MInded (capital MI for Michigan), this is a group of 40+ civic leaders who raised their hands before the election, ready to stand together for Michigan common sense and Michigan common ground. Representing a wide swath of individuals across the state and across ideologies, we stand for election integrity, civic participation, and community resilience. We stand for Michigan solutions to Michigan problems. And we stand together in our purple state knowing we need to disagree respectfully to get to a better place.

Partnership Over Politics

One of our four goals is to build common ground. Truly, working together across differences has never been more important. Blue wave or red wave, in our proudly purple state, we reject polarization. We reject characterizations of demagogues and demons. And we want to be clear: we reject diminishing humanity, not who gets to diminish humanity. Reaching out to connect with people across perceived differences isn’t weak, or stupid, or wrong. Compromising values? Well, that’s a no-go.

But here in the proudly purple state of Michigan, we are more aligned in values than we are separate. We use different language, we have different lived experiences, we see different paths to get there. But that doesn’t make anyone less human. The ability to hear this and find common ground to build something that works for all of us – that’s the way to get somewhere new. Not for two years, but for the next generation.

We are all just people. And ultimately, everyone from the Motown to Mackinac to the Muskegon… we all want to have a good life for ourselves and our neighbors across the state. May we learn how to disagree and find compromise. May we, in fact, believe that earnest disagreement is more about listening than it is about proving. And in the years ahead, we have thorny issues to confront.

The way we get through? By showing up and figuring things out together. And lucky for us, Michiganders have enough ideas, grit, and grace to show the nation how this can be done.

To the next chapter.