I recently attended the 2026 Nonprofit Leadership Conference, hosted by the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits. During the opening keynote address, Ryan Vasquez (Executive Director of the Minneapolis Highrise Representative Council) commented on how important it is to develop friendship when you don’t need them. The middle of a crisis, he said, is a lousy time to find out who you can count on.
His comment reminded me of a related statement by Robert Lilligren (CEO of NACDI and then-Chair of the Metro Urban Indian Directors). During Operation Metro Surge, the Native American community collected and distributed literally tons of groceries and other supplies to families who were too threatened to leave their homes. Robet said something along the lines of, “A lot of people see how many supplies we are sending out and think, ‘You guys are really well funded.’ We aren’t. The Native community is severely underfunded. We’ve just gotten really good at sharing resources and getting them to the people who need them. We’ve built a great network.”
I believe both men’s comments underline one of the reasons Minneapolis (and the entire Twin Cities) responded so well and so strongly to Operation Metro Surge. In the last 20 years, we’ve gone through:
- Operation Metro Surge
- The I-35W bridge collapse
- Covid
- The killing of Philando Castile, Justine Damond, and George Floyd
- The George Floyd riots
- The Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center bombing
- The Annunciation Catholic Church shooting
(I’m pretty sure there was at least one other big tragedy, but I can’t think what it was. The Vikings don’t count.)
I think everyone would agree that Minneapolis has gone through more than its share of crises. But I also think those crises have made Minneapolis stronger. People started coming together after the bridge collapse because they were reminded of life’s fragility. Every crisis after that reinforced the lesson that we are stronger together, and that we need to rely on each other. It is entirely possible that the Twin Cities were the only metropolitan area in the country that could have withstood Operation Metro Surge so well. Other cities may have more people or resources or whatever else, but they don’t have the relationships and networks that have been forged in the adversity we have experienced. As Robert said, we’ve gotten really good at sharing and supporting each other, and as Ryan said, we’ve done this over time in the quiet periods, not just in the midst of chaos.
Hopefully Minneapolis is done with crises for a while, but we can’t count on it. At least while it is quiet, we can spend time with neighbors and friends making sure we’re ready for anything else that comes at us.
by Marti Maltby, Director Peace House Community – A Place to Belong
This article originally appeared in “The Alley,” the newspaper for the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis.