Serving the Trans Community with Maine TransNet's Quinn Gormley

May 9, 2019

In this episode, Benn sits down with Quinn Gormley, Executive Director of the Maine Transgender Network (MTN), a trans-led peer support organization running 30+ support groups across Maine and serving over 2,500 people a year. Quinn traces their path from union and anti-war organizing in a family of activists, through campaign work at the Maine People's Alliance, to HIV/harm-reduction organizing, and finally to MTN.

They discuss the difference between campaign organizing (fast, high-energy, but often short-lived) and the long-term relational organizing MTN practices — including how new support groups get started through one-on-one outreach and local presence rather than cold outreach, and how MTN navigates skepticism in rural communities by pairing organizers with local guides. Quinn also shares how the organization measures success through both data (attendance, travel distance, volunteer hours) and qualitative wins, including a striking story of a coordinated, statewide crisis response that helped save someone's life.

The conversation covers MTN's rapid growth since 2014, the toll of sustained crisis work, and how framing organizing as "cultivating" rather than "fighting" helps prevent burnout. Quinn closes with practical advice for aspiring organizers, upcoming MTN initiatives (a new mental health program, a provider referral system, and a statewide housing survey), and resources like the National LGBTQ Task Force's organizing academy.

SHOW NOTES

Quinn Gormley and I discuss what its like growing a non-profit that is part organizing part direct service and all the unique struggles of serving a marginalized community. Quinn is the executive director of the Maine Transgender Network, often referred to as MaineTransNet or MTN for short. MTN is a trans led peer to peer support network dedicated to supporting and empowering transgender people to create a world where they can thrive. Their work centers around the more than 30 support groups offered throughout the state, which, primarily in rural communities, serve more than 2,500 people each year. 

Visit Maine Transgender Network here: mainetransnet.org, there are a lot of great ways to get involved and to support this incredible organization. Also, keep a close eye on their website as they also frequently do pop up thrift store fundraisers where you can get great deals on clothes and support an amazing organization that is doing life saving work every day.

To check out the National LGBTQ TaskForce online academy follow this link. They have a lot of really great online trainings that are 100% free. You do have to register (free) and it usually clears in a day or two.

The 5, 50, 500 model that Quinn references may sound familiar, if it doesn’t and its a new concept to you, be sure to check out episode 4 where I dive into some recruitment frameworks including the 5,50,500 model and I have some materials from the TaskForce explaining that particular model in the show notes that you can download for free.

• Transcript

  Benn Marine 0:09

  Welcome to the Ocean of Organizing podcast, where every week we explore what it means to build community and create change. I'm your host, Ben Maureen, and this week I sat down with Quinn Gormley. Quinn is the executive director of the Maine Transgender Network, often referred to as Maine Transnet or MTN for short. MTN is a trans-led peer-to-peer support network dedicated to supporting and empowering transgender people to create a world where they can thrive. Their work centers around more than 30 support groups that they offer throughout the state, which, primarily in rural communities, serves more than 2,500 people each year. Additionally, MTN hosts and plans numerous advocacy, community, and educational events. For this interview, I sat down with Quinn at MTN's Portland office in the Equality Community Center. With that, let's dive in. First, I'm just curious how did you get started organizing?

  Quinn Gormley 1:16

  You know, I think there was a time when I got involved in organizing campaigns, and that's something that I grew up doing. My father uh is a school bus driver, and as I was growing up, uh, he was one of the leaders in the effort to unionize all the school bus drivers in Maine. He actually ended up being vice president of that union for most of my childhood, uh, as well as being shop chair for a long time, uh shop whatever the term is. Uh and so, you know, we'd have the local meetings uh with their watery coffee and cigarettes in our living room uh when I was growing up, and I saw the impact that that had on people that I cared about who were getting treated poorly and grossly underpaid. And I saw in numerical terms in my life growing up that organizing works uh and is a way of improving lives. And uh when he wasn't doing union organizing, he you know, I was growing up during the Iraq War, and so we'd spend every Sunday afternoon doing uh those Bridges for Peace uh campaigns, uh, even in the middle of winter on a bridge in Maine, which is not maybe the best place for a protest, but uh there's a lot of great pictures of me in childhood with a no war for oil science that we made up out of an old pizza box or something. Um so I I grew up believing in that. I also, my mother runs a small library that was quite controversial when it had to build a new building in town, and um, that's grown into being a community center uh over the last 25 years. Uh, and that was largely because of uh a pretty significant organizing campaign to get that built and to change town zoning efforts so that a library that could actually meet the town's needs would be built. And so I activism and organizing is really just a part of um growing up. My mother often says that everyone likes to be a useful engine, uh, and that that's something I've really taken to heart. And so when I was looking for what I wanted to do with my life, especially after uh coming out publicly as a trans person, didn't go smoothly. Surprise, surprise. Um, and I found myself uh kicked out of my Christian college. Uh and uh realizing that the the career I was originally looking at was I went to school for wooden boat building after getting kicked out of Christian conservatory. I have an odd educational background. Um I took an internship uh with a group called the Maine People's Alliance, which is basically the major progressive organization in Maine that does a lot of the economic justice organizing in the state. Uh and I signed up to work on a campaign cycle that ended up turning into three years of employment with them. And I think I learned a lot of my like traditional organizing skills when I was working there, around like, you know, how a ballot referendum works, uh, canvassing and door knocking and all such things. And I really fell in love with that kind of work, and yet also learned that I hate campaign organizing with a burning passion because we build up this huge infrastructure. I get all kinds of people engaged in the work we were doing, and then it just disappeared after election day, and it would take months before we decided on a new campaign. And even if we were working from similar lists, campaign to campaign, it was like a brand new process, and that didn't sit right with me. And so I decided that I wanted to do some kind of longer form uh organizing. Uh, so I got involved with a health justice organization that does a lot of work around HIV and harm reduction. Uh, and I applied an organizing framework to administering an HIV testing program that covers most of Maine and um uh saw opportunity in working with communities affected by HIV so queer and trans folk, people use drugs, um for the most part here in Maine, who, although HIV was the deliverable of the campaign that we did, uh the relational organizing that we did uh allowed a lot of dreams within those communities to coalesce, especially in these rural spaces. Uh, and so even though I was working on HIV testing, I ended up organizing Pride Festivals. And I could justify that as like, oh, well, the Pride Festival is where I get a third of my tests for the year. And then out of the Pride Festival came these other organizations. And because I was working with the same people year after year on the same set of larger goals, um, really a more stable infrastructure got to be built. And I think I got to develop stronger relationships with volunteers and watch them develop. And that really became a passion of mine that I've taken into my current role with the main transgender network, which um fundamentally is about organizing with a goal being a stronger and more resilient community rather than an individual campaign, uh, but using the same set of skills uh and engagement in order to make that happen that I I learned while doing campaign organizing.

  Benn Marine 6:20

  That's awesome. And with Maine Transgender Network, a lot of a lot of what uh you all do is direct service, which is also very different from like that campaign world. And so I'm curious if you could just talk a little bit about direct service and uh some of the impact that you've seen it have on the community in terms of like lasting impacts.

  Quinn Gormley 6:45

  So I I I always think it's funny when people talk about to listen to how other people talk about our work, because I feel like when I'm in rooms with organizers, we get listed as a direct service org. And when I'm in rooms with direct service agencies, we get listed as an organizing group. Um I think there's probably some truth to both sides of that. What we do is our our primary service is about 30 peer-based um support groups that we offer around the state. And so um they create a consistent space for trans people to exist in a safe manner where they can talk about the issues that they're facing in their life. Primarily the folks that come to our groups are trans folks who are just coming out and going through an earlier stage of transition, which tends to be um probably the most vulnerable point uh in their lives as trans people, uh, because transition can certainly tip your life upside down uh in some significant ways. So I still come with that from the perspective of an organizer. And so when we're looking to start a new group, um I view that as almost like a miniature campaign, and I'm doing one-on-ones all over the place. Uh, and I'm uh, you know, it's not uncommon for us to do, we don't phone bank because no one picks up their phone in this community, but we won't do like a Facebook message bank to get people to turn out to our first couple of meetings as a way of uh establishing our our initial group um attendance so it can be stable. Uh and there's a whole lot of volunteer leadership engagements. And that that, although, yeah, there's a direct service or the support group existing, but our work is less about managing the group and more about making the community around the group stronger and forming, and that that's been really powerful to see.

  Benn Marine 8:41

  That's awesome. And I'm curious, so you mentioned the uh Facebook messaging to kind of like start those groups. So, like for maybe a listener who um is thinking about starting like a similar model in maybe a different place, or for maybe an entirely different issue, how did you go about finding those folks that you were originally reaching out to? Like, what does that in practice actually look like? Like those Facebook messaging banks, if you will.

  Quinn Gormley 9:05

  Yeah, it's actually something that's getting a lot easier the bigger we get as an organization. Um because our focus has really grown into being about developing the trans community within rural settings in Maine. Uh and small main towns are really hard to break into institutionally. Um, but you know, we're called the Maine Trans Network. Uh, and so uh a lot of what we do is I know who would know someone in an area. And if I'm like, we want to start something in, you know, down east Maine, uh, I can toss up a post somewhere or I can call a couple of people who I know have more relationships than I do in that area and say, hey, I want to do something here. Who do you know? Can I get their contact information? And then I reach out to them. And sometimes that works, most of the time that works. Uh, I've also found sometimes if I'm going into a place, uh, I just go and spend a lot of time uh in those places. So I work out of uh cafes and such, and I do my best to look really, really gay on those days. Uh, and I find that I meet people that way. Um so I I I try and make it obvious what what it is that I'm about and be in a public space, and usually someone comes over and introduces themselves, and then that that turns into a contact, and I I kind of go from there. Um but relational organizing is is about relationship formation, and uh sometimes the only way to get to meet people is to actually go and meet people where they're at, and um having a local presence is very important.

  Benn Marine 10:33

  Do you ever run into especially in terms of like rural spaces, specifically rural Maine, do you ever get skepticism from these communities that you know are maybe reluctant to I am thinking of this. I remember working on uh a a campaign um where in in New Jersey and I was organizing in South Jersey, and that community was like, we don't trust anybody from North Jersey, period. Like don't you know, and it was a a point of contention. Do you run into that much in this process, or because it's so relational, not so much?

  Quinn Gormley 11:10

  Oh no, that that's definitely there. Um it so I and I think that this is a good skill, especially because I in organizing, where I know a lot of like in campaigns, they hire out-of-state folks to come in, and in Maine certainly has a real big stigma against people from away, whatever that's whatever that's supposed to mean. Um and so you know, if I'm going into like rural northern Maine, I don't do that myself because I grew up on the coast, and so my my experiences, even as someone from a small town, are are just completely different. Um and so I do my best, if I'm doing in-person outreach, to bring someone I already know with me, who's, if not from the area, at least from somewhere similar enough that they they're more likely to be fluent in the needs of those communities than I'm gonna be. And that tends to help a lot. I think another fear and pushback that I get uh is especially when working in in such a you know a stigmatized and marginalized community, a lot of people come with a whole lot of baggage that they're pulling around with them and a lot of trauma. And that seems to be even more so uh in you know these poor rural spaces that we're in all the time. And I think a lot of nonprofits and a lot of campaigns have pushed those folks to the side and you know, they're not willing to trust them and to trust them in positions of leadership. And so a value that I really love about the organization, uh love about me and transnet is a that we try and flip it on its head, and that uh regardless of what baggage people are bringing with them, we think the people who've experienced the most crud in their life are the ones that we should be putting out front and putting into positions of visible leadership, even if maybe they aren't respectable to the outside world. And I think because we're consistent at doing that, um, that that makes it easier for us to point at people who maybe are wary of trying out another nonprofit because they might fit into one of those groups to trust us because they see examples of us doing it already.

  Benn Marine 13:12

  Going along with that theme of comparing campaigns to direct service or even really long-term community organizing, which I feel like is a huge part of what Maine Transit does is that longer term building. How what is measuring success look like? Like I know like for a campaign, you have a date that you're working towards or a vote that you're working towards. And then when that vote happens, it's done, it's over, right? Like you either win or you lost, and that is often how we measure that success. With long-term organizing or direct service, how what is it what does success look like?

  Quinn Gormley 13:51

  Yeah, so you know, I think the most useful skill set I took out of campaign organizing was the absolutely vital um usage of data collection. Uh and although we don't use as much data and we we don't emphasize it as heavily, our evaluation of our work starts with data. So, you know, our support groups, we measure how many are we doing a month, what's the attendance, how does that compare to last month, how does that compare to this time a year or two years ago. Um and based on the information we collect, we can say, how far are people traveling to get to our groups? Um, has that shifted? Has the age shifted? Has the gender identity makeup of a group shifted? And that can inform our process. We also do a fair bit of surveying of our community uh to get feedback on our programs and to track um uh, you know, like uh suicidality has been a big issue that we've been working with lately, and so there are surveys that we put out into targeted areas to see what is the level of mental health stress going on in the community, has it gone up or down since we've tried something? Um and that's useful to us from a nonprofit perspective because that's what our funders want to see. They want to see a data example, and it's useful for us because it helps us to have a statistical narrative that we can tell. And so that's that's where we start. Uh, I think long-term organizing, we we also I I should mention, track volunteer hours uh very carefully. We track um, you know, we we use that kind of classic uh 550, 500 triangle uh for volunteer development. And so we we track how many folks do we have in each level, how long have they been there, um, are we moving people up? Um if we're talking about like an outcome of long-term organizing as being an increasing in the general level of skills available in our community, if we can say that two years ago we had 50 volunteers, now we have a hundred, and we can say that the number of hours they're giving and the level of work they're doing has gone up, then we can say that's a basis for them having more skills, and that's important. We also do a lot of uh qualitative evaluation. Um, and so we'll look for uh I think it's hard to for us to measure, I think we're still working on this as an organization, um kind of like ongoing measurements in a qualitative standard um for our work, but there are certainly um like case examples that we look to uh as a measurement of success. So I'm thinking we had um I have to make sure I de-identify this appropriately. So we we had a person who called our office number um a couple months ago uh who was in a state of crisis, and they called us, and all they said was, I'm about to kill myself. And then they hung up. Um and I got that call. We're working out of our Portland office, and I had no idea who this was and what to do about it. Um and so that that was immediately very terrifying. We got a lot of calls like that though, but I had the caller ID. It said unknown caller, but I had a phone number. And so I went um into kind of a discussion with our top volunteers who kind of represent each area around the state, and I said, What area code would this indicate for a region? And we figured out a region, and then I contacted all of our group facilitators, and I said, Everyone pull out your phone, tell me whose number this is. And in the space of about 20 minutes, we had identified this person as someone living in far northern Maine, an incredibly isolated community. We contacted the local authorities to go and do a wellness check, and we managed to get six different people to schedule visits with this person over the next couple of days. And that person is still alive today, but um, you know, that as an example of success, I can't think of another organization that would be able to identify someone so quickly and to mobilize um volunteers over a distance of about 300 miles into a rural community in our state to support someone just because they care. Uh, and so, you know, our ability to respond to a crisis that quickly is something we couldn't have done three years ago, but we can do today because we've been investing uh resources into developing our networks in those areas, but also into developing volunteers who know how to handle a situation like that and are responsive to it. And so that's that's a sign of success for us as well.

  Benn Marine 18:22

  And that's I mean, that's really I think incredible marker to be able to have that kind of that kind of network and resources and to be able to mobilize that quickly. I mean, I think that just speaks volumes to the incredible work you all do. Uh speaking of which, you you you've grown a lot over the last few years. So, and I think something that can be hard, I feel like there's often a lot of growing pains in fast growth, right? Like just in in in all aspects of that. And so I'm curious what has that experience, because you've been there through the whole a lot of the growth. So what what has that experience been like for you?

  Quinn Gormley 18:58

  Yeah, wild, for sure. Uh so I, you know, I've been coming, I I first came to a main transnet support group for my own purposes about seven years ago. Um, and when I started with this organization, we had two support groups and like one event a year. And our big support group in Portland, which was which is the one that I went to, had maybe 10 people at it, and that was a big deal that day. Um, you know, now we have over 30 support groups. They're spread out all over the entire state, um, which has really helped with travel time. Uh and you know, our our Portland support group, we've actually had to split it off into five different groups in the area because we were averaging over 40 people a group for a while, which is way too big to have a good conversation. But um and you know, and we have rural communities, um, you know, something like our Waterville group had 10 people at it last month, which is a a big deal for for them. So that growth has that growth has been interesting. Um being involved in the the leadership of the organization for probably about five of the last seven years. Uh it's been a challenge because part of our expansion is uh, you know, we made a decision that we wanted uh to do that, and we we wanted to expand our mission. And part of it is just this wild wave of visibility that the trans community has had. Um really since you know, people argue over where exactly we should point to uh as when it happens. I tend to think of um the that uh Times uh issue, uh, the transgender tipping point issue with Laver and Cox on it is kind of the date, the date that I point to. But some people point to um like Caitlin Jenner is coming out, but I don't really want to do anything that gives Caitlyn Jenner credit for anything. But um, but you know, really we're talking like early 2014 as this there's just this huge wave of visibility for the community, and that has meant that a whole lot of trans people uh have language for their experiences that maybe they didn't have access to for most of their life. And so there are people who are coming out and transitioning now in just these massive numbers because they finally know what it is that they're experiencing or they perceive enough of a culture shift that the, you know, the the math they're doing about their personal safety and risk has gotten good enough that it's worth it for them to come out. And so there's just the number of people who need us on a day to day basis has just gotten a lot bigger. Um, and that coupled with the the current political reality that we're living in uh has just in kind of like a social work term that we use, significantly increased the impact of minority stress on the community. It's just harder on a day-to-day basis to get by from a mental health perspective because everything is just a little bit more exhausting, and that has a big toll when you measure it out over multiple years and over a whole community. And so, you know, we we've octubled since I've between now and when I started coming to our support groups, our budget has done the same. And yet I think it's interesting. We're less able to meet the needs that we're requested to meet today than we were when I started this job, and we were when I started volunteering with Maine Transnet because the need is just more than what it was a couple years ago. And so our growth, although it's something that we're doing strategically with a whole lot of planning and research and community engagement, is also one that's happening out of necessity, just because the need is there. So but it's a hell of an honor to get to be at the helm of that change happening, even if it's uh exhausting and terrifying.

  Benn Marine 23:02

  So well, and I have to say you're also awesome at it. And I think anyone who knows you or and knows the organization would agree that you've done and continue to do incredible work. So thank you for that. Um in terms of what keeps you so you've been here with Maine Transnet for over five years now. What and community organizing even longer than that, as you said, like from childhood. What especially in a field that experiences very frequent burnout, what keeps you in it and how do you keep keep keeping on?

  Quinn Gormley 23:38

  My therapist would like to ask that question too. Um oh gosh. Uh that's a hard question because I personally I've been feeling really burnt out of this work lately. Um gosh, that's hard. I I think the answer I would like to believe to be true is probably something along the lines of um I found a relational style of organizing to be more sustainable than the campaign organizing that I've done. Uh, in part, especially in our work at Maine Transnet, we try to be careful um about how we even like the language we use to even frame the organizing work that we do. Because I feel like so much of organizing is framed in like we have to fight for something and we have to beat people. And it's it's this is it's this oftentimes violent or oftentimes very militarized language that I found in campaigns. And I think the the scale of the issues that we're facing are just so massive. Um, and the enormity of the grief that we're dealing with on a day-to-day basis is just too much for any individual or campaign or organization to ever actually um impact alone, and certainly not in a time scale that's gonna be reasonable for one person's career with an organization. That that kind of language and framing of our work burns people out really quickly. And so we we try and, and this is a bit hippie-dippy, but we we try and frame things and we almost call like an agricultural framing of organizing. So we try and talk about we're cultivating community, um, we're growing relationships, we're growing power. Um and that helps uh because it gives us a perspective of um everything we do that gets us stronger gets us stronger. And it's not our obligation to see through to an end point, uh, but it's an we have an obligation to care for the work we have in front of us while we have it in front of us. Um and, you know, we actually we have this this Talmud quote uh hung up in the office across the hall that I think I know our staff comes back to probably on almost a daily basis and says, um, do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly now, love kindly now, walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. And we come back to that a lot, especially on hard days when we realize that no amount of caring or no number of extra hours over what we're contracted to do are gonna make up for the systemic effects of poverty and trauma. Um, but that doing nothing is not something that we're allowed to do. We have an obligation to try, and that that keeps me going on days when things seem impossible for sure. That's a great quote. Because I like it a lot. Yeah.

  Benn Marine 26:54

  Thank you for for sharing that. And and I think it also is testament that you have it memorized since we're across the hall and it's not right in front of you. Um biggest learns. Like, do you have any like, whoa, aha moments that you're like, oh my gosh, want to share?

  Quinn Gormley 27:09

  First thing, uh communication is definitely a hard learning edge for me in this work. Um it is so easy to get overwhelmed by the number of things that have to get done that simple things like following up on an email in a timely manner seem really easy to push to the side, especially in an organizing setting where we're organizing with people with life or death issues in front of them on a daily basis. Um but something I have to keep reminding myself about is especially in a relational organizing setting, uh, the long-term impact is going to be far greater if you invest your resources in basic relationship management rather than dealing with whatever you think the big crisis of the day is. Um, and that's a really hard equation to do in your head every day because everything is on fire all the goddamn time. Um but uh I know if I take an hour out of a hectic day to have coffee with a volunteer, I'm gonna probably still have that volunteer three years from now. Whereas if I cancel it three times on them, that person's gone. And then our movement is weaker than it would have been, and I'm gonna have even less help the next time an urgent crisis comes up. Um, and so that's really essential, but there is a lot of push and pull um between the urgent and the proactive. Um that and something I think we're we're learning as an organization is we have a big belief in um we try and find a way to say yes to every request. Uh, and that that is largely centered in that desire to center the folks most impacted by injustice and oppression. Um, that if someone comes in and they want to try something, we want to make it happen. And I think that's important, but the balance of that is with bigger movements, strategic planning is essential. Uh, and taking the time to say, this is what we're doing today, here's where we want to be a year from now, and here are the eight steps in between that, and here's how long we need to accomplish them. Um, it is worthwhile to not do other things to take the time to do that well and then stick to it, which I think is something that a lot of people struggle with is they don't follow campaign plans and strategic plans, um, and they just get stuck in the day-to-day grind. But um it's important because that that's the only way that we can make systemic change is through careful planning, and is also the only way that we can see systemic change, um, especially when dealing with with massive issues. Uh, you know, I think, for example, like healthcare access is a major issue that we organize on and is still a massive issue in our community. But if I can look over our metrics for the last couple of years, I can say, wow, the average drive time to a trans affirming appointment in Maine has been cut in half over the last four years. And the number of clinics providing hormone therapy in Maine have tripled. And although there's still a massive shortage compared to what we actually need, we have made those huge improvements. And that that's something to go back to. But that's only possible with planning, with data collection, and and with good record keeping.

  Benn Marine 30:26

  So speaking of uh planning, what are some of the big plans you you all have in the works right now?

  Quinn Gormley 30:33

  I think the thing we're really excited for in the next six months is we're actually about to launch a mental health program, uh, which is gonna be a big organizational shift for us because it's uh we we have some strong historical reasons for relying on peer-based support models, but there's such a massive shortage of mental health care in Maine, and there are times when a peer model is just not the appropriate support that someone needs. And so uh being able to be the organization that will provide mental health care to trans folks in Maine is a big step for us. Uh, it's a big revenue generator for us, which is great because it will let us pay for other cool things. Um, but it will also allow us to have there be there be a healthcare service in Maine that's directly accountable to our membership, which I think is a pretty big deal. Uh, because uh we do a lot of work with great partner organizations uh and relationship building with them is important, but at the end of the day, when they screw up, the worst thing I can do to them is to insult them publicly. Uh and uh, you know, uh that that burns a bridge if I do it. So there's nowhere to go after that. So having a service that that we can change how it affects our community is gonna be a big deal. Longer term, um we're working on developing a uh community-based referral system for health providers in Maine. Um primary care providers, uh HRT providers, mental health providers, um, secondary care providers, like um electrolysis providers, that kind of thing, um, which is probably our single most requested resource that just for some reason doesn't exist anywhere in the state. Uh and so we're we're looking forward to that's actually something we're really planning as a as a campaign with you know set metrics for deliverables for it. Um and we're really excited to build that because that's that's a great thing that we can engage our community in building with us rather than just something that we provide. And then longer term, um uh housing program is really our our big dream right now, and we're we're probably a couple of years away from having something concrete on that, but uh something that'll be coming out probably right around Pride Month uh is a major uh housing survey of our communities. So because we don't have state specific um data, at least not data that we can compare to other state data that exists currently uh on housing access and discrimination in the trans community. So we're looking to get that out there because that's gonna help us plan exactly what uh is reasonable and what is needed uh in terms of uh expanding and improving primarily emergency and short-term housing access.

  Benn Marine 33:18

  Any advice to others that would be looking to maybe either get started in in this particular work or maybe they have an issue of all their own that they care about? What would what would be your advice to for someone looking to get started?

  Quinn Gormley 33:31

  So I think it's a really exciting time to get engaged uh in organizing work right now. Um in part because the the current political moment has, well, in really practical terms, there's a ton more funding than there was five years ago uh for progressive campaigns. Uh so I don't know if that's gonna outlast the current presidential administration, but there there's just there's an excitement uh among volunteers and there's an excitement among donors. And that just means that although the issues are big and exhausting, um the difficulty of asks, to me at least, seems a little bit easier than it used to. And that's nice. That's a nice plus to have in the job. But it also means that there are a lot of job opportunities, especially at the entry level if you're trying to break in. I think a side effect of that also is you know, community organizing is a skill set, uh, and it's a professional one that is learned through years of experience. And I think I am I'm starting to see uh organizations outside of the political sphere begin to see the value that organizers can bring to their work. Although I think it's really important, if you want to be an organizer, to work at least one campaign. I think it's worth it to understand how campaigns work, they're important, they make change. Um, but if your goal is to work more in a nonprofit sector, but still do organizing type work, uh, those opportunities are starting to form more often. And I think organizing as a field uh is going to be in a much better position to advocate on behalf of the field uh in the next couple of years. And we'll start seeing more groups that are interested in change making see organizing as the logical avenue for doing that, and that's exciting.

  Benn Marine 35:25

  Where are so for folks that are looking to get some of that training, what are some resources that you've used or trainings you'd recommend folks check out?

  Quinn Gormley 35:32

  I'm biased because I work in the queer field, and so I think that the National LGBTQ Task Force Um organizing academy trainings are all really wonderful and they're digital and easy to and free and easy to access. Um, even if you just want to take a couple of hours and look at like the anatomy of a one-on-one, um just the way that they introduce thinking about basic organizing skills, I think, is really solid. Um I also would just put a plug in there and say that uh LGBCQ campaigns have significantly changed how campaign organizing works in the last decade, specifically because of um the success of popular marriage equality campaigns and uh have really proven the value of um you know tools like deep canvassing, um as as being evidence-based as being effective, uh rather than just doing voter ID and mobilization. And so I think And so for folks who maybe don't know what deep canvassing is, we speak just like a little bit to that. Yeah, uh so like on the marriage equality campaigns, um when you were knocking doors, canvassing doors, rather than spending two minutes asking a quick series of questions about how a voter is planning on voting, you would engage them in a personal conversation for 10 or 20 minutes about the issue itself. Um and so we found that to be effective in marriage equality because we know that the the biggest predictor of whether or not someone was in favor of marriage equality was whether or not they knew a gay person. And so if you got a ton of gay people to go knock on a ton of doors and talk about being gay, suddenly a ton more people knew gay people and empathized with the community, and so they were more likely to vote in our favor. And once they voted once in our favor, we knew that they were much more likely to keep voting in our favor moving forward. Um and so that model has been adopted by a whole lot of other issue areas. Uh, here in Maine, uh Planned Parenthood has been doing a long-term uh deep canvassing campaign about abortion stigma as an attempt to reduce abortion stigma uh in key voting districts in the state that has had a whole lot of uh electoral success already. Um I know when I was at Me People's Alliance, uh it was, I think the first time they tried deep canvassing was um, at least as the model for the whole campaign, uh was during the minimum wage campaign a couple years ago and having uh low-wage workers knock on doors and talk about who they are and and how hard it is for them. And uh it gave it a different picture to voters of who was a low-wage minimum wage worker. And it painted a picture of, you know, they're primarily 30-something single mothers, not um teenagers who just want to get paid more for working at McDonald's. Um, although I think teenagers should get paid more for working at McDonald's, it's a hard job. Um, but that that was a big part of why in a year where um progressive candidates lost, progressive campaigns, issue campaigns won successfully um in 2016. Uh and so uh yeah, it's it's an exciting change for sure. Awesome. Any anything else you wanted to add or throw out there? Uh I think the only other advice to put out there is um two things. First of all, uh community organizing is really cool as a field to break into because uh what qualifies you to do it is different than I think a lot of other fields just because we don't have a professional background, like a set of expectations. And so people, it's it is closer to a meritocracy than any other field I think I've worked in. Uh and so if you're really dedicated to getting in this field, starting at an entry-level campaign job and working your ass off can actually produce results for a career. Um, even if you don't have a college education, even if you studied, you know, not, you know, like not political science or something, which is what people seem to think you need to know to do this work, um, which is not true in my experience. Um I say this, I say this as a college dropout. Um not that like if you have the opportunity to finish school, you shouldn't by all means go for it. But uh there are a lot of paths into the career that are non-traditional compared to other ones. Um I would say if you're looking for what skills specifically will help you be successful, the ability to write and the ability to speak well and um in a compelling manner quickly are really helpful skills. And uh I think there's a lot of like emotional intelligence that goes into organizing now. That is not something that we train on. Um, but I think it's what makes the difference between people who are just knocking doors and people who are building relationships with voters or with volunteers. Uh and so the the ability to to read someone uh and to empathize uh with the issues that they're facing is just gonna make a big difference. And so if you have an opportunity to to take on uh learning those kind of soft skills, that makes a big difference. And also, I think makes the work a hell of a whole lot more enjoyable. Um because we're organizers work with the reality of people's lives and have the audacity to say that we can make them better. Uh and if you want to say that, you have to know what that means, not just on a on a data level or an issue level, but on a an interpersonal level as well. What about any favorite memories or moments? I mean, from what I did campaigns, winning is certainly great. Um I I think uh in the work I do now, because we don't have that same kind of like end point that we're reaching, it's it's harder to feel that. And I find joyful moments uh in two places. I find them when someone I've been working with a long time has a big personal win uh in their life. So if I have, you know, if I have someone who goes over the course of our relationship from being an incredibly quiet person who's in constant mental health crisis, who might be living on the streets or something, to watching them speak at a press conference, knowing that they're there with a full stomach and a good frame of mind and they're going home to a comfortable bed that night. That's a big success. Um, though those are tangible outcomes from our relationship. Um the other thing is just being a statewide community organization, we don't get to get everyone in the same room very often. And it's it's a really special occasion when we get to. And then that's always a moment of success, especially because every time we do it is more people. And that's that's just a super powerful feeling.

  Benn Marine 42:32

  Awesome. And if folks want to learn more about Maine Transnet or the work y'all are doing right now, where where should they go?

  Quinn Gormley 42:40

  Maine Transnet.org. Sign up to volunteer. We always need more.

  Benn Marine 42:44

  Awesome. Thank you so much, Quinn. Thanks so much for tuning into this week's episode with Quinn Gormley. As always, if you are looking for any of the resources mentioned, like links to the National LGBTQ Task Force Online Academy, or even just to the MTN website, head on over to oceanoforganizing.com to see the show notes and access all those links. Also, while you're there, drop me some feedback and let me know how I can best serve you. Thank you. I appreciate you. Be well.