Catalyst Initiative

Suzanne Koepplinger is director of the Catalyst Initiative at the Minneapolis Foundation. Catalyst’s purpose is to honor and foster culturally authentic self-care practices to advance health and well-being. Previously she served for ten years as the executive director of the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center, where she led the first research, community response, and programming in the country to address sex trafficking of American Indian women and girls. In that capacity, she has testified before Congress and is a certified trainer for the Office for Victims of Crime Training and Technical Assistance Center (OVC TTAC) and the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Center (NHTTTC). Suzanne holds a Master’s degree in the Art of Leadership from Augsburg University in Minneapolis, and is one of 15 national leaders chosen for the NoVo Foundation’s first Move to End Violence cohort. She has extensive international experience as a trainer and public speaker. 

The problem we are trying to solve is the spiritual, emotional and physical wounds of toxic stress and trauma. We must heal those wounds to break intergenerational cycles of trauma and achieve more equitable health, social, economic and educational outcomes among marginalized communities. We propose scaling support for community-identified leaders; fostering generative organizational cultures; expanding networks that work to shift social norms from reactive to proactive; and creating compassionate communities and cultural healing on a large scale to positively impact individuals, organizations and systems nationwide. Our project elevates humanity by building resilience and normalizing accessible and sustainable, culturally powerful trauma healing practices in community. This work improves physical and mental health, cultivates compassion for self and others, reduces stress and anxiety, strengthens immune systems and enhances cognitive executive functioning, which promotes strategic thinking, rational judgement and creative problem-solving

TARGET: Catalyst is leading a movement to improve health and well-being in marginalized communities by fostering our innate capacity to heal and thrive.

CURRENT STATE: The U.S. has the highest rate of mental illness and second highest rate of substance abuse in the world. Eighty percent of chronic diseases can be linked to toxic stress. Most health outcomes are linked to social determinants of health and personal behaviors, contributing to elevated levels of inflammatory and chronic diseases and generational cycles of despair. These cycles manifest in high rates of depression, addiction and other coping behaviors that lead to homelessness, unemployment, and child protection and criminal justice interventions. American Indian youth have the highest suicide rate in the country. African Americans represent 13% of the country’s population but 24% of COVID-19 deaths. Adverse Childhood Experiences studies show that early trauma has a “strong and cumulative impact on the health and functioning of adults.” In Minnesota, 19% of African Americans and 23% of American Indians reported high ACE scores.   

CLEAR GAP: Unleashing and supporting self-care practices in communities impacted by toxic stress and trauma reduces disparities while shifting norms to embrace a compassionate, generative approach to problem-solving.

Catalyst is an initiative that is dedicated to helping people improve health and well-being by normalizing self-care as primary care and embedding culturally meaningful trauma healing practices in community.

We do this by investing in transformational relationships to foster an ecosystem that creates the conditions to change social norms to become more generative, interconnected and compassionate.  Using empowering, generative teaching models, convenings, targeted grantmaking and intentional network building, we respond to a deep hunger and largely unmet need for accessible ways to cope with toxic stress and heal from trauma that are based on longstanding cultural traditions. This in turn improves health, reduces violence, enhances executive functioning and fosters strategic thinking.

Catalyst raises money to invest in trusted community partners and in continuous experimenting to create pathways to resiliency practices that have the greatest likelihood of being embraced by the community. We track evidence of impact on individuals, communities, organizations and systems. We strategically target policy and systems change, in partnership with health care systems, with the goal to secure payment reform models that will support community-based, culturally meaningful healing as a vital, sustainable component of our health and well-being systems.

Catalyst was developed through a process of deep listening to communities of color, indigenous communities and gender non-conforming groups, where health disparities are highest. We asked about barriers and possible solutions to foster a sense of ownership over their health and well-being. These voices informed our early strategies and continue to be foundational.

Our most significant takeaway was the need to develop culturally meaningful trauma healing practices based in community settings. Needs and solutions identified by these communities guide our role as a networking hub and resource coordinator. Our partnerships with organizations led by and serving African American youth, American Indians and East African immigrants have flourished.

In 2018 Catalyst was transferred to The Minneapolis Foundation to allow for growth. We support community leaders in becoming change agents to shift social norms: African American youth use performance art and spoken word to influence peers; American Indian elders and Somali imams use faith and cultural practices to teach the human stress response and simple practices to calm anxiety and promote compassion. We seed and foster connections in a spirit of mutuality and trust, guided by our principles: healing is intrinsic, community is the trusted expert, lead with relationship, and context matters

Marginalized people are disproportionately victims of abuse and violence, leading to cognitive, emotional and physical damage in both children and adults. Fight or flight responses to trauma become embedded into collective norms, leading to a cascade of negative outcomes, including increased chronic disease, addiction and mental illness.

Individuals stuck in this amygdala response cannot access the prefrontal cortex, where rational thinking, creative problem-solving and empathy reside. Catalyst teaches these individuals how the nervous system interprets and reacts to toxic stress — and how they can gain agency over their physical, spiritual and emotional health and well-being through resiliency practices.

For 10 years, I led an urban nonprofit working with American Indian women and children. While there I led the country’s first research and response to the sexual exploitation of American Indian women and children. That process uncovered the pervasive soul wounds of historic trauma in indigenous communities — the root cause of so much pain. Guided by Native elders and best practices, we began exploring ways to heal the wounds of trauma and build resilience in ways that were both culturally meaningful and scientifically based.

Noticing this work, the George Family Foundation invited me to lead a new statewide effort to build integrative health and healing within community in 2014. The Georges have long worked to reform the health care system to be more integrative at a systems level, and they wanted to connect at the grassroots level.

Drawing from my experience with shifting cultural norms and changing policy around sex trafficking, and also seeking guidance from elders and teachers in my own life, I began the process of gathering wisdom from the communities we sought to serve to develop Catalyst’s strategies. Catalyst’s purpose and goals were largely informed by community through listening and reflection. 

I am a survivor of gender-based violence. Simply surviving was not enough; it was crucial that I thrive and become a change agent in the world. I returned to school for my masters’ degree in leadership and then led the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center (MIWRC) for 10 years — my heritage includes First Nations Abenaki ancestry. I became aware of the generational toll of toxic stress and trauma on my own health and leadership, and that of my staff. I learned how trauma had informed my behavioral patterns and weakened my immune system, and then learned ways to heal and thrive that made me a better leader.

Exposing sexual exploitation surfaced the multiple traumas that indigenous people have experienced and the over-reliance on clinical, reactive medical models that are poorly adapted to serve this population. I have supported Native elders in becoming certified trainers in mind-body healing practices and influenced how organizations and individuals pivoted from reacting with the fight or flight response to a more creative, compassionate, strategic stance. Creating Catalyst gave me the opportunity to use my skills for a larger purpose — leading a movement to understand healing as imperative to our health, leadership and relationships.

I seek to identify root causes and organic, sustainable solutions. I am impatient with those who admire big problems but limit solutions to superficial, temporary fixes. My experience at MIWRC showed me that individual, collective and historic trauma were barriers to thriving for many in marginalized communities, and my experience as a survivor helped define my purpose.

I have mastered the practical skills to identify core problems and co-create responses that are generative and universal. Working within multi-sector alliances, I have shaped state and federal policy, funding streams, community awareness, law enforcement response and social norms. Selected as one of 15 national leaders for NoVo Foundation’s Move to End Violence in 2011, I gained additional insight into national and international movements, personal and organizational development strategies, and network building.

My early experiences volunteering with community-based international development organizations in Africa and Latin America taught me about respecting cultural wisdom, processes and voices. Accumulated stress loads transmitted intergenerationally are weakening immune systems in marginalized communities, leading to higher rates of chronic diseases and Adverse Childhood Experiences, and resulting in socioeconomic disparities. Systemic responses have been inadequate and require new thinking.

I operate from a core strength of diplomatic truth telling and big picture thinking. As a former theater artist, I embrace the power of voice and communicate with ease. My ability to thrive following extreme violence feeds my belief that anything is possible if grounded in respect and integrity; my personal healing journey models the transformation from survivor to change agent.

U.S. health care is functionally a disease care model that’s effective in treating illness and injury but lacks culturally meaningful and accessible prevention and self-care strategies. There is widespread lack of understanding of the role toxic stress and trauma play in a host of disparities, including addiction. Responses to the opioid epidemic have been reactive and symptomatic, yet addiction is largely a coping mechanism to deal with physical, spiritual and emotional pain.

Prior to the 2019 Minnesota Legislative session, I developed a logic model of the positive impact of non-narcotic pain management as an amendment to the opioid bill. The committee chairman’s initial response was that he would not support the amendment, so I hired a skilled lobbyist, re-scoped the data, created clear talking points, and made the case that it was necessary to go to people’s pain point as a true primary prevention tactic. We were able to secure $1.25 million from the legislature to fund five demonstration projects and statewide mapping of non-narcotic pain management strategies to help us deliver outcome data that can be used to pursue payment reform with insurance companies, Medicare and Medicaid. 

One of the first projects Catalyst supported was a nonprofit called Irreducible Grace Foundation (IGF). It is an incredible organization driven by young people of color who have experienced homelessness and foster care and live with multiple traumas. I attended a community event they led and felt they were strongly positioned to become messengers who could help normalize cultural healing from trauma with their peers.

IGF’s leaders agreed to host several “Healing from Trauma” convenings I arranged. These sessions resonated strongly, and youth went on to develop a powerful series of Workshops for Healing and Change to train other young people. IGF joined forces with others to form the Youth Healing Justice Network. Their mission is to help youth heal their own wounds to enable them to work toward social, racial and economic justice.

My leadership role has been to create the conditions for this to be possible. While the youth and adult leaders give me credit for transforming their organization and their personal lives, they have done the work and envisioned the powerful future they desire. My role is to amplify and share their stories and to shift social norms by investing in recognized community influencers. 

Catalyst is an autonomous intermediary based at a community foundation. We receive administrative and financial management support from the host organization (a registered non-profit) but operate with a different mission/purpose statement, independent budget, have a global reach and are responsible for our own fundraising and fund distribution. Catalyst is guided by an Advisory Cabinet rather than a governing board.

Catalyst is innovative in three areas that represent components of transitioning from a “trauma informed” model to a “healing informed” sector.

First, we are challenging Western based health care systems to pivot from a reactive disease care model to an inclusive, proactive self-care one that embraces primary prevention practices that have meaning in community as a public health requirement.

Second, we are urging philanthropy to move out of its dominant culture, hierarchical approach to problem solving and fully invest in relational, community led solutions. Being willing to respond to community generated solutions by reducing barriers, simplifying processes and leading with relationship brings some risks, but can have dramatic results.

Third, we are exploring the entry points and scalability factors to building a critical mass of individuals, organizations and communities utilizing self-care and culturally grounded trauma healing practices on a regular basis. Shifting reactive social norms that are often grounded in historic and collective trauma requires a long term commitment to a creating resilient and compassionate mindsets.

We are very intentional about presenting this work as part of a continuum of care, not a replacement for vital medical and clinical services. All people should have access to the kind of care that works best for them, and sometimes that comes from local healers like curanderas, shamanistic healers and elders who do not have university degrees but are steeped in their ancestral healing practices and medicines. This approach has met some deep pockets of resistance.

Catalyst deploys high impact strategies and tactics for outsize positive impact in transforming health and wellbeing on a grassroots level. We unleash energy that has the potential to have widespread benefit to individuals, organizations, communities and systems.

Our goal: To honor and foster culturally authentic self-care practices to advance health and well-being.

Gap we address: We aim to provide communities of color, indigenous communities, gender non-conforming populations and others with community-based, community- led, culturally meaningful stress reduction and trauma healing. It is know that these communities have higher health disparities and corresponding higher rates of historic, primary, vicarious and collective trauma, and that Western-based clinical care models are not always acceptable or accessible.

Changing the system:Shifting the system will require payment reform models that support non-narcotic pain management and cultural healing outside of the existing medical model. Systems change can be effectively driven by consumer-constituent demand. Catalyst facilitates this process by teaching people practical and meaningful ways to access a more holistic well-being framework. The approach is committed to shifting the conditions that are hindering new practices of self-care and cultural healing. 

We assume: The most effective way to meet our goals is by expanding the reach of culturally authentic self-care practices to those most in need in order to shift social norms and increase demand. Through widespread education and awareness the strategy is to identify and nurture community leaders who will foster expanded practice and understanding of the benefits of self-care, trauma healing, and well-being.

We focus on: Catalyst positions itself to bring about meaningful change through four pivotal intervention areas: create the conditions; seed and innovate; synthesize, normalize, scale, and spread; and shift systems and influence policy. Through these core areas, the Initiative builds a critical mass of individuals, organizations, communities and systems grounded in generative, compassionate care of self and others.

We understand the shift: Catalyst focuses on 10 different outcome indicators, four of which are specific to fostering networks, exploring entry points, identifying and investing in key community leaders and organizations, and bringing early adapters together to normalize generative thinking and practices and change systems.

Currently Catalyst serves several hundreds of people directly through our grantmaking and training activities in community and thousands of individuals through our communications and thought leadership activities. It is difficult to project how many people are currently served as we are creating a movement and building networks, which are very difficult to quantify. How many more will be served in one year or five years depends upon our capacity to attract resources to invest in community and truly scale this work.

We strive to understand where emergence patterns are appearing and track communities of practice and organized networks to the extent possible. We have 700 names on our e-newsletter distribution, the Catalyst webpage is based on the website of the Minneapolis Foundation, which has a much wider audience through website visits and social media sharing. In 2019 we had 450 people attend convenings, 1200 reached through keynotes and trainings. We made 5 major grants to American Indian, Somali and African American organizations and 10 smaller grants that added Hmong, Two Spirit and LGBTQ groups, each reaching between a few dozen to a few hundred community members. In addition, we had 8 print or on-line media stories and one CBS Morning News story reaching thousands of people https://www.cbs.com/shows/cbs_this_morning/video/uij3Y2astnwBdge_2MhMSOBj4TGOayQh/minnesota-youth-find-healing-from-trauma-through-the-arts/

Partner organizations are reaching thousands more. Open Path Resources’ Muslim Chaplaincy graduation ceremony reached over 50,000 on international Somali web outlets.

If we realize growth as planned, in five years we will reach hundreds of thousands of individuals and impact countless organizations.

Major goals in one to five years are to scale the initiative impact in three areas.  In the year ahead the goal is to raise three years of salary support to hire a co-director to mentor into this model and begin a working capital campaign to raise $5 million in acceleration funds. This will allow for an exponential increase in the number of individuals, organizations, communities and systems we impact, and develop more effective tracking and analysis to better understand what change we are unleashing. We will aggregate data, expand community education and awareness and focus on securing payment reform with Medicare, Medicaid and insurance companies to cover non-narcotic pain management practices like yoga, mindfulness and meditation so these therapeutic practices can be more widely available to those of limited means. In five years our goal is to have significant philanthropic and government investment and major health care system buy-in to a public health approach to building self-care and cultural healing into our social, educational, justice and human services sectors, generating a more resilient and compassionate society. Our moon shot goal is to create the conditions for healthier, more compassionate and resilient communities to flourish.

Shifting entrenched social norms and interrupting generational trauma behaviors requires a long-term commitment and understanding that evaluating impact cannot be based on grant cycles. Impact must be understood outside of lineal evaluation models and in terms that have meaning in community. We continue to advocate for “practice-based evidence” as opposed to “evidence-based practice” standards of evaluation. Existing philanthropic investment strategies and medical models rarely invest in primary prevention, largely because of the difficulty of measuring impact, which has left gaping health and socio-economic disparities. Trust in cultural expertise is required, and this expertise does not often fit into evidence-based intervention models. We also live in a dominant culture that prioritizes the transactional versus the transformational, requiring an awareness of the benefits of being in authentic relationship for transformational change. Catalyst is leading a movement toward more compassionate and restorative social norms, which is a fundamental shift away from our current divisive, individualistic worldview. Breaking long standing habits takes time and consistent support. This work is patient and requires creative problem solving, authentic messengers and a broad communications plan. It is imperative that we secure payment reform to support healing in community and more robust self-care strategies as true prevention. We are challenged with the need to educate about the human biological stress response system, the role of toxic stress and trauma in our behaviors and health, and the solutions that are at hand. Financial constraints limit impact. 

Catalyst uses and advocates for a developmental and formative evaluation

model that is more meaningful to community and provides better “real-time” learning to inform program development and external messaging. As we aggregate stories of impact and share them, we strive to influence how philanthropy and government understand their opportunities to effect transformational change. Educating on the impact of toxic stress and trauma and importance of self-care is a process that requires multiple nimble approaches. Catalyst was spun off from a family foundation to a community-based foundation two years ago specifically to locate the work in a more visible venue, enhance communications and increase
access to capital. As a Field of Interest Fund at the Minneapolis Foundation, we can receive donations from any source. Working with an external communications firm as well as benefiting from the Foundation’s media presence has increased awareness of this innovative approach, but staff capacity is limited. A single full-time director is responsible for all external communications, program management, visioning and fundraising, hence the need to secure resources for a co-director to grow outreach and fundraising. Tackling payment reform is in progress. In the 2019 Minnesota Legislative session, we were successful in securing investment in pilot projects testing efficacy of non-narcotic pain
management as an opioid prevention tactic. Outcomes from these pilots will inform legislative next steps. We are exploring opportunities to create the wider policy advocacy solution that includes insurance companies and federal payment waivers for Medicare and Medicaid. 

We do significant work with the Center for Mind Body Medicine in Washington, DC. (www.cmbm.org). They have several senior faculty members in the Minneapolis area that contract with us to do training with community partners and their model is widely adaptable and accepted in diverse communities. We have supported dozens of people, largely in the American Indian and Somali community, through their Train the Trainer program to bring mind body teachings back to community. Marnita’s Table is a non-profit (www.marnitastable.org) that has excellent community engagement and is our convener of choice. With Marnita’s team we created the Healing from Trauma: Tips and Techniques for Resilience series of convenings. Since 2015 we have hosted 12 of these sessions statewide for thousands of individuals as a way of connecting networks, validating social norms and reinforcing a healing informed approach to community building. We regularly get requests to host these gatherings. This model could go national with additional investment. Our most significant community partners are Open Path Resources/Islamic Civic Society of America (www.oprmn.org); Liberty Northside Healing Space (https://libertychurchmpls.org/...); Irreducible Grace Foundation (https://www.irgrace.org/); White Earth Land Recovery Project (https://www.welrp.org/); and Native American Community Clinic (https://nacc-healthcare.org/). Catalyst is a funder, connector and thought partner for each, and has been in relationship with these and others for at least 5 years. We provide resources, technical assistance, connections to other supporters and visibility through our communications channels. 

Catalyst is an innovative intermediary philanthropic model. We raise money to invest in the community but go beyond that to include network building and movement strategy leadership. The Director of Catalyst raises all funds for the program. Overhead funds purchase support services from the Foundation for administrative, financial and grant making activities. Evaluation and external communications are contracted out, and all other resources are put into the community through invitation and discretionary grantmaking, consultant contracts, convenings, trainings and communications. Being nimble and responsive to community need is a hallmark of the Initiative. Funds can be used for any project that aligns with the purpose, intended reach and guiding principles of the Initiative, giving a wide latitude for investing in sectors and populations most in need of healing. All programmatic decisions are grounded in those guiding principles: Healing is intrinsic; Community is the trusted expert; Lead with relationship; and Context matters. 

Catalyst was transitioned to the Minneapolis Foundation with three years

of operating support from the George Family Foundation and has since received additional significant support from the Bush Foundation. Being an intermediary housed at a registered non-profit community foundation is intended to act as an attractor to other funders, government entities and individuals to allow the work to go to scale. The Catalyst Field of Interest Fund is marketed to donor advised fund holders at the Foundation and the Director of Catalyst fosters individual donor relationships and applies for larger foundation grants. A unique and specific outcome measure for Catalyst is how we can influence other funders and government entities to invest in self-care and cultural healing from trauma. To that end we track evidence of influence in the sector. Being based at a community foundation brings great benefits and some challenges. While there are significant focus area interconnections between the foundation’s priority areas and those of Catalyst, our purpose is unique and this can present limitations to approaching larger foundations or individuals for significant gifts.

The George Family Foundation launched Catalyst in 2014 and until 2017 invested $3.4 million in the Initiative. They then provided a three-year operating and programming grant of $1.5 million to the Minneapolis Foundation to support Catalyst 2018 – 2020. Since January of 2018 an additional $185,000 in individual donations has been secured. In early 2019, the Bush Foundation awarded a $209,000 grant to Catalyst to support the Muslim Chaplaincy Program with community partners Open Path Resources/Islamic Civic Society of America. In fall of 2019, the Bush Foundation awarded Catalyst a special grant of $1.5 million over three years for program expansion. Investment revenue adds a modest amount each quarter. Current funding levels will maintain existing programming until the end of 2022, but additional revenue is needed to go to scale. 

Catalyst first seeks $500,000 of operating funds over the next three years to hire and on-board a co-director, and an additional $5 - $10 million in working capital to scale existing, emergent work and to deepen our analysis and communications strategies. 

2020 expenses (fiscal year calendar year): Overhead (salary/benefits/internal services/legal)                                        $270,000    

Programming (seeding/innovating/evaluation/communications)           $420,000

Grantmaking (invitation only to deepen existing work)                $400,000

TOTAL                                                                                                $1,090,000

I believe that Catalyst is a revolutionary way to address deep societal problems with an asset based, sustainable and effective approach. It bridges the philanthropic and non-profit worlds and gets to the root causes of intergenerational, historic and collective trauma, racism and toxic stress that lead to the symptoms we invest so many resources so ineffectively in addressing. Our dominant culture worldview and medical models minimize ancient and community wisdom and have failed in solving deep socio-economic and health disparities. Sufficient data exists to support the belief that mind, body and spirit healing practices that are culturally meaningful can lower blood pressure, reduce inflammation and chronic disease, calm the fight/flight limbic system response and lead to greater compassion, resilience and creative problem solving. Yet because these practices are not billable or identifiable through clinical diagnostic processes, they are often dismissed, or are not known. We are raising entire generations of wounded and traumatized people and I want to interrupt that transmission of soul wounds. Countless people in traumatized communities have voiced their desire to access meaningful healing based in community and led by respected voices and peers within the cultural context, but our hierarchical systems do not support what people are telling us they need. In the weeks since the killing of George Floyd here in Minneapolis, the world is keenly aware of the need for racial justice and for healing justice. Catalyst will help us get there. 

Communication and fundraising are the two areas where The Elevate Prize can be most helpful. Catalyst needs a larger platform and greater visibility with smart graphics, video storytelling and social media outreach. We also need more resources to expand the work into larger scale modeling on a state and national scale, and grow in new sectors such as teaching law enforcement and first responders how vicarious trauma is impacting them on the job. Catalyst will benefit from a deeper analysis of what works, why it works and how it is being replicated and sustained with minimal additional investment once it takes root. The hope is that this model can be adapted by other philanthropic, health care and government entities who will each unleash the innate power to heal within each person in their network, leading to social norm shifts that prioritize a proactive and not reactive stance. 

We have just begun a conversation with two other philanthropic entities about forming a funding collaborative that focuses on supporting community based healing from trauma. Currently we are analyzing other funding collaborative models. Creating such a compact would elevate the visibility of the work, increase investments and allow us to do deeper analysis of impact.