Building Fulfilling City Partnerships at District Bridges, Washington D.C.

This week on Bridging the Digital Divide, our guests are Madeleine Odendahl and Brianne Dornbush from the non-profit organization, District Bridges in Washington D.C. In our conversation, we hear about how they’ve built valuable relationships in their community, their passion for city development, and Washington D.C’s leading role as the nation's capital. District Bridges is on a mission to strengthen connections in their neighborhoods and create impactful city projects. We hope you enjoy!

Read the full transcript:

Brianne Dornbush: It truly is relationship driven. And so when you enter this community, when you enter neighborhoods, our goal is to make sure that nobody leaves D.C. Because they weren't able to connect to community.

Ally Peters: Welcome to Bridging the Digital Divide, a Smart City Podcast from Soofa, where we explore the places where urban landscapes are intertwined with technology to see how connectivity thrives, innovation sparks, and sustainability grows.

Kiel Hauck: Welcome to Bridging the Digital Divide, a Smart City podcast from Soofa, so glad you could join us today. I'm Kiel Hauck. I lead the Marketing team here at Soofa, and I'm joined, as always, by my colleague, Ally Peters. Ally, how are you doing today?

Ally Peters: I'm great. I'm really excited for this conversation today.

Kiel Hauck: Yes. We are talking with Brianne Dornbush, the Executive Director at District Bridges, and Madeleine Odendahl, the Deputy Director at District Bridges, which is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. And through their many Main Street programs across the city, they support community based economic development, and they serve over a thousand small businesses across wards one, two, three, and four in Washington, D.C. 

And this was one of the most interesting conversations we've had so far, because, as you can imagine, Washington, D.C. is a pretty complex city, especially when it comes to making changes at the local government level. And, Brianne and Madeleine are both very impassioned about community driven change. And they've built a really cool community with District Bridges that's impacting all different kinds of neighborhoods around the D.C. Metro. And I thought it was really interesting, the approach that they're taking here to make D.C a smarter city for all of the communities that they serve.

Ally Peters: Yeah, through this conversation, I realized that the foundation of building a smart city is relationships. And they definitely emphasized this in our conversation. And through their various partnerships with small businesses, citizens and local government they've been able to build a really strong network and therefore been able to create District Bridges, which has been doing such great work.

Kiel Hauck: Yeah. So in this conversation, you'll learn about how District Bridges came about, and then a lot of the really amazing things that they've learned along the way leading up to today and the impact that they're making in Washington, D.C. So, without further ado, let's jump into it, here's.Brianne and Madeleine from District Bridges in Washington, D.C.

Ally Peters: So, to kick us off here, we would love to hear a bit about both of your backgrounds. What brought each of you to District Bridges?

Brianne Dornbush: Yeah, well, I am the founding Executive Director, so I got started with District Bridges when it was known as the Columbia Heights Day Initiative. And the Columbia Heights Day Initiative was just a very grassroots community effort to put on the Columbia Heights Day Festival that started back in 2005. A few neighbors having a couple of beverages and nachos down at Wonderland ballroom came up with the idea for the Columbia Heights Day Festival. And after about ten years of successful festivals, there were several community members, including myself, joining the board. And we were all bringing some different events and activities to the organization. And I was feeling particularly crazy and pitched to the board, what if I took this full time? And at that point, we were completely volunteer run, had zero budget, and they said, great, let's go. And so that first year, we started fundraising. 

We hosted 16 events in the community. It was insane. It was very fun, very challenging, very exhausting. But we were able to apply for the first Main Street grant for Columbia Heights and Mount Pleasant. And that grant was unique because it took two very distinct neighborhoods and smashed them into one grant. And they said, make it work, and we did. So because of the uniqueness of that grant, the traditional Main Street model focuses on one commercial corridor or one neighborhood. We had to develop a different model. And so we started developing a multi Main Street model, using the first Main Street dollars to really brand and program two separate neighborhoods. The following year, we applied for the Lower Georgia Avenue Main Street and got it, and became the first organization in the country to manage multiple Main Streets. 

And so now, today, we manage six of D.C.'s 28 Main Street programs. But we've really expanded beyond just Main Streets. Our Main Streets are our very place based, focused neighborhood work, working with our small businesses. But we also serve businesses throughout the city through programs like Access Point, our facade improvement program, and also our capacity building work for other nonprofit organizations here in the district and beyond.

Madeleine Odendahl: And I got started at District Bridges because I had kind of fallen into Main Street work, and was the Executive Director at Eastern Market Main Street, which actually came online at the same time as the Columbia Heights Mount Pleasant program in 2016. And so Brianne and I were kind of the newbies in the group, and we immediately bonded, both because you've just heard her talk, she's very inspiring, but we realized that this work, the Main Street work, is really hard. It's emotionally taxing. It can be physically taxing. It's hard to create boundaries. And, I think I had kind of been like, there must be a better way. And then Brianne went and created it. And so when she had the crazy idea to go from two to five Main Streets in one fiscal year, she managed to lure me over to District Bridges in order to help. So that was in 2019, and I have been here ever since. And as long as we don't launch three more Main Street programs during a year with a global pandemic, I'll probably be here for a while.

Kiel Hauck: That's a really cool you know, Brianne, it's interesting because so many of the conversations that we've had, the story kind of starts because somebody just kind of raises their hand and says, hey, I'll do it. And it's fascinating to think about that, of how much of the stuff that happens in these communities to drive progress, to drive things forward, is literally because somebody just says, hey, I'm here, I've got an idea. Let's try this out. And, it's fascinating how recurring that is and obviously what District Bridges has become in a short amount of time. All the different neighborhoods that you serve and the things that you do, there's a lot to cover. But if you go to the District Bridges website, one of the first things that shows up there's this tagline, “Community Built, Community Driven”. What does that mean to you, Brianne, and the day to day and how these different projects that you do manifest themselves in the different communities that you serve?

Brianne Dornbush: Yeah, I think the thing that I love the most about District Bridges is that we are values driven. Our deepest held value is relationships. And so everything that we do builds from the relationships that we have in the community. And so we don't just come to a neighborhood and say, I think you should have this neighborhood thing. You should have this program. It's really, seeing the grassroots effort. The community dictates what they want to see in their neighborhood, addressing challenges that they're facing, because we're of the community. 

I always tell folks the story. The founding board of District Bridges, they not only are incredible board members and residents and volunteers, but they're personal friends. They are the folks who make you meals when you have a baby and take you to the hospital if you're sick. I met my husband because he volunteered for Columbia Heights day, so you never know what you might get when you volunteer. But it truly is relationship driven. And so when you enter this community, when you enter neighborhoods, our goal is to make sure that nobody leaves D.C. because they weren't able to connect to the community. And so whether you're somebody who's been here for your entire lifetime and suddenly you looked up and your neighborhood looks completely different, or you're somebody who's just arrived and don't know where you might fit, District Bridges is a way for people to connect to that community, whether it's through the community events or connecting with business owners. There are so many incredible business owners who are just incredible entrepreneurs, who are hustlers, who just are passionate about what they do. And we get to share that with residents who may never have come across that business, and suddenly they become regulars. It's just really building that ecosystem of interconnected relationships. 

That's what makes a community special. That's what makes community development work so vital to the health of neighborhoods. Of cities here in the District, but really across the country. This is something that is not just unique to D.C. This kind of work happens everywhere. And I think being able to connect to that through an organization, whether that's through volunteering or getting employed, or the support that we provide to businesses, there's a lot of different on ramps, to connecting with us and to the community more broadly.

Ally Peters: That is so interesting. First of all, that's such a cute story about how you met your husband. I love that. And that actually is, like, a perfect segue into our next question, because, we obviously were on the District Bridges website, and just through a conversation so far, you've definitely brought up relationships and how important they are for building community. And so, when it comes to projects, how does relationships impact collaboration on projects and how does it create the outcome of different projects?

Madeleine Odendahl: Yeah, well, I think one of the big things, going back to that “Community Built, Community Driven”, we're not going in and saying, yes, you need this, and assigning whatever value that is. We really take a posture of listening when we're going into a neighborhood, even neighborhood that we've been working in, like Columbia Heights for almost ten years, we're still always listening. What is needed here? How can we be supportive? How can we bridge pun intended, the differing silos of work that are happening. And so I think relationships is always our first step. Whether that's, again, connecting with business owners or residents who are in need of housing or city resources, the first step is always listening and then identifying how we can best support that.

Kiel Hauck: One of the things, again, going back to you all have, like I mentioned, a lot of great taglines. The website really, I think, does a great job of communicating what's important to you. And one of the things that I loved the most was there's a blurb about innovation that says the seven dying words of an organization are we've never done it that way before. And that really resonated with me, because that's something that, know, like, to live by and Ally can attest. I always like us to kind of think outside the box, try things we haven't done, be willing to break things in order to make forward progress.

Brianne, talk to us a little bit about how that belief in trying out new ideas manifests itself at District Bridges. Can you think of any specific examples where that approach has been something that you've pursued and seen?

Brianne Dornbush: Well, I think, number one, we could be friends. It's, one of those things. I don't think people with big visions don't intentionally go out to innovate. They see something that isn't quite working right. Or that they imagine could be better, and then just hack at it and try to figure out a better way to do it. I love efficiency. And so when I got into the Main Street world, I thought I was coming in from the cold. The first year, I had been raising money with small local businesses, developing programming, but really no structure beyond just, like, what we were creating. And so the Main Street was like, oh, wow, I'll have colleagues, I'll have grant funds. This is going to be so amazing. 

And then getting into the Main Street world, it was not the kumbaya family that I thought it was going to be. It was highly competitive. Folks, not necessarily because they didn't want to share, but just didn't have the capacity to share best practices, knowledge base tools that they were using. Most of the organizations didn't have tools. They were just kind of making it up as they went along. And so, Madeleine and I both just kind of connected initially because we both were new in this world. And we're like, Madeleine is amazing at making templates and tools and trainings and all of that. And so I wanted to poach her immediately. Had to wait that out a little bit. But as we started doing the work, we started realizing there are better ways, more efficient ways to do this. 

And so building incrementally, trying something out, seeing if it worked, and then being very willing to abandon whatever we were trying if it wasn't working. And I think that continual feedback loop is always really important. And that's, again, why we say community built, community driven. Because we're constantly saying to our businesses, like, is this helping you? We're, saying to our community, did you like this? Give us feedback. I love critical feedback, because we can't improve if we don't know what's wrong, if we have pain points, or businesses have pain points, we can't make adaptations, if we don't know about them. 

A great example was, we were having businesses saying, oh, I need a marketing training, I need an accounting training. And so we'd go back, we'd create these amazing trainings. We'd sink a ton of money into them. We'd schedule them based on when the businesses said they were available, and then no one would show up. And so we just wasted a ton of money. We'd go back to them and say, Hi, you said you needed this. Why didn't you come? And they're like, Well, I can't leave my business. I'm too busy. And it's like, oh, okay, so we need to bring this to you.

And so that was the genesis for Access Point, which is an online technical assistance platform that we built because we needed to get this training to businesses. They wanted it, they need it. But without a way to access it, in a practical , time sensitive way that fits their schedule. If it's 2:00 AM and they're laying in bed and watching it from their tablet, that's a win for us. It doesn't have to be on the schedule. That works for the traditional technical assistant. So I think, a lot of the work that we have done, we've just kind of figured it out along the way and said, oh well, this didn't quite work, but what if we did this instead? And that constant feedback loop allows us to keep on pushing those boundaries and then just not being worried about what people think. We saw an opportunity to build a different model and there were a lot of people who said, you can't do that. 

Madeleine Odendahl: That's not how we still say, you can't do that, even though we've been doing it now for seven years.

Brianne Dornbush: Yeah, but being able to have a thick skin and know your purpose, know your vision and continue to pursue that even when those people who don't understand that vision don't get behind eventually, eventually they have to at least accept the fact that you exist. And your way is, working. 

Madeleine Odendahl: I would say the other thing is Brianne says a lot is we fail fast. It's one of the things we actually ask in our interview process is like, when was the last time you failed? What did you do about it? Who had to hold you accountable? Because we really believe that if you're working in community, you are not going to be perfect. The goal is not perfection. The goal is progress, particularly community based progress that includes the voices at the table. And that process can be really slow. So we're not afraid of failing, we're not afraid of doing it wrong if it means that at the end of that, we're able to say, here's what worked, here's what didn't, and try again. Move forward. We're a big fan of pilots. 

Kiel Hauck: It’s really interesting to hear because one might think like, it's Washington, D.C. Our nation's capital. It's a mecca of ideas and innovation and, yet it still sounds like you face a lot of the same challenges a lot of communities do, where there's like a way things have been done and you still kind of have to work to help kind of undo some of that previous stuff, to help push new, initiatives forward.

Madeleine, maybe talk about a few ways that you kind of collectively push yourselves and others to think outside the box when it comes to new ways to impact the community.

Madeleine Odendahl: What a great question. Well, I will say I think red tape is the same everywhere. Like, all local governments buy their red tape from the same store. But I think one of the things we talk about a lot is that we are innovating by existing because of this Main Street model in D.C. economic development happens in two ways. Either a Main Street or a bid, a business improvement district. And Main Streets are, at their core, a philosophy. There's a National Main Street center. We're accredited through them. We're following a specific set of performance standards, and a bid is a funding mechanism. It's a tax structure. So when those are your only two options the fact that we exist is pushing the envelope a little bit. The fact that we are looking at different ways to fund our programming, and not relying on kind of what's been done before.

I think one of the other ways that we continue to kind of push that envelope a little bit is through partnerships, a different way of saying relationships, but our focus on collaboration. So we're not here to make sure that we get the biggest piece of pie. We think the pie analogy is wrong to begin with. Throw the pie out the window. But we're always looking at, well, who else is doing this? There are things we do not do. So when you go to a partner and say, we don't do this, here's what we do really well, and we've seen that you do this really well. So if we do these things together, we can collectively move the needle farther. 

And that attitude is something that often throws partners off a little bit. Because we're in D.C, everyone wants to be the best. There's a lot of ego here. And we talk a lot about moving that. That doesn't actually help the communities that we're serving. And so being honest about what we can and can't do often helps partners come to the table more honestly. And then we get more done, we see better results, we see a greater impact by removing the ego from the room.

Brianne Dornbush: Yeah, I think that idea of ego, it comes from a scarcity mentality. And when organizations are continually asked to do more with less, that your mission is so important, that your personal value is less important, your personal boundaries, your personal health, all of that is less important than the mission of your organization. That you should just feel honored that you get paid to do anything, do this incredible work. Like, why would you want a paycheck when you just feel so good about what you do?

That kind of mentality is actually super toxic to the ecosystem that we're trying to develop. And so when they have a scarcity mentality, they hold on to resources. They're less likely to come to the table and want to collaborate. And so one of the things that we have done to really try to buy friends is literally paying people for their work and being able to, a lot of times, go to a partner and say, you might be applying for this grant. I could see why you would apply for this grant instead of you applying, what if we applied in partnership? I'll do all of the work. I'll write it, I'll submit it, I'll put the budget together. But then I'm just going to pay you outright to do what you already do. 

And the first couple of times that I've done this, I just got, silence on the other end of the line of like, but why would you do that? Why wouldn't you just use the whole amount of money? And it's like, well, I don't want to do what you're doing. I'm not going to hold a farmer's market. You do farmers market. We're going to do the part that we do. Or you work in that neighborhood, I don't, why would I come into your neighborhood when I could just pay you to do what you already do? And so once you start doing that, it kind of shakes people up. They're worried. But what's the end game here? And you're like, the end game is a stronger ecosystem where we all work in unity. We all have more assets and resources to be able to do our work more effectively.

Madeleine Odendahl: Crazy.

Brianne Dornbush: And then there's like, again, silence. Wait, where's the catch? A lot of times that trust building is taking those little steps of, like, a tiny grant that you're doing together or a tiny event where you invite partners and you help them participate. And that starts to move the needle. But again, that scarcity mentality is something that is so pervasive. Anytime you turn on the news, you're hearing about budget crisis and coming recession, and it seems like there's so much challenge in front of us. And so people are so intent on holding on to what they have in case they lose everything. 

And that's not a healthy ecosystem. And so when we describe ourselves, we say we're a community ecosystem development organization. And so saying we work better, our city works better, when all of the different stakeholders are thriving. And what does thriving look like for them? And helping them be self determined, helping them have the resources and access that they need to do their jobs and pursue their missions more effectively, more efficiently for the greatest impact for our city.

Ally Peters: Wow. It's interesting that I don't know, I guess I wouldn't have expected, maybe local businesses or other organizations to be so hesitant about collaboration, maybe initially. But it sounds like you're going about it in the right way. It's just going back to the relationship building that is, like, that is literally the foundation for everything else. So I'm glad that it's continuing to work for you guys. And it seems like you're so passionate about what you do and very joyful about it. So it's been really fun to hear so far.

So I mean, talking about D.C in general as a city, I consider it like a pretty big city, an important city. Brianne, how important is it for D.C. and the various neighborhoods and communities to lead the way in terms of positively impacting citizens with technology. Do you think D.C. itself has a big responsibility there?

Brianne Dornbush: Yeah. Short answer. Yeah, I think, we're the nation's capital. We should be setting the bar for excellence in economic development, in community development and technology in every area. We should be setting the bar, and we have access to representation of all 50 states. Unfortunately not a state, D.C. statehood. But, I think one of the things that we really need to see in D.C. is the acceptance of more innovation. There is still a lot of hesitancy to try things. That's one of the reasons why we like pilots, as Madeleine said, the issue around red tape.

I think a lot of times, governments in general are very hesitant to try new things because they want to be fiscally responsible. They want to, not waste money. But in being hesitant to innovation and trying new things, we end up wasting a lot more money in inefficiency. And so one of the things that I think is particularly important is trying things on a small, hyperlocal level. Which is why I think the Main Street model is so critical to economic development at a broader scale, because you can try something in a neighborhood and say, okay, how is this working? Are there ways that we could improve this? Are there ways that this could scale? 

A great example of a pilot that we're currently working on is our connective services grant. During the pandemic, we saw an increase in the needs of our unhoused population here in the Columbia Heights neighborhood. And these individuals who were hanging out in the Columbia Heights Civic Plaza, we really went to them and just learned about what was going on, understanding how a lot of the services, the connective services that had been provided previously had been scaled back during the pandemic. And then we all know how challenging hiring has been since the pandemic. And so then ramping up that outreach, again, was really lagging behind. 

And so, connective services, like social services, was not what we do, and it's still not what we do. But what we do well is relationships and building connections. And so what we did was we went out and we built relationships with these individuals, our residents, hanging out in the plaza, and then asked them, what do you need? And a lot of it was detox. A lot of it was long term treatment, housing, jobs. And so then we went to our partners and said, we have individuals who need housing. We're going to partner with you. We have individuals who need detox. We're going to help build stronger connections within this ecosystem. And so we tried it for two and a half years in the Columbia Heights Civic Plaza. Very hyperlocal pilot, the first year we had $50,000. The next year, Council Member Nadot got us 175. And this year we're now expanding the pilot to all of Ward One, and we were able to get $750,000 of funding. And we'll have eight full time staff doing this work. And the return on investment, $750,000 is a drop in the bucket when it comes to the D.C. budget. 

But the impact that we're having on individuals lives and the ecosystem as a whole is astronomical. And so that's, again, we took a pilot. We tried something on a very small level. The first couple things that we did failed miserably. We tried yoga in the Columbia Heights Civic Plaza. I don't know why we thought it was a good idea. It's loud, it's dirty, dirty. It was a terrible idea. We did like, one or two and we were like, whoa, this is a terrible idea. We're going to completely pivot. And we started some other things. Salsa in the plaza has been a huge success. People just drop by and pop in and take salsa lessons and it's a lot of fun. But I think that the idea of piloting small allows us to try things, without a ton of investment and see what works so that we can then scale to have that focus on fiscal responsibility, but for the intent of greater impact.

Madeleine Odendahl: Yeah, and I think specifically on the tech front, one of the things that holds D.C. as a city back is that we're not a state. That's a huge piece. And there's all the things home rule and all of the things that have to go through Congress. But we also, because of being the capital, there are lots of oversight organizations in terms of what's federal land and what is kind of D.C. land. And so D.C. doesn't have a unified wayfinding system for the city. There are a couple of signs throughout the city, probably like maybe 60, 70, with major landmarks pointing, but most of those are geared towards tourists. So they're helping tourists move through the city, not even really the city really like the National Mall. But once you get out into neighborhoods, there is no wayfinding, there is no technology is not really used as a way to support people. And so I think one of the reasons why we were really excited about partnering with Soofa was the opportunity to again pilot this in some of our neighborhoods. But also hopefully help move D.C. forward a little bit with wayfinding signage, particularly around access, that's a huge piece, whenever we're looking at a new programming or activity, looking at who's able to access this, who do we need to help be able to access this, and we liked that kind of synergy between what we always try to do and how do we set up our products in the way that Soofa does that as well.

Kiel Hauck: Yeah, that's fantastic. And obviously, we're thrilled to have a chance to partner and be a part of the great mission that you all are doing in these neighborhoods in D.C. Again, so many of these conversations come back to the fact that the relationships are so key. It's community driven. It takes a village, right, like, literally, in these situations to help progress come to fruition. And it's been fantastic to hear about the work that you're doing. So thank you for taking the time to join us and share with us today.

Brianne Dornbush: Yeah, thank you for having us.

Madeleine Odendahl: We don't have to say the same thing. Thank you.

Kiel Hauck: All right, thanks again to Brianne and Madeleine. Such a delight to talk to. And Ally, one of my favorite parts of the conversation. I brought up that on their website, there's this blurb about innovation that says the seven dying words of an organization are we've never done it that way before. And to see Brienne's face kind of light up, and you can tell how much she and Madeleine have internalized this philosophy, because as anyone out there that works in this realm knows, you're going to face a lot of opposition when you're bringing up new ideas that people haven't considered before. 

And Brianne and Madeleine don't view that as a hindrance. They view it as an opportunity to kind of open people's minds, to think about something differently, to think about solving problems in a different way, to think about trying things and learning about what impacts the community the most. And to me, it's just, like, such a cool example of taking a really positive approach, even when things might be difficult, even when conversations might be hard to have.

Ally Peters: Yeah, it seems like they almost get more excited and more motivated when there is opposition. It creates more motivation for them to get things going and make things actually happen. So, yeah, it was such a joy to talk to them and it’s really inspiring, too, just to see how passionate they are about their work and, what great connections they're making throughout the city.

Kiel Hauck: Absolutely. So, again, be sure to check out District Bridges to learn more. You can go to their website, districtbridges.org. That's going to do it for today's conversation. Ally, thanks for being here. A blast, as always.

Ally Peters: Yes, of course. I'm excited to keep it going.

Kiel Hauck: Absolutely. That's going to do it for today's show, and we'll catch you next time. Thanks for listening to Bridging the Digital Divide. If you enjoyed today's show, make sure to subscribe to our podcast and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform.

Ally Peters: And then come visit us at soofadigital.com to see how we're pursuing a mission to make every city smart, social and sustainable.