By James Miller

Surveying the Landscape

When Dr. Ceema Samimi first came to the University of Minnesota during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, they were eager to better understand the landscape of people and organizations cultivating meaningful change in the Twin Cities.

As a researcher, social worker, and actively-engaged community member, they were no stranger to the value of relationships. It is with this set of values and experiences that they joined as a faculty member of the College of Education and Human Development. Little did they know, a Hennepin-University Partnership (HUP) research project that would coalesce their skills, values, and relational orientation to building community, was right around the corner.

A program of CURA, HUP is a collaboration between Hennepin County and the University of Minnesota. Nationally recognized as a model for innovative, mutually-beneficial collaboration between academia and local government, HUP exists to catalyze community-driven research and problem solving. 

“There is a general and growing recognition that no entity can do this deep and complex work alone. At HUP, policymakers, students, faculty members, and practitioners work together to leverage their collective strengths to create more just and equitable futures for Hennepin County residents. This work is only made richer by the how the work is done — by being meaningful, intentional, and grounded in purpose,” said Amy Delahanty, HUP Director.

Setting the Table

Dr. Samimi first learned about HUP after being approached by former HUP Director Scott Vargo with an invitation to support an evaluation of Hennepin County’s benefits cliff pilot program. This program sought to reduce, and ultimately eliminate, the negative impacts residents experience related to the “benefits cliff.” The benefits cliff refers to a threshold that is crossed when low-income community members, who qualify for public assistance programs, suddenly lose access to these supports after slight increases in earned income. Crossing this threshold can be financially devastating, especially without commensurate increases in income that can fully cover newly incurred costs to access critical services — costs that were once entirely covered through public assistance. The county implemented the pilot program in partnership with a handful of community-based organizations well-positioned to offer direct services to community members, seeking to eliminate the negative impacts of the benefits cliff on residents.

It was at this point that Dr. Samimi took a seat at the table. Yet, even from the earliest moments of this project, their relationship-centered research approach led them to do far more than simply take a seat at the table. They quickly became integral in setting the table itself.

Breaking Bread, Building Relationship

Prior to Dr. Samimi’s involvement with the Benefits Cliff Pilot Project Collaborative, none of the service-providing organizations had connected with one another in person. Convening member organizations for an initial series of focus groups and discussions about the program was at the top of Dr. Samimi’s research agenda. This was preceded only by first making time to share a meal together as a group. Perhaps in part due to Dr. Samimi’s selection of “really good food” from a local Lebanese restaurant, but more likely as a result of the intentional time in community, participants left the research convening feeling more aligned than ever before. “A lot of people felt more connected to the project and got a better idea of how they fit into the bigger picture of the project,” said Samimi. “People were able to chill, relax, and talk. I had a lot of fun, and it was a really great way to represent the University.”

Real Talk in Real Time

This initial engagement proved so valuable that Hennepin County asked Dr. Samimi to renew for another project term, this time shifting focus towards individual interviews with staff members of organizations in the collaborative. Here, Dr. Samimi saw an important opportunity to invest again in relationships. With concentrated, one-on-one time in conversation with those closest to the day-to-day work of this program, they took seriously the opportunity to learn from community in real time. 

“You learn from people things that you would never learn in other types of research,” they remarked. “You have people telling you what’s happening. You’re seeing what’s happening. And you’re learning about it as it’s happening, as opposed to digging up information online or in databases.”

Their conversations revealed a general sense of satisfaction with the program among interviewees. While recognizing the program’s limitations, service providers saw the pilot program as effective in beginning to meet the basic needs of community members. Although the future of the program is uncertain, these conversations were able to further illustrate a picture of impact that quantitative data alone could not. Hand in hand with Dr. Samimi’s belief that “people are experts on their own lives and their own experiences,” it became clear that this picture, illustrated by community, was worth more than a thousand words.

“Working with Dr. Samimi and doctoral candidate Laura Soltani on the benefits cliff pilot phase one program evaluation was a wonderful experience for Hennepin County,” said Jen Albrecht, Hennepin County Office of Workforce Development Manager. “Dr. Samimi genuinely cared about the program, evaluation process, and everyone involved. As the Benefits Cliff Program Manager, the process and outcome brought great insight and recommendations that are helping to inform the pilot's second phase. We appreciate Dr. Samimi’s leadership and partnership throughout the evaluation.”

Research Rooted in Relationship

Dr. Samimi’s work on this project and HUP’s emphasis on partnered, community/institutional problem solving is emblematic of the value of relationships in community-based research. When the table is set and meaningful relationships with participants have been cultivated, Dr. Samimi experienced first-hand that the rest rose to the surface organically. “I think relationships are really important. You’re in community learning immediately about what’s happening. You’re available to people immediately, and you’re able to share resources with each other.” This collaborative spirit is what made Dr. Samimi’s research so successful, because it wasn’t just research — it was research rooted in relationship.