Session Voices: Dillon Sarb - Storytelling as Community Organizing

In this episode of Session Voices, we speak with Dillon Sarb, a community organizer with Catalyst Montana. Dillon will help us to better understand the role played by community organizers in the political ecosystem, and share a little bit about a creative and impactful storytelling project centered around Medicaid expansion.

Catalyst Montana: https://www.catalystmt.org/

Montana Medicaid Storybook: https://www.catalystmt.org/community/montana-medicaid-storybook

Guest Bio: 

Dillon Sarb, originally from Billings, Montana, now resides in Missoula. He earned a Master’s in Political Science from the University of Montana, where he also studied German. Dillon’s passion for politics, particularly in how it intersects with helping people, led him to start working in the field in 2022 as a field coordinator for state legislative races. This experience gave him insight into the diverse ways people, both urban and rural, engage with politics.

In 2023, Dillon transitioned to tracking state legislation, further deepening his understanding of how politics shapes policy. He has since worked on various political campaigns, including a local mayoral race and as a field director for labor unions in Montana. Each role has expanded his understanding of how communities across the state approach politics.

Currently, Dillon works at Catalyst Montana, where he organizes around healthcare and economic justice issues. His diverse experiences in connecting with people from all walks of life enable him to effectively communicate and mobilize individuals for common causes, such as Medicaid Expansion.

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Transcript

0:01: We're in the home stretch of Montana's legislative session, and at Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies, the Montana Coalition, we continue to learn more about the people, organizations, and processes supporting families in our state at the legislative level. 
 0:14: I'm Emily Freeman, and you're listening to Session Voices, a special series of the Mother Love podcast. 
 0:19: Today we'll speak with Dillon Sarb, a community organizer with Catalyst Montana. 
 0:24: Dillon will help us to better understand the role played by community organizers in the political ecosystem. 
 0:29: And he'll share a little bit about a creative and impactful storytelling project centered around Medicaid expansion. 
 0:36: My name is Dillon Sarb. 
 0:37: I am the senior organizer for Catalyst Montana. 
 0:41: my focus on healthcare issues and also economic justice issues. 
 0:45: What is a community organizer and how do community organizers interface with the legislative session? 
 0:51: That's a great question. 
 0:51: I think it ultimately depends on who you ask. 
 0:54: Number one, what a community organizer is is. 
 0:57: Someone who builds relationships with community members and coordinates those folks to achieve a common goal of how my role as a community organizer really affects the legislature is just finding people who have a story to tell about a certain policy proposal that's going through the legislature and making sure in one way, shape, or form, that their voice, their story gets to the people who need to listen to it. 
 1:21: Newer instruments. 
 1:23: and producing Catalyst's Montana Medicaid storybook, which we will link to in the show notes for this episode. 
 1:28: Can you tell us what that is, why it was created, and what you believe its impact to be? 
 1:34: The Montana Medicaid storybook is a collection of everyday Montanan stories of folks who are on Medicaid expansion, describing their life and journey up to this point and why Medicaid is so instrumental. 
 1:48: To the functioning and the well-being of their life. 
 1:51: The storybooks really impactful because a lot of the people in in the capital in Helena, they have all the data, they have all the numbers of what policy will affect, you know, X amount of people in the states, and they have the number side of the policy positions that they're deciding on. 
 2:10: What they really don't have oftentimes is people's personal. 
 2:14: perspective, and people's personal stories and how their policies that they're deciding on will impact people's lives. 
 2:21: What do you think makes for a compelling story? 
 2:23: Do you think there's some styles or content of storytelling work that land more impactfully with legislators? 
 2:29: For me, there's a simplicity in storytelling, especially at the legislature and the storybook, it becomes apparent like there might have been an event in your life that caused you to get on Medicaid. 
 2:39: , and you might not be on Medicaid currently, you know, you could have just been on there for a couple of months or even a year, couple of years, and then now we're off Medicaid. 
 2:50: Those kind of details are very important for legislators to hear. 
 2:53: Like I got on Medicaid for this reason, I am now healthier and more productive as a person. 
 2:59: I'm more well rounded as a person. 
 3:01: I'm just, you know, so thankful for this program that afforded me the The ability to survive and not worry about healthcare costs as so many in our communities do, and that's really important. 
 3:13: So sort of the idea that a policy or a program allowed for someone to make a positive change in their life, rather than I was grateful to get on this thing, but I was grateful to get on this thing or to receive this service because that allowed me to then move my life or my family's life forward in a positive. 
 3:32: Direction towards strength and stability. 
 3:34: So almost like how that thing allowed for a positive inflection point in your life. 
 3:38: Yeah, you'll notice a lot of people describe it as life saving. 
 3:42: Like it might not truly have saved their lives in like a very catastrophic emergency situation, but truly it's gotten their life on a healthier track, and that is invaluable to to speak of at the legislature. 
 3:55: What is the relationship between storytelling and test And what is the work that Catalyst does to help folks transform their personal story into a usable piece of testimony. 
 4:06: To me, it's one of the same testimony is just like telling a very truncated version of your own elaborate story and working on the storybooks, and also working on people's testimony. 
 4:17: I kind of had the same ear for it. 
 4:19: It just in testimony, the constraints of the time that you're given and also you have to stay. 
 4:25: Speak to the bill itself. 
 4:27: When it came to Medicaid, we could be a little bit more flexible, but oftentimes at the legislature and testimony, if, if you get too outside of that lane of just like, we're talking about this bill, the chair can often cut you off or at least interrupt you and say, please speak to the bill. 
 4:43: That's another constraint, we didn't really have that Medicaid expansion. 
 4:47: No one got interrupted during testimony, but that's a consideration I have to. 
 4:51: Have you ever seen transformation in someone once they feel empowered in their voice? 
 4:57: Yeah, I mean, one comes to mind that somebody who's actually in the storybook, her name is Michelle, and the stories in the book, so definitely go read it, but, you know, that was a situation where walking her through the steps, especially as it pertains to the legislative session and kind of what needs to happen when walking her through all of the administrative and logistical details of the process, to at least In, in my view, came off as unsure of why this really matters. 
 5:24: She wanted to tell her story. 
 5:26: She wanted Medicaid to still remain in the state of Montana. 
 5:30: So I just worked with her. 
 5:31: I had a series of conversations with her, and she ended up testifying remotely on on HB 245 on the Medicaid bill. 
 5:38: what was most satisfying for me with building this relationship with Michelle is that after the hearing, she texted me basically immediately saying how Excited she was and how enthralled she was with participating in the process, which was really gratifying. 
 5:55: I mean, that's ultimately what I'm trying to do as an organizer is to connect people, get people access to places and rooms and spaces where decisions are being made that affect everyone and at least in the state. 
 6:08: It was really inspiring. 
 6:10: She was really excited and very willing to engage further. 
 6:13: And so there. 
 6:14: A couple of hearings for HV 245, so she testified again for, you know, the same bill but a different committee. 
 6:22: It was really empowering to to see somebody who went from nervous and unsure to somebody who was very, very willing to engage further after, you know, going through the, the process. 
 6:36: You don't always have to go through an organizer or somebody to walk you through testimony, but it, I think it helps in a lot of ways, and that's a great deal of My role is to is to facilitate, you know, not only the the information of what it takes to to testify, but also to be reassuring, walk them through how testimony usually works and what we're trying to get out of this testimony as well. 
 6:57: Ultimately what I'm trying to do as an organizer is to connect people, get people access to places and rooms and spaces where decisions are being made. 
 7:07: It must have been nice to see that it wasn't that she felt a sense of relief that it was the whole process was finally behind her, but that she felt energized and she wanted to do more. 
 7:16: And you just never know when you are going to need someone to speak on a certain topic. 
 7:21: Maybe it's a committee that meets during the interim. 
 7:23: Maybe it's some other opportunity for public comment and how nice to know that you've got strong voices in your pocket, that you could approach her and say, hey, I know this was a really positive experience for you last session. 
 7:34: We have this other opportunity coming up. 
 7:35: We'd love to have you. 
 7:37: You know, come and speak. 
 7:38: What would you recommend to some small grassroots organization that's doing good work, wants to engage more, wants to encourage this collection of stories and empowering of voice, you know, they don't have a capacity to hire a storyteller. 
 7:52: or anyone on staff with those skills. 
 7:55: Are there simple ways to get into the work? 
 7:57: I would just recommend, as simple as it is, just having conversations with folks, depending on the goals and the mission that you're trying to forward, just talking through like, why are you here is, I think a really important, very basic question to always ask. 
 8:12: And to talk through with folks, every story begins and ends with a conversation, it seems like, you know, you, you're telling your story to somebody, you have an audience, you have somebody that you're trying to Either persuade in some cases, or just frankly relate to in other cases as well. 
 8:28: Make sure you write it down in some way, shape or form, or record it. 
 8:32: Stories can come in many different shapes and sizes, of course. 
 8:36: The way that I'm practicing it, the way I'm refining storytelling is through the legislative session, at least at this point, though that very constrained 2 minutes, which I think can be very helpful in a lot of ways. 
 8:47: There's a lot you can say, but really what are the most important. 
 8:51: Pieces of one story. 
 8:53: The Montana Medicaid storybook that you all produced is a really creative and replicable project. 
 9:00: So my hope is that somebody listening who wants to do something similar will take a look at it and use that as a template almost for how they might do something similar. 
 9:10: In their community or in their organization around a different topic, it's really well done, I think. 
 9:16: Do you have any good advice for effectively communicating with someone whose political views don't necessarily seem to align with yours, either in a professional setting or personal setting? 
 9:29: Well, that's a great question and and previous to my role as an organizer here at Catalyst. 
 9:34: I did a lot of work, campaigns over the last couple of years and met a lot of people on doors. 
 9:40: My biggest piece of advice is a very simple one, but it's a good reminder to always listen to what that person has to say. 
 9:49: They did a lot of door knocking for for labor unions last year, and just talk to people on their own terms, talk to them about issues that that matter to them, kitchen table issues if you will, whether or not they can make a good living here in Montana, which oftentimes you might be feeling OK, but also what we ask them, do you feel like your neighbors are able to make a good living? 
 10:09: And resoundingly. 
 10:11: Most people did not think that, which is very telling here in the state. 
 10:14: People would talk about their political affiliations, you know, I'm a Republican or I'm a Trump supporter, I'm a Democrat, you know, or I'm a progressive, and, you know, we just really cast those labels aside. 
 10:25: That wasn't the purpose why we were there. 
 10:27: We just wanted to talk to people about the issues that mattered to them. 
 10:30: And so, you know, we shared a lot of our priorities as as, you know, advocates of labor unions, you know, fair wages, collective bargaining, but also other things that don't affect labor unions per se, just the broader working class in general, so we would talk about supporting schools, making sure we have good wages, Medicaid expansion was. 
 10:49: Huge. 
 10:50: I mean, you don't have to be a part of a labor union to be on Medicaid expansion. 
 10:53: I mean, just a policy that affects everybody. 
 10:56: so we would kind of run through some of our priorities. 
 10:59: We would just have a conversation with folks about what we care about and, and give them an opportunity to share what they care about and sometimes we agreed and sometimes. 
 11:08: We didn't agree and they didn't like our issues, but that was OK. 
 11:11: We were there just to have a conversation, like we knocked their door to hear their opinion. 
 11:16: What was kind of interesting too, oftentimes, yes, I mean, people were very skeptical at first, they thought we were just there to talk about a political candidate or a political party, and, you know, isn't what we were there for. 
 11:27: That skepticism went away after a while when we were just having, you know, conversations with our neighbors essentially. 
 11:32: It's so empowering just to listen and to find those common values. 
 11:36: Agreeing to disagree as much of a cliche as that is, it is such a powerful tool to get through sort of the mess of disagreement. 
 11:45: You can always find, at least in my view, I've knocked thousands of doors like I've said, I've always been able to walk away from a conversation. 
 11:52: I agree with something that somebody said. 
 11:54: I believe that. 
 11:55: I think you would be hard pressed to find someone with whom you disagreed on 100% of things. 
 12:00: We're all humans. 
 12:01: There's some place, or several places where we have a A shared view. 
 12:05: And it sounds like interesting work because some people just want to be listened to and need to be listened to. 
 12:11: And if you don't live in a community where you have access to your politicians or to the political process or you don't have the time or bandwidth or skills to make your voice heard, there's something lovely about this role of, of community organizers within the political ecosystem to be a way that people have an opportunity to be heard. 
 12:33: You know, that it's, it's unrealistic to think that every elected official is gonna spend all day knocking on doors. 
 12:38: They're just not. 
 12:39: And maybe there's a town hall meeting in your community, or maybe not, or maybe the town hall meeting is is very partisan, you know, and you don't feel welcome there, even if it's open to, to everyone, sometimes people just want to hear themselves processing their political beliefs or their political questions or their basic human needs, just to process them out loud and know that someone else is listening. 
 12:59: That's so true. 
 12:59: I mean, oftentimes, you know, with myself on doors or just hearing from others that I managed other canvassers out there, just listening, people would Obviously let off a lot of steam at times, especially since we're talking about political issues, so we might not be talking about political candidates per se, but we're talking about political issues, issues that affect politics and politics that affect. 
 13:21: People's lives. 
 13:22: The amount of just thank you for listening to me. 
 13:25: We got on doors was significant. 
 13:27: I mean, people really don't feel heard. 
 13:29: I believe that it needs to be more door knocking out there, especially by our elected officials because people want to be engaged. 
 13:36: They want to be educated. 
 13:37: They want to know what's going on in their communities and to have a voice in their community, but oftentimes they don't have access to those spaces or don't feel empowered enough to. 
 13:47: and share their story or share their voice. 
 13:49: It's a shame because we live in a democracy and you know, we need people to be able to share their stories and participate. 
 13:57: I think it's really important. 
 13:58: If we don't, and there's a lot of constraints, there's a lot of structural and institutional constraints for people to participate. 
 14:04: But if we don't have that participation, we're sort of missing what makes our democracy or our system of government work and function. 
 14:11: In a way that improves people's lives and not just serves the interests of those who pay for lobbyists and special interests and things like that. 
 14:19: Well, and maybe there are some, there's some opportunity for spaces in between door knocking and formal town hall type events. 
 14:26: And I will say this, admittedly as someone who is not very good at receiving door knocking, because usually my dogs start barking. 
 14:33: It's always at some inopportune time where I've got food on the stove. 
 14:37: Kids running around. 
 14:38: Maybe there is an opportunity for the creation of spaces in between door knocking, which can feel vulnerable to some people, having a stranger at their door, especially if it's a woman alone and some guys knocking on the door. 
 14:49: You know, it's not always the safest, most comfortable space for someone. 
 14:52: Between door knocking and those party sponsored larger events, maybe there's in between points like a local legislator who comes back to their community after session. 
 15:02: And has an ongoing, you know, hey, I'll be down at the diner or the coffee shop on Wednesdays from 10 to 2 if, if you want to just come and chat, you know, or I'll be at the public library one evening a month and happy to just get to know my constituents and chat with them. 
 15:16: And so it doesn't need to have all that pomp and formality of a political event. 
 15:21: It's just that reminder of like, hey, I'm just a human in your community, you know, come chat. 
 15:25: I want to hear what's on your mind. 
 15:27: Absolutely. 
 15:28: What is inspiring you this session? 
 15:29: Or what has been inspiring you and, and how do you keep moving forward in your work when things feel less than inspirational? 
 15:37: Well, what's inspiring me is what we've already achieved at this point. 
 15:41: My focus being Medicaid in particular, but just having that bill basically cruise through the legislature, and that goes to the work of storytelling, but also people in the building, you know, talking with legislators day in and day out, that have the numbers that have the data really Inspired by the work that we've all done to get that piece of legislation passed. 
 16:01: It's going to help at least 80,000, you know, Montanans retain their healthcare, stabilize hospitals, especially rural hospitals around the state, and, you know, just to improve people's lives. 
 16:13: Having that be passed at this point in the legislative session is remarkable. 
 16:17: You see a lot of legislation that comes through that will not be to the benefit of most Montanans, and that's unfortunate, and there's Always work to be done to try to stop that and showing up in ways that might not end up, you know, affecting the votes of certain legislators, but, but at least showing up and and and expressing your voice and who you are to let the legislature know that though we disagree here, and I know you'll pass this. 
 16:41: I'm still here, you know, sitting up against it. 
 16:44: So I always find very, you know, very inspirational when people do that at the legislature. 
 16:49: I know it's really tough work. 
 16:51: It can be demoralizing at times, especially when good policy gets killed or when bad policy gets through, but, those kind of wins are still are still there and they still resonate with me. 
 17:04: Anything you would say to someone who's listening and thinks that community organizing sounds like interesting work? 
 17:10: How do you get into it? 
 17:11: Yeah, organizing, I think is really rewarding work. 
 17:15: I mean, at the end of the day, you are just building relationships, you are just coordinating people's interests into hopefully some outcome that's beneficial. 
 17:25: It's really interesting work. 
 17:26: It's really dynamic. 
 17:28: It can at times feel like herding cats. 
 17:30: It, it's just hard to get something on the calendar, like we're we're meeting here, we're gonna talk about X, Y, and Z. 
 17:36: Those kinds of things can be frustrating as it is with any kind of job, you know, there's frustrations there, but I've I. 
 17:41: Find a great deal of satisfaction at times when, like I mentioned, Michelle texting me and being super excited about the next opportunity ahead to tell her story that was really gratifying. 
 17:53: So you have these moments where you truly believe you are affecting people's lives. 
 17:58: And especially in the case of Medicaid, we got that passed. 
 18:01: There's still work to be done to make sure that we keep the funding on the federal level, but as it as it stands right now, the state has passed Medicaid expansion, so it all it all can add up to really positive change in people's lives, and as a community organizer, I get to facilitate that, I get to coordinate that, I get to help people realize their political power and their political agency. 
 18:22: Which is fantastic. 
 18:24: I hope I can continue on doing this, especially after the session, and to work with many other organizations to keep telling people stories because I think they really do matter. 
 18:33: Great, thank you so much. 
 18:34: Thanks, Emily. 
 18:36: Mother Love is a project of healthy mothers, healthy babies, the Montana Coalition, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the health, safety and well-being of Montana families in the 0 to 3 years of parenting. 
 18:47: Visit us at hmHB-Mt.org to learn more about who we are and what we do. 
 18:54: Views and opinions expressed in these interviews do not necessarily represent HMHB as an organization. 
 19:00: If you have feedback on the podcast or an idea for a future episode, we'd love to hear from you. 
 19:04: You can email us at stories@hmhb-Mt.org. 
 19:10: Thanks for listening. 

Transcript automatically generated (so please forgive any errors).