08 Nov What Brought Me Here: Anneke Kat

Anneke brings a diverse range of experiences in project management, experiential education, and engagement with non-profit, civic and governmental stakeholders. Her prior experiences enabled her to work alongside communities across the United States and Western & Southern Africa on issues of community-led development, equitable social services, and multicultural education. A Philadelphia native, Anneke is passionate about building bridges of communication and collaboration between diverse decision makers.

When I was little I wanted to live in a houseboat and work at the hardware store. While I have yet to achieve either of those goals, I have been able to cultivate a career and path focused on another aspect of my childhood. Since I was young, I have found myself attracted to spaces where difference is celebrated and pathways for cross-cultural communication and relationship building can begin. I grew up in the Philadelphia area and was raised in an interfaith and international household. I often found myself serving as cultural translator and connector within my own family and friends. 

Four of the five generations of women from my family who have lived in West Philadelphia.

As a young adult, I spent many years deeply invested in an interfaith youth group which focused on learning from each other’s traditions and engaging in service learning together. It is in this space where I began to understand how my skills as cross-cultural connector and community builder could be translated to many different contexts. 

While attending university, I studied International Development and Social Change and then sought out a graduate program where I could focus more deeply on fostering growth and connection on a more local level. After completing my master’s in Community Development and Planning, I wanted to bring what I had learned home to my own community. Five generations of my matriarchal lineage have called Philadelphia and specifically, West Philadelphia, home. It was a very intentional choice of mine to return home and continue to work in this city and region. I began my professional journey by rooting myself in the communities of this region.

Facilitating an opening session of Visionary Women, a 6 month community program I co-founded in 2016 which brings together an intergenerational group of women of all walks of life to explore the intersections of gender, justice, and faith. It’s still going, 7 years strong!

First I worked with youth at a women’s empowerment non-profit organization, which focused on developing civic engagement programming for women and girls in Philadelphia, West Africa and Asia. I built out youth programming for teens in Philadelphia which provided opportunities for them to connect and learn with youth in Liberia. Then, for many years, I developed interfaith community building and educational programming for youth and adults in the greater Philadelphia region. A core element of my work was building relationships with and between diverse religious communities. I taught others how to be comfortable with being uncomfortable and how to foster spaces of mutual trust, curiosity and understanding. I learned so much about what it means to a good guest, a good host, and an authentic collaborator from the community leaders and clergy who built these spaces alongside me. 

More recently I worked in the field of immigration social services and refugee resettlement in Philadelphia. My role focused on connecting and mobilizing residents in the region to provide volunteer support, organize material support, and engage in advocacy work to support the needs of recently arrived immigrant families. This role required me to move nimbly between addressing the needs of social services staff, the families they were serving, and providing support and training to community members who wanted to offer their time, knowledge, and resources. I served as the hub and translator of needs, systems, and cultural differences. 

Storage unit in Philadelphia filled with household items collected from local community groups, religious congregations, and companies to furnish homes for newly arrived refugee families. One of the initiatives I organized to bolster the services offered to new arrivals in the region.

Throughout the last 10 years of my career, I have come to see myself as a facilitator, bridge builder and connector. Someone who can create meaningful spaces for learning and foster connectivity, with a particular focus on emphasizing the wisdom and experiences or communities who don’t normally get a seat at the table. 

What attracted me to the work of Connect the Dots are the values that are present in every aspect of their work. I have appreciated emphasis on multiple layers of outreach or engagement, the thoughtful and creative strategies utilized to meet people where they already are and a constant emphasis on an iterative approach which is rooted in local cultural contexts and values. This is community engagement and outreach executed with care, intention and impact. I am grateful to be a part of this team and learn from the variety of experiences in the Connect the Dots community. 

I deeply believe that each community member is an expert of their own context, whether that expertise highlights how a street corner isn’t safe for their kids to cross, how a transit system could better support a trip to work, or how best to improve the park across the street. People hold the wisdom of their own spaces and it is essential to create avenues of engagement where that wisdom can be heard and understood. Joining the Connect the Dots team, I see myself as a core part of ensuring that those avenues are open to as many people as possible.