Paul Holmbeck '83
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| Photo: Jim Wallace |
Denmark is no place for a social lobbyist.
That was the thought Paul Holmbeck had when he arrived there ten
years ago--after marrying a Danish woman--to find that somebody
had already come through lobbying and reforming and generally bettering
the place, and giving no thought to future generations who would
have no streets to clean up or hungry mouths to feed.
"There was no poverty," he recalls. "People's basic
needs were all taken care of. They had housing. They had jobs." In
short, things were just fine, and Holmbeck, accustomed to an abundance
of inequalities and injustices in the United States, found himself,
for the first time in his life, without a cause. "I said to
myself, 'There's no use for me here.'"
Holmbeck missed Durham. There had been plenty of use for him there.
After graduating, he'd spent eight years working with local residents
in the neighborhoods bordering Duke on housing issues and health
and drug problems.
"It was in those years that we went from being a grassroots
advocacy effort to actually trying to build some institutions that
could make real change," he recalls, "like the Durham
Community Land Trust, a nonprofit that provides permanent, affordable
housing for low-income people."
At the time, says Holmbeck, Duke's role in improving the community
around it was insignificant. "It just wasn't part of the mission." The
attitude echoed in his mind every time he opened a letter asking
him for a financial contribution. "I'd never given a penny."
Or a krone. As director of an association of organic farmers, consumers,
and food companies, Holmbeck has found his place in Denmark, where
he lives in the city of ≈rhus in eastern Jutland, with his
wife and two children. Holmbeck lobbies in the Danish parliament
and, sometimes, in the European Union, where he once successfully
led a fifteen-country effort to ban genetically modified foods
in organic farming. "That was exciting," he says.
Equally exciting to him, though, was the news he was hearing from
Durham. "I'd been following what Duke was doing with the NPI
[Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership Initiative] and I could see
the positive steps it was taking."
Holmbeck was moved--not to open his wallet, but to write a letter. "I
wrote the president, and I said, 'I really appreciate Duke as an
institution. I won't be giving any money to it. But if I could
help you develop a way for alumni to support Duke's social mission
to be a good neighbor, I'd like to do that. And I will find others.'"
By "others," Holmbeck was referring to a specific subgroup
of alumni: those, like him, who historically have not thought of
Duke as worthy of their philanthropic support, but who would be
only too happy to support the university in helping the less fortunate.
To date, they have done so generously, helping to make possible
the NPI. The collaborative program, launched in December 1996,
seeks to improve the quality of life in the dozen neighborhoods
immediately surrounding the university and to strengthen education
in the seven public schools that serve them. Over the last six
years, Duke has generated more than $10 million from individuals,
foundations, corporations, and government to support K-12 education,
the creation of several health clinics and local community centers,
and partnerships with nonprofit community-based organizations to
meet the needs of people living in low-income communities near
its campus.
"Community outreach is clearly seen as part of the mission
now, as an obligation," says Holmbeck. "In lieu of paying
taxes, Duke's playing a constructive role in the neighborhoods
around it."
Also shifting in stance is Holmbeck. While Denmark and Durham are
worlds apart, he says, a lobbyist sees them as one. "Whether
it's a farmer in Denmark or a low-income family in the West End
[neighborhood], it's really just about paying attention. What is
it that they want and need in order to achieve their dreams? And
what is in the way of their getting it? Lobbyism is about alliances.
You have to know who your enemies are, but you have to keep in
mind that you may not know who all your friends are."
--Patrick Adams
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