It's late in the evening and the wind is blowing hard amid already sub-zero temperatures, but inside Community Action Duluth in the West End, Xavier Bell is nice and warm.
He's doing what he loves best: training a group of volunteers into a program he manages called "Circles of Support," which works to build communication across class and cultural barriers as a way to end poverty.
"It can be 30 below outside, but if you don't know how much you're valued, that's the true coldness," Bell said.
Bell is talking about the lack of communication that he says reinforces poverty, something he has devoted his life to ending as a community activist, public speaker and preacher. That passion is what Bell says led to his involvement in the organization of this year's breakfast and rally Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
And his vision to make the events more action-oriented is what led the organizers to choose him as the master of ceremonies, said Doug Bowen-Bailey, one of the event's organizers. A lot of emphasis will be put on community engagement and various ways for people to get out and volunteer, said Karen Alseth, another event organizer.
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"It's not just about going to the breakfast or going to the rally, but doing something about it," Alseth said.
"Doing something about it" is what Bell does best, said Angie Miller, a co-worker at Community Action Duluth. "He's really had a great impact, and I think we'll be hearing his name more often in the years to come," she said.
Bell's roots are in California, where he spent 12 years working with at-risk youth and their families as the chaplain of the Stanislaus County Juvenile Hall in Modesto, Calif. There he became known as "Chaplain X" and developed a program with other volunteers to curb the recurrence rate among juvenile offenders in a system of support that involved 20 churches. It was in California as well that Bell was ordained as a Baptist minister and became involved in public speaking and preaching.
Three years ago he took a job as the volunteer coordinator with Community Action Duluth, and he moved his wife and five children from the sunny coasts of California to the cold north woods of Duluth. His first impressions of the city have been mixed.
"It's cold here," he said.But for him, that's not the problem.
"My initial impression was that I wasn't sure if Minnesota nice was really nice. Folks here want to be nice, but they're hesitant in building relationships," Bell said.
He said the cause of this hesitation is the unwillingness for people to get out of their comfort zones, which is harmful for communities. Getting people out of their shells to transcend cultural barriers is what he says King did especially well.
"The cool thing about King was that he wasn't afraid to bring people to a human experience," Bell said.
