Thursday in Washington, DC, we released Getting to Proof Points: Key Learning from the First Three Years of Built for Zero.
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What’s your history? How did you end up at Community Solutions?
I have been involved with and working in the Brownsville community for the past 50 years. I have been a motivator for change and an advocate for youth services, and I have encouraged inclusion in the process to create a dialogue that can help Brownsville residents be a part of solutions here.
I retired in 2013 to care for my mother, who passed away in 2014, which left a void in my life.
Nearly 50,000 veterans continue to experience homelessness in America, but we're committed to solving that problem. As they always do, veterans are leading the way in that work! We're sharing the stories of our team members with military backgrounds and why they've chosen to continue their service here at Community Solutions:
What’s your history? How did you end up at Community Solutions?
I started my career as an infantry officer in the Army’s 101st Airborne Division and eventually made my way to law school. Although I had an amazing experience leading soldiers, I was also excited by the impact that I could have in the private sector. On my first day of law school, I met a professor whose focus was urban revitalization, and I found my calling. The mix of public policy, politics, business, law, and service was very appealing to me.
What’s your history? How did you end up at Community Solutions?
I started my career as a social worker in Columbus, OH before making my way to Los Angeles to help further develop the supportive housing industry for people experiencing homelessness.
As an organization and as a group of people working together, and with communities, to create a more just society, the violence and hate on display in Charlottesville and other cities in recent weeks goes to the heart of our work and what we are fighting for at Community Solutions. We stand against this violence and the groups, beliefs and mythologies that are motivating it.
Of course, we’re kidding (or are we…?), but it is true that a real-time, comprehensive, by-name list of everyone experiencing homelessness in a community is the essential first step to getting everyone housed.
“We think there should be people in it.”
Hope was inside the Gregory Jackson Center for Brownsville in June when Community Solutions’ Brownsville Partnership opened its doors to the community for The Gregory Jackson Community Celebration of Life. The event was a celebration of the life and legacy of Gregory “Jocko” Jackson, in whose honor the building is named.
Jackson, a former professional basketball player unofficially known as the “Mayor of Brownsville,” was the founding director of the Brownsville Partnership.