With the rise and reach of social media, it’s never been easier to show support to people in need. Whether you’re offering up your money, your time, or other resources to support a worthy cause, our increasingly online lifestyles have made it easy to share information and spread a message. Still, even in this modern age, nobody can respond to the needs of a community quite like the people living in it. Eyes and ears on the ground are still essential.
That belief is the main ethos behind the organization The Black Neighborhood — a 501c-3 operating out of California and New York.
“Community engagement and being part of your community has always been significant for us,” says Black Neighborhood founding member Cory Elliot. “That’s a part of survival, that’s a part of us trying to build, knowing who your neighbors are, and supporting them when nobody else will.”
Along with co-founders Bryce Savoy and Uzo Nwadugbo, Elliot and The Black Neighborhood are showing up for their communities in the way that only people who live and breathe a neighborhood can. Through grocery giveaways, youth empowerment programs, financial support, and other community-building efforts, The Black Neighborhood offers vital resources and wisdom to the next generation coming up.
“We didn’t know what we were doing was irregular,” Nwadugbo explains. “I remember the first time going home for a funeral, my freshman year at college and my professor almost crying to me… it’s like, I go to a funeral almost every year… it’s just something that’s so ingrained and normal from a young age. Now looking back, especially doing the work that we do, we get the opportunity to sit back and see not only the trauma it caused but how we can deter people from going through the same thing.”
To learn more about The Black Neighborhood and how they’re actively creating the change they want to see in the Black communities of Los Angeles, catch the latest episode of the Uproxx series, Show Up in the video above.