Ep 17: Know Your Community: Affordable Housing with Whitney Jackson and Monica Akerele
How do the best nonprofits define, know, and serve their community? This week, we invite you to reflect on how you define community in your nonprofit, and how you navigate knowing, serving, and working through issues of insider-ship and outsider-ship as a professional nonprofit leader. For our guest interview, we welcome Whitney Jackson and Monica Akerele this week to talk about the work of Warrick Dunn Charities in providing access to affordable housing for single mothers and low-income families. Whitney shares the importance of following up with families, supporting them through difficulties, and providing financial literacy and affordable financing as critical pieces to solving the affordable housing crisis. Roger also shares this week’s trivia question that will test your knowledge of 90s basketball movies.
Key Takeaways
Communities can be defined in multiple ways and are overlapping. Communities can be defined geographically, through identity, or shared experiences and belief systems.
There are advantages and disadvantages to being an “insider” or “outsider” to the community served by your nonprofit. Outsiders have to take additional caution to ensure their work is in fact rooted in and working alongside the community served by the nonprofit. Outsiders are constantly learning and re-learning how to do their work!
Like Warrick Dunn Charities, many nonprofits are created by founders who have had experiences of challenge and difficulty who then realized that their challenge is not something they experienced alone. Nonprofits can serve as the catalysis that create shared-experience communities that can bring meaning and life to otherwise hidden problems previously endured in isolation by its members.
Good nonprofits follow up after the work is done. WDC has very high rates of families still being housed years after they were supported through the charity. How is your nonprofit making sure that the work you’re doing is long-lasting?
Nonprofit leaders should begin by meeting the community where they are, build relationships, and create relevant programming and services that are relevant. Show your investment by bringing your full self to the success of the project.
Affordable housing isn’t always about a lack of housing, as there are many units that are vacant across the country. A critical piece to solving the affordable housing challenge is helping individuals and families with financial literacy and affordable financing for families seeking stable housing. WDC partners with Habitat for Humanity to provide interest-free housing loans to make homeownership more accessible and affordable.
Resources and Links
Our Guests
Whitney Jackson joined Warrick Dunn Charities in July 2018 as Executive Director. Ms. Jackson brings with her over eighteen years of nonprofit management and social services experience and is passionate about improving the quality of life for children and families. Ms. Jackson has had the privilege of impacting youth in Philadelphia, PA and North Carolina through organizations such as the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania, Big Brothers Big Sisters Southeastern Pennsylvania, Council for Children’s Rights, the YMCA of Greater Charlotte, The New Teacher Project (TNTP), and most recently served as the Executive Director of the Salvation Army Boys & Girls Clubs of Gaston County. Ms. Jackson is a native of Atlanta, GA and graduated from Emory University with a dual Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Women’s Studies. Additionally, she graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice with her Master of Social Work diploma and began her career as a school-based Social Worker in Philadelphia. Currently Ms. Jackson oversees the day-to-day operations, fiscal management, staffing, and philanthropic endeavors of Warrick Dunn Charities, and is charged with working closely with the Board of Directors to fulfill the mission of our organization and executing Mr. Dunn’s vision of breaking the cycle of generational poverty through improving lives, instilling hope, and inspiring communities.
Monica Akerele, is a Licensed Master Social Worker, Motivational Coach, Speaker, Consultant, Singer/Songwriter, Recording Artist, Self-care Blogger/YouTuber. Monica has been married for 17 years and is the mother of two children. Monica formally worked in the corporate sector for 18 years before graduating from UNC-Charlotte with her Master of Social Work Degree in 2019. She's an active member of the National Association of Social Workers and launched Choosing Healthy Consulting in 2020. In her free time she practices self-care, volunteers at World Changers Church International, Coweta County Schools in Georgia and serves on the Advisory Counsel at Warrick Dunn Charities in Atlanta, Georgia.
