Beverly Davis

I stay the course, even when days are tough. Anytime I get in a space where it's like, I could be on a beach doing my own thing right now, someone will ring the bell and need my help. This is what God has called me to, and it just humbles me and allows me to see the blessings that have been over my life for doing this work. I have amazing mentors who have helped so much along the way - people like Mark Talbot with Freedom Communities, Hannah Beavers who taught me about documentation, Cherise Blackman with Westside Community Land Trust, Jamal Kennard, Michelle Juliana, and Principal Parkins at Thomasboro Academy. They've all been instrumental and very supportive of everything we've done here. I've built good relationships and continue to build them, write grants, and reach out to companies near and far to raise funds to continue doing what we do.

You gotta have thick skin and stay the course. Today may not look so good, but tomorrow will be better. If you truly feel like this is what you want to do, do some serious soul-searching and make sure, because there will be tough days, and then there will be rewarding days, so you just have to stay the course. Be ready to work - this is not for the weak. It requires you rolling up your sleeves and doing a lot of the difficult work. You have to be in a space where you can have compassion for other people. You just have to have those things. Everything that you have been driven to do will come to pass.

The biggest challenges right off the top are funding - none of this is free, so it is always challenging to make sure that we have the resources we need to provide for others. It has been quite the journey building good relationships and continuing to write grants and reach out to companies in various places, near and far, just to raise funds to continue to do what we do. Another challenge we have right now is transportation. We had a cargo van and a minivan donated to us, and the cargo van has been used tremendously just to bring food and other resources to this area. We shop for the community to do a community giveback every third Saturday, but we also pick up food and have recently been getting mattresses from Costco, so we need constant and reliable transportation. The third area is constant and reliable volunteers. If I had to pick 3 areas, that's it for us - funding, transportation, and volunteers.

Loving people and doing community work is truly my passion. This is what God has called me to, and it humbles me and allows me to see the blessings that have been over my life for doing this work. I believe in having compassion for other people - you just have to have that. My purpose each day is to learn something new in that day. I'm really into AI and learning all of the various things - I learn something new every day. When I rise, my purpose in that day is to learn something new. I also value staying the course and knowing that everything you have been driven to do will come to pass.