RENWL

100 Black People For Good?

Here’s the idea: Once a month, one hundred anonymous black people get together and participate in a community-based project in South Los Angeles.

Each month, a community service project will be announced. The project could be anything—-from feeding the homeless at a Shelter to providing staff support at a local clinic to conducting a food drive or volunteering for a Habitat For Humanity project. One day—for a minimum of 5 hours—maximum of 8 hours—no other commitment from you required—- 100 black people from any walk of life get together once a month solely and only for the purpose of doing good in the black community.

Here’s what we’re NOT interested in:

Your political views/social cause affiliations

Your religious beliefs

Your economic status

Your sexuality/gender/identity beyond African American

What you do for a living

Financial donations/support from you of any kind

All we’re looking for is 100 black people for good. This idea is not original. Other non-black groups have been doing this very thing every single month for over a year. They volunteer throughout most of Los Angeles. And we have to say the work that they do is amazing. They draw no limits on the variety of communities in which they do volunteer work. Their monthly projects have ranged from participating in picking up trash along the LA River to assisting in coordinating temporary Swine Flu Clinics with the Los Angeles County Dept of Health.

Having participated in one of their community service projects we’ve discovered no better way to make a direct and immediate impact on the lives of others. And it’s so simple without demanding much of an individual’s time.  Best of all, it’s the most incredible feeling in the world—giving and being so generously appreciated while doing it. It truly is one of the best things a person can do for their own value, self-esteem and role as contributing community member.

The black community—South Los Angeles and other surrounding areas, so desperately need groups such as 100 Black People For Good. Imagine the many opportunities that lie ahead in terms of giving back to those who most need it. And doing it just once a month—such a small sacrifice and yet so much potential to make a tremendous difference in someone elses life.

So here’s the game plan: We’ll keep a running tally of the number of individuals who have signed up. We’ll also create a Facebook page for sign up as well. You’ll also be permitted to sign up at the end of this post.

And we’ll report on the progress of it all until we reach that magic number: 100 Black People.

Once that has happened—–if it happens—we will notify everyone that we have reached our goal: 100 black people. After that, we’ll send out another notice for the first community service project. But we won’t do that until only after we’ve achieved 100 Black people signing up. Not 50. Not 80. Not 95.

100 Black People

We may not get them. That’s a very real possibility. But we’ve got to take the chance. It’s a vision that came to us in a dream—we kid you not. So we have to do this and have faith in the unknown that this is what we’re supposed to be doing. So that this doesn’t go on forever we’re creating a deadline which will be 30 days from today. That means by Sunday, March 27, 2010, we must have 100 black people signed up. If not, then this project will be shelved.

100 Black People For Good in 30 days. Challenging? Maybe. Possible? Absolutely.

To sign up just leave your name and email address in the comment section of this post. Or, you can go to the 100 Black People For Good Facebook page and sign up there. You can also email us at renwl (@) renwl.org if you prefer to be anonymous to the public about your participation. And that’s no problem. You only need let us know who you are and that you’ll be showing up to the first community service project. Your contact information will be shared with no one.

The countdown for 100 Black People for Good starts now.