This Macon group is dedicated to uplifting Black neighborhoods. Here’s how they do it

When Jerrod Echols was growing up, he lived in a single parent household with his mother working around the clock to provide for their family.

“I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, so a fairly poor neighborhood. So, helping out others is kind of near and dear to my heart,” Echols said.

They went to food pantries and received financial assistance from neighborhood churches, so when Echols moved to Macon after attending college, he wanted to help the community in the same way.

“Initially, it was just a project just to kind of uplift to make people proud of themselves as black and brown people in the city, and from there it really just flourished,” he said.

Echols founded the Melanated Community Stimulation Project, Inc. in July 2016, and they provide many services to the community, including financial literacy programs, a food pantry, clothes giveaways and financial assistance to families, he said. He is also working to start a youth program with The Healing Experience Ministries.

Turning anger into progress

After the death of Mike Brown, the 18-year-old Black man who was fatally shot by Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson in 2014, Echols said he started to think about how he could be a positive influence in Macon.

“As opposed to gathering around in anger and everything like that, I kind of wanted people to just be more, I guess, be more proactive in their lives themselves,” he said.

Although he said the anger is definitely justified, he said he wanted to see people get as outraged about every murder rather than just police shootings.

“Let’s keep actually being proud of yourself as you are when something negative happens. Be proud of yourself all the time, and I just wanted to just have that need or that desire to actually be proud of your neighborhood. Keep your area clean, help one another, be able to actually trust one another, actually want to interact and be neighbors,” he said.

Overcoming challenges

However, starting a nonprofit organization doesn’t magically fix every problem, he said.

“I would say the biggest challenges initially was more so acceptance of the people from Macon and rightfully so, because, again, the way I grew up… It’s not necessarily a good thing, but it’s like a safety blanket that you’re only accepting or trusting the people that you’re used to,” Echols said.

He started developing relationships with people in different neighborhoods, and when he promised to help, he followed through.

“That in itself helped out and it was like, ‘Even though I don’t trust you, thank you,’” he said.

The Macon community still has a lot of work to do, he said.

“I think one of the biggest problems I feel is willful, willful complacency,” he said. “There are a large amount of people that just don’t know better, honestly. So again, they can’t do better. But at the same token, there are those that do know a better way and choose to stay in those same circumstances that they are or purposely damaged other generations and so on and so forth.”

Macon also needs to have a reckoning about its race relations and address the issues surrounding race, Echols said.

Echols has been working hard during the coronavirus pandemic including doing a food drive in Central City Park where they passed out around 3,900 boxes.

Andreas Cooke, a board member for the Melanated Community Stimulation Project, Inc., volunteered at the food drive, and since then, he has helped Echols promote his nonprofit.

“It’s very inspiring to know that someone who has very little resources can do so much,” Cooke said. “If the community and organizations flooded this particular organization, it would be able to do fantastic things because the ideas and initiatives he has will really impact the community at large and bring a real positive spin into communities that need those resources.”

Echols said he has not been able to secure any grants to help fund his projects, so most of them are funded through donations and by himself.

To contribute to his work, people can submit donations through the organization’s website at mcsprojectinc.square.site or reach out to them at mcsprojectinfo@gmail.com.

Doing more

The Melanated Community Stimulation Project, Inc. is trying to revamp their programs and do more work with young people and get involved with some of the community cleanups around town.

“If all you see around you is negativity and trash, then that’s the only thing that you’re going to emulate,” he said. “I think that in itself, giving something positive for you to hang on to, can change your mindset in itself towards violence and negativity.”

Echols is also planning a Community Power event in March. The event will feature a different neighborhood each Sunday, and they will have businesses from those neighborhoods come to a central location for a popup sale, he said.

The idea sparked from a similar event they hosted at the Tubman Museum parking lot in August, he said.

Echols said he hopes the events help people realize how much they have in their own communities as well as help other parts of Macon learn about new businesses.

“It’s our responsibility. If you’re able to do better, no matter who you are, what race, creed, religion you are, if you’re able to do better, it’s your obligation to pay it forward and help the next person,” he said.