One of the most important ways to have a large impact in life is by focusing on communities that are ignored and overlooked. These communities are often the ones most in need of help, tools, and services but for a variety of reasons the largest players in most industries chose not to work on serving them. We’ve been so touched by the thousands of members of our community who are working on serving the underserved from tackling food deserts to building empowering solutions for the neurodiverse. Each week, you’ll find us highlighting folks serving underserved communities.

Mary Nastukov

I believe each and every one of us were created to be solution to a problem in this world. It is not just through our skills, talents and experiences, but also through our pain that we find our purpose. This purpose doesn’t always look the same, but will change and grow right along side us. From the age of 8, I developed a passion for writing. For some reason, expressing my thoughts and feelings just came naturally to me. Through the years I realized that what people need most is to be heard… to feel seen… to know they are not alone. Read more>>

Baileigh Conduit

My partner and I founded Dank Dykes, a queer cannabis social club in NYC. We created Dank Dykes because we saw a need for more LGBTQ+ spaces in cannabis. We incorporate mutual aid into our ongoing event series to continue serving those underserved. Since our conception of October 2021, we’ve raised over 1,000 dollars to black and indigenous led charities like Seeding Sovereignty and GLITS inc. Read more>>

Nichola Cottto

I founded a nonprofit called We Are Not Broken, to serve those women and girls with physical and emotional scars, what you might call the underserved. I took the skill of photography, storytelling, videography, and empowering women to share their “Scar Stories” In a world filled with photoshop, over edited photos, filters and how we view what women should look like, I wanted to create a new culture around scars. A culture that would embrace a scar, no matter the origin, as a thing of strength, beauty and also a way to empower others walking the same roads. Read more>>

Jennifer Park

One humid Monday in May, E happened across an unusual site: a shiny silver shower trailer near where she was living in her car was parked in the parking lot at Northwest Assistance Ministries. She had never seen anything like it before. “Restoring dignity to the unhoused one shower at a time” the trailer read. She humbly approached and asked if she could take a shower because she had a job interview and not had the opportunity to wash her hair in some time. Moving Waters volunteers warmly greeted her, handed her a towel and fresh undergarments and told her to enjoy her shower. Read more>>

Keith Leveson

I began working as an American Sign Language interpreter in 2000. I fell in love with the Deaf community and the beauty of ASL this led me to becoming a nationally certified interpreter. After working as an interpreter for almost 20 years, being an expert in communication I decided to provide my services as a broker associate in real estate. I had heard the biggest complaint about realtors is their lack of communication, so I wanted to bring to the industry my expertise. I didn’t plan on assisting Deaf individuals with their home buying dreams but to my surprise not only were hearing customers experiencing the frustration with lack of communication but so were Deaf customers. Read more>>

Lo W

All of Women of Color in Cannabis’ programs are created with underserved populations in mind. Most of our sessions are held on weekends in the afternoon or in the evening on weekdays so folks who have to work and have labor-intensive occupations do not have to request time or miss informational sessions due to work. We also host all of our sessions for free, though we accept donations as a 501c3, so lower to moderate-income persons can still access our educational materials. Finally, by naming ourselves Women of Color in Cannabis it is clear we center women of color in Cannabis which we know is another population underserved in the Cannabis community. Read more>>