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.

Lenese Calleea

BGDC Serves African American Youth in major cities through education, mentoring, events and resources. We focus on teaching entrepreneurship in the creative industry and paying success forward. I’m originally from the south side of Chicago. Where these is a lot of youth crime and low graduation rates. When I was growing up, I really wished I had a resource and a united community that could help me through the challenges, I was faced with. When I got to college I was the only black girl in my classes and all of the other students were so much more advanced than me because they had fashion classes in elementary and high school. Read more>>

Jai’Lyn Lover

Unfiltered Photography has many passion areas, one specifically is the homeless population in which I call Hidden Figures. Each photoshoot that I have a percentage goes towards the efforts that I do in my community. I typically do a Summer and Winter event. In December I will be hosting my Annual Holiday for the Homeless Event. This is an event where I provide a hot homecooked meal, Unfiltered Sweatshirts, hats, gloves, scarfs, and all other winter essentials at a local shelter. During the Summer I held Hidden Figures Freedom Fest. This was an event where our Hidden Figures were offered a vendor like experience where they could shop around for any items that they needed for FREE. Read more>>

Adrianna Rodriguez

My counseling practice primarily caters to the underrepresented BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities, with a particular emphasis on individuals hailing from collectivist cultures. This focus has arisen from the recognition of a profound and often overlooked issue: people from collectivist cultures frequently encounter heightened stigmatization within their families and communities when seeking mental health counseling. As such, it is essential to understand the significance of addressing this disparity and the role my brand plays in serving this underserved community. Read more>>

Ernest Moss

What’s the formula mentoring academy serves the teenagers that according to social norms, are classified as undesirables. The teenagers who are getting in trouble at school and have anger issues etc. Most are in single parent households and often times are on the edge of poverty. They don’t believe in college, are not qualified to go to the military and don’t have a laborious work ethic. So what do they do? Most escape reality through digital platforms; gaming, social media etc. The parents are up in arms because they just can’t understand how to connect to their child and the teen doesn’t make it any easier because they are quick to lash out or shut down and hide in the digital world where they find peace and friendship.  Read more>>

Sarah Watkins

AUsome Sauce may be a small nonprofit, but we strive to provide a safe community to families with young neurodivergent children. Individuals with Autism are considered an underserved population. There is a lack of access to services, qualified providers, and a high turnaround. Outside the clinical perspective, caregivers are often provided with so much information it can be overwhelming. Parent-to-parent support is key to growth and through conversations with people who understand your struggle as a special needs caregiver, you become more confident and knowledgeable of what that child really needs to thrive. Read more>>

Erin Stieglitz

One in nine Georgians suffer from food insecurity. The statistic is one in seven when it comes to children. Food is a basic need and a human right, but unfortunately for many of our neighbors, there are many barriers food access. Bagel Rescue aims to be part of the solution to hunger by pushing into communities of greatest need. Read more>>

Dr. Laticia Nicole Beatty

I have a non-profit that feeds the elderly and homeless community since 2012. I started this non profit at a time in my life that I needed help myself but was led to help help others and now over 10k families are being served throughout the U.S. I also opened a 120 bed Elderly assistant living facility. Where I house those that the community has thrown away due to their economic status. My business take Medicaid and Special assistance for those that need housing and nursing aid. Read more>

Ken Sandy

We collaborate multiple times throughout the year with Dress for Succes, Sasha Bruce, A Wider Circle, Marthas Table to perfrom call to actions in our extensive client relationship reach for gently used clothing. We arrange full logistics on pick up, clean and restore them then full delivery drop. Additionally we allow artists and creatives from underserved communities to display a permanent art display in all of our retail locations, we pay them for this installation and it becomes part of that stores brand for life. Read more>>

Kyron Christopherson

Halo Heart Yoga and Sound LLC in the process of building a Community Outreach Program to help those that are sick, bed ridden, or near the end of life, at no cost and up to 3 times, to surround them with Tibetan bowls and play for them. The soothing tones of the Tibetan bowls creates a peaceful, loving and relaxing environment which can have a very calming affect on the body, mind and soul of those who are suffering. Secondly, once a month, I offers a free group sound bath session to non-profit groups and organizations that support the homeless, poor, those who suffer from addiction, the imprisoned, the disabled, the abused and veterans. Read more>>

Yaxeni Oriquen

It’s like we provide weight loss advice for people who are leaving in poor population, that does not have resources for gyms and other activities. we need to create a way for the poor community to be more easily engaged in physical activities and have a good nutrition guide, educate how to feed without risk of being obese. Read more>>

Brooke Ooten

Yes! EnrichedNYC started as a company committed to bringing reading remediation services to young children across America. Even though it is a “for-profit” company, we recognized that education is not just for some people. All children deserve the right to learn foundational literacy skills. With this in mind, we started a pro-bono program, where for every paying client we onboarded, we also onboarded a student in need. From there, we were introduced to the I Have a Dream Foundation, and began to work with small pods of their learners in underserved communities. Read more>>