There’s a concept of the Matthew Effect which uses math to illustrate what folks have lamented about for thousands of years – the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. Take tech for example – the rich and poor often have different problems, but because it’s more profitable to solve problems for the wealthy a disproportionate share of tech innovation focuses on solving problems for the affluent. However, it doesn’t have to be this way – and we have been blown away by the thousands of members of our community who have devoted their lives through their businesses, organizations and art to serve the underserved.
Bradford Uyeda
Well I would say that the music scene or cummunity is huge even at a local level. Musicians or individual artists going out into the world and creating a sound that is unique to their style of music. Then take them and subcategorize them into genre and then sub-genre. That means that there are a lot of artists and groups out there renting spaces and making recording booths to create music. Every band or singer wants to make an album and nowadays you can’t have a new album without music videos or lyric videos. Mainstream artists have labels that take them in and pay for all those things and top it off with a mass marketing roll out. Everyone else has to do it all themselves or end up under a smaller label that still doesn’t have the capital to launch a massive promotion. So for the last two decades I have been that one artist that offers these musicians reasonable and affordable animation content for their music videos. It was actually this music community that took a chance on me when I first started out as a freelancer. These collaborations are special I feel, the artists are very down to earth and have regular jobs but the drive to make music is inspiring not only to them to me. I have had a blast making music videos for so many different musicians. Some bands had given up and stopped for a time but that fire never went out. I am making several music videos for a band that decided to give it another go. Gotta love that. Read more>>
Jermaine Somerset
Our mission is to serve as a fund to promote cultural sensitivity and diversity, equity, and community development for young adults and their families who are negatively impacted by inequality and racial disparity in mental and physical health, literacy, education, finance, and cultural awareness. Our organization purposely selected the City of Farrell, Pennsylvania for The Legacy Cultural Project. The project was created to respectfully, but intentionally teach grassroot initiatives, community development, student leadership, and civil action activities. The project will help students, residents, city and school leadership, and law enforcement translate what they learned during the project into everyday life experiences to be applied to their community and to invite discussion on social justice, community activism, cultural sensitivity, diversity, inclusion, and transparency through open and unscripted conversations in a non-traditional setting. The population of Farrell is 53.31% African American, 38.32% White, 5.84% Two or more races. The average household income in Farrell is $45,078 with a poverty rate of 41.34%, and the police department is 95% non-African American. Read more>>
Alison Lopez
Yes, my work is deeply focused on helping underserved communities, especially within the rehabilitation and recovery spaces. In addition to guiding healing groups for individuals overcoming substance abuse and mental health challenges, I also work closely with rehab programs that provide holistic support and alternative therapies to promote sustained recovery. During my time in this field, I’ve noticed a major gap in services specifically for Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals who need support in rehabilitation settings. This population faces unique challenges: traditional verbal therapy, group counseling, and even instructions in recovery spaces are often inaccessible or lack ASL-proficient professionals who can communicate effectively with them. Read more>>