Community-building is one of the most valued assets provided to our tenants. At Plymouth, it is best defined as a place where connections share common ground in building individualism. Again this year, our annual Black History Month events gave us that place and those connections.
Story by Mycie Lubin, Social Services Program Manager, Plymouth Housing Group
Photos by Jorge Lausell, Housing Case Manager, Plymouth Housing Group
Black History Month is full of a variety of events. This year, tenants started the celebration with cultural awareness. We visited the African American Museum, where they experienced history and progress made by African Americans through various decades. Read Housing Case Manager Danielle Montrose’s moving take on that outing here.
Other events brought Plymouth neighbors together around movies and documentaries, Caribbean meals, and the simple pleasure of each other’s company.
Tenants from various buildings participated. Their dialogues highlighted a shared realization that throughout history, love has always surpassed any other human emotions.
It was with these sentiments of closeness we ended the Black History Month celebration. Plymouth’s Social Services department, in collaboration with our Resource Development team and an amazing group of volunteers and donors, enjoyed a marvelous dinner celebrating “A Century of Black History.”
Mycie, in her role as emcee for the dinner.
The program included the glorious voice of Plymouth tenant Russell Burrell, live music from exciting group Learnin’ To Fly, and a powerful presentation of the history and progress of African American pillars. Fun raffles, great folks and delicious food held it all together.
Of course, I left the best part of the program for last. We had the honor of having Greg Taylor, founder and principal of Community Connection Consulting and a Councilmember for the City of Renton, as our keynote speaker.
WOW! Amazing cannot even begin to sum up Councilmember Taylor’s speech or his connection to our tenants. The eloquence with which he presented his message of hope to our community was inspiring.
Mr. Taylor engaged our tenants by sharing the history of African Americans that is often forgotten by the public. He reminded everyone in the room of the importance of culture to the individual, and emphasized how the lessons we learn as we interact with each other in society influences what we believe of ourselves.
We as individuals matter, and we make a difference in the community in which we are embedded. It was simply brilliant. Many of our tenants were emotional. Plymouth’s tenants are formerly homeless individuals from all walks of life. That evening, they were joined together. They celebrated change and progress, not only for African Americans, but for society as a whole.
As tenants exited, enthusiastic comments such as these were flying by from all directions:
“WOW! This was fabulous!”
“This was great!”
“I can’t wait for next year.”
“Plymouth really does a great job.”
“Thank you; this was something.”
Our tenants were smiling, happy, made new friends, and—most importantly— they were home! What was more revealing: tenants came and asked for the posters that represented their history as mementos.
They wanted to remember.
We couldn’t provide these exciting events for our tenants without our donors and volunteers. I remain amazed at the involvement and care from our staff, volunteers and donors. Plymouth is a community because all involved parties are devoted to the mission.
Thank you for helping us once again make Black History Month a success.
See you next year!