New Orleans groups unite to make a ‘positive’ community impact

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — On a Monday evening, when most of the city is winding down the workday, these residents are meeting at the Ray Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans East, and it’s an effort with commitment.

Phillip Brock Jr. heads the organization Positive Minds Positive Movement and he says, “We do a meeting every week, right? But this meeting today is attempting to galvanize the community. We do men’s meetings, we do parenting meetings, we do all the outreach from the standpoint of bringing the community together because we have the power to make the changes that are necessary for our community.”

Brock’s background is counseling, mentoring and life coaching. The meetings are but a part of the efforts to better the community.

In fact, they’re an opportunity for a coalition of organizations to get to work.

According to Honorable Darren D. Parnell, “We come together as one and we realize that there’s a power in coming together.”

Among the resources available to residents are family services, workforce development, financial services and even personal protection.

Quite contrary to the mindset that people in the community are not helping themselves.

“We’ve had over 130 men get together regularly so there are a lot of people trying to help themselves. The question is, is business going to help, is government going to help, is Baton Rouge going to help,” asked District E Councilman Oliver Thomas.

Working together, the organizations are hosting the City-wide Community Youth Day on Saturday, March 23 from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Conrad Playground in Hollygrove.

According to Brock Jr., “This is a gumbo pot but if we don’t have the pieces for the gumbo, quite naturally it’s going to be a nasty gumbo and what we’re dealing with right now are some nasty issues within the community that we have the opportunity of understanding where those solutions may be and plugging and planning for positive solution overall.”

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