Dynamic duo helps businesses in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood

SAN FRANCISCO — A pair of native San Franciscans is constructing a way of group and empowerment in underserved neighborhoods.

Jameel Patterson and Majeid Crawford just lately walked alongside Bayview’s Third Avenue on a mission. They went door-to-door the place many store house owners are African American.

They greeted one girl, the proprietor of a brand new magnificence salon.

Patterson and Crawford let the entrepreneurs know they will apply for presidency grants, and the pair may help them submit the functions.

“We will come again to see what grants are on the market for you. That is superb,” Crawford instructed the store proprietor.

Crawford and Patterson have helped a number of dozen entrepreneurs in San Francisco safe practically one million {dollars} in grants for small enterprise coaching, hire reduction, and different wants.

The pair leads the non-profit New Group Management Basis in San Francisco, which Patterson co-founded in 2011.

And for Crawford, its government director for the final 4 years, his dedication may be very private: His father, a jazz saxophonist, returned from the army with a dream to play on Fillmore Avenue like his uncle.

However the Fillmore was not the favored black leisure venue of the 40s and 50s.

“For it to be bulldozed, for the redlining to happen, it broke my Dad’s coronary heart, it broke lots of people in my household’s coronary heart. And it breaks my coronary heart,” Crawford stated.         

He and Patterson are rebuilding their damaged group.

“We obtained drained or a group being in despair, obtained the violence, a group of no hope,” Patterson stated. “We simply needed to do one thing to convey the black group again to its glory days.”

They’ve began with eating places like Radio Africa Kitchen.

Chef and proprietor Askender Aseged plans to open a commissary kitchen so younger cooks can hone their abilities.

Crawford and Patterson helped him get a small enterprise grant.

“They’re telling folks like what we may do; they’re inspiring folks on a regular basis,” stated Aseged.

And giving them hope.

The pair says the bottom line is to “activate” the group – get residents concerned, from voter registration to participation in cultural occasions.

One instance was the NCLF crew elevating one million {dollars} in grants to revitalize the Fillmore Turk Mini Park, the final black park within the Fillmore. They usually wish to use it for group gatherings.

So for empowering San Francisco’s black group by the New Group Management Basis, this week’s Jefferson Award within the Bay Space goes to Jameel Patterson and Majeid Crawford.