CHARLOTTE, Mecklenburg County — A few weeks ago, WCNC Charlotte introduced you to the Lakeview Neighborhood Alliance, an organization working in Charlotte’s most impoverished areas to empower those residents.
Their long-term plan includes an economic mobility hub, which the group hopes will be a center for sustainable growth.
Executive Director Jamaal Kinard said this is their fifth community clean-up event.
"Here’s the vision for what this space is and what it can be," Kinard told WCNC Charlotte's Colin Mayfield. "We're showing the community what it can mean long term."
In the heart of the Lakeview neighborhood lies a former CMS school. Kinard envisions the space that was once a cornerstone for education, teaching kids from the neighborhood, as a place for continuous learning.
"A community needs to own four things to thrive: A supermarket, a health care center, bank, and vocational school. We are trying to have two of those things inside our economic mobility hub. That will be the vocational school and supermarket," Kinard said.
Kinard wants to see the community grow food inside a greenhouse and sell the produce to support the Lakeview community. In addition to creating access to affordable and healthy food, residents will also be able to learn financial decision-making.
The community vision culminates in another big step this weekend as they ask residents to come out and clean the old CMS school.
If you'd like to help out, click here.
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Contact Colin Mayfield at cmayfield@wcnc.com or follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.