Umoja Village

Umoja means "unity" in the Swahili language. In 2023 Umoja Village organized the first Unity Weekend which featured three distinct events to celebrate the African American culture and history and to enlighten and educate the community. Event #1 is the largest FREE outdoor Gospel festival in our region entitled Shoutfest. The event features all day Gospel music performances and praise dancers; over 50 vendors; and a very active Kidszone. Event #2 was the showing of a short documentary about "Black Wall Street." With that event we mobilized attendees towards generational wealth creation. Event #3 was our first Unity Golf Tournament where we raised almost $15,000 to be used towards our crime prevention plan activities and for our Richard Johnson Jr. Umoja Village Resource Center.

Umoja Village Funding Allocation Process: As part of the Umoja Village Rebuilding The Foundation Crime Prevention Plan one of the primary strategies is to invest in those local youth mentorship and adult second chance initiatives that we know are making a difference; however they aren't able to be as effective due to limited funding. Through our own grant process we require those organizations to attend our grant writing workshop prior to submitting an application for funding.

Umoja Village created an initiative as part of the Umoja Village Rebuilding The Foundation Crime Prevention Plan entitled "Project Bounce Back." This initiative works with the adult second chance population. Any client who requests assistance from Umoja Village with housing assistance transportation services job creation initiatives etc. is required to establish a Life Action Plan. From there Umoja Village provides support services to address any barriers to help them move forward with life. Furthermore in November 2023 Umoja Village in partnership with The Imani Group and Solar United National launched a three-week job training program where we provided transportation assistance and stipends.