AmeriCorps Member: Tyshameka Hollins

To provide continued support for our neighborhoods, United Way is partnering with AmeriCorps to sponsor seven members, currently living within the targeted local communities, to participate in the AmeriCorps program delivered by Amazon.

As part of the AmeriCorps Program supporting United Neighborhoods, the AmeriCorps members will lead engagement activities within their neighborhoods to increase the residents’ knowledge of the services available to residents. The program is designed to better connect residents with nonprofit services and open doors of opportunity for the AmeriCorps members.

This post highlights AmeriCorps Member Tyshameka Hollins.

What geography are you working in?

Hollins: I am in North Mecklenburg. 

What is your role within your geography?

Hollins: Being North Mecklenburg’s Community Coordinator, I engage with five different neighborhoods and attend community meetings to hear the people I work for speak their truth regarding events that affect their lives. I also am tasked with encouraging collaboration among nonprofit agencies and their partners to better assist those in need.

Tell me about your background.

Hollins: I have lived in different states in my 43 years around the sun and my schooling keeps changing locations. My elementary and grade school education was in La Puente, California then Vicksburg, Mississippi. My family decided to send me back to California to finish middle school and high school in La Verne, California until I left home to start college. A few jobs I excelled at and enjoyed were in customer service, telemarketing, in-home care, nursing homes, counseling and many others, but when I learned about volunteering my time for a nonprofit in Mooresville, NC, it changed my life and career path forever. Leaping around different career paths and learning rules, policies and procedures gave me a better look into how a business is run from the inside-out, to the point of realizing how inconsiderate we, as humans, have become. I didn’t know 10 years ago that I would now be working for the people; I now serve my community with pride and dignity.

Why did you apply to be an AmeriCorps Community Coordinator?

Hollins: I want to serve my community from the inside-out.

What are your Community Quarterback’s goals for your geography? How do those goals translate into your day-to-day tasks?

Hollins: Ada Jenkins Center is my host site and they exist to help people create lasting solutions for economic stability. They educate, economically find solutions to financial needs and connect the community with resources and surrounding agencies to better assist Cornelius, Davidson and Huntersville. Each day I am researching, studying and physically walking door-to-door to get the answers needed. We plan our months out to keep relevant conversations going that contribute to solutions impacting the future.

What are you learning about in your geography that you didn’t know before?

Hollins: I didn’t realize Smithville is an historic African American town in North Carolina and I didn’t realize how many trailers of families there are in Huntington Green.

Learn more about the AmeriCorps Program supporting United Neighborhoods.