Our Stories
My name is Jamall Kinard, I am the executive director of the Lakeview Neighborhood Alliance. I am a resident of Lakeview and moved to the neighborhood in 2017.
What about Lakeview makes it feel like home?
Lakeview is home because I feel like I can identify with the people. People here are more alike than we are different, and we all are victims of an unjust system. I look at the differences with the fish in the lake theory and take a deeper look at something being wrong with the water. I look at Lakeview with concentrated poverty we have and there has to be something wrong with the systems we live in. Living in the system and I think it’s my duty to make residents aware of the system that’s in place, how to navigate the system and how we can begin to do things for ourselves to reform the system. We have to make history now together. Looking at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human needs, most people in Lakeview are at those bottom two levels and are at survivor mode. With the Lakeview neighborhood alliance my focus is family stability and civic awareness. I believe to speed awareness along knowledge of history, data, and the context around that, and to put actions in place. Our strategic plan is about educating, engaging and empowering. We help connect residents to resources and programs.
What partnerships have you seen make a big impact in the Lakeview community?
Some have advantage but as a result of having an advantage others are oppressed. Communities are being divided and there are things like redlining, systematic segregation, oppressive practices and systems that led to concentrated poverty. Black people are in more concentrated poverty and don’t choose to live in poverty but because systematically they’ve been placed in poverty over the years. I want people to have the full context of this happening, so they can change it together. Let’s make history now, together. Engage, educate and empower. Lakeview is a food apartheid and how food can grow in the neighborhood, but systems have chosen not to put grocery stores or sources for produce in the neighborhood. Programs like the Catawba Lands Conservancy, help engage people around understanding the benefits of eating healthy. Catawba Lands Conservancy currently comes in every Thursday 3:15p.m.-5:15p.m. and 25 families are currently in the program. Another partner is the CDC and they helped with the Catawba Lands Conservancy partnership by having a program called Cooking Matters and how the same 25 families learn about the nutrition of food and cook the food and shop for food.
If you could describe the residents of Lakeview in one word, what would it be and why?
To describe the community in one word I would say perseverance. It is a beautiful thing to see people go through so much systematically and still have the ability to smile and make it day to day. Knowing that if you don’t understand the full true of why we are here and how we got here, you will also be satisfied with a bag of groceries. If you ask people in these communities what they want and they’re in survival mode, they going to ask them for the thing that’s going to help them at the immediate point but we need to asking for the things that’s going to help them long term and help them have more ownership and help them sustain and help build a more economic base for themselves so they can be less dependent on these systems that oppress, underserve and help exploit them every day.
I’m Dennis Williams. I’m the pastor here at Faith Memorial Missionary Baptist Church. I’ve been here 15 years. Been honored to serve the residents of the Lakeview community. In every city there are pockets of where residents are not experiencing success in life.
Oftentimes, it is due to an oppressive system that they’ve been introduced to an they’re battling and in every city you have the haves and, sorta, you have the have nots. And have nots, for some reason, they normally end up in one or two pockets in the city. Lakeview is one of those pockets where this community is very very fragile. People are having a lot of challenges but yet there’s so much human potential here so it’s been an honor to help the residents of Lakeview kind of understand who they are in God and that despite all of the challenges that they are facing that they still could have life in heaven in full measure.
If you could describe the residents of Lakeview in one word, what would it be and why?
That’s a tough question. One word: awesome. The fact that they’ve gone through so much and that they’re still existing, and they still have hope, and they still have a future, and so many other people have given up.
What about Lakeview makes it feel like home?
Home where love is. Home is where relationship is. Home is where there are strong bonds of friendship and comradery and unification around a single purpose and that’s what makes Lakeview feel like home for me. And in every home there are always challenges, and in Lakeview there is some pretty clear challenges. What makes it feel like home, is getting a critical mass of people to understand that if we work together, we can solve every problem that we’re faced with and we can enjoy victory together as a community.
What partnerships have you seen make a big impact in the Lakeview community?
There are three partnerships at the heart of it. You have two key partners; you have the church and you have the Lakeview Neighborhood Alliance. We like to feel like we’re brothers. Then the preschool has always been a solid partner throughout the years. A recent partner that we are happy to be in partnership with is Leading on Opportunity. They have some good research about the conditions that must be in place in order for our residents to experience success and upward mobility. So partnering with them, as we make sure that we are leading with our heart, but with research at the same time to solve the problems, it really feels good.
How has Faith Memorial moved into the community and engaged with its residents?
The church’s relationship with Lakeview has gotten better across the years. it’s always been a little strain for a number of years because of who we represent as a church and what many of the residents are experiencing or their behaviors are in conflict to who we are. So it’s been a challenge to let them know that we really are serious about loving them and accepting them no matter who they are and what the hardship is and even their lifestyle at this present time. We’re here for them. Across the years it has gotten a lot better and we really see ourselves as trying to show that tangible love of Christ to this community. So not a lot of heavy preaching-Bible thumping-but getting in the trenches and helping people get meals, helping people get jobs, helping them with their emotional challenges, helping the kids with their academic challenges, and things of that nature. Trying to clothe those who need clothes and doing things where they see that we’re more than just a mouthpiece for Christ but we’re an army of people we’re a campus of resources that could help them with their everyday needs.
What is your favorite community memory?
What comes to mind is that we’ve had a challenge to get the residents to be members of the church. While they will come to the fellowship Hall, and they will meet us out on the campus, and on the street corner, sometimes it’s hard to get them in the sanctuary. But one fella, we convinced him to come to church. He came, and he has the gift of singing. Just impromptu, I called on him to come up to sing. The way he rallied and sang a song, and the way the choirs joined in, and the congregation accepted him, was a very special time for us.
My name is Delores Miller, I am a LNA (Lakeview Neighborhood Alliance) board member in the Lakeview community. I have owned my house since ’91, my grandmother left me a house on Harrison Street in 1987 after she passed away, then I inherited the house in 1991.
What about Lakeview makes it feel like home?
The growth that I’ve seen in the neighborhood. When I first came and I first start living over here, it was not always good. It was really kind of bad, high crime rate. As the people came in to try to help the community—believe it was the CDC first that try to come in and help the community—a couple of people from Myers Park came in to see what they could do to help the community better themselves. We start seeing other people from outside the community like here at Faith Memorial and Myers Park Presbyterian, I do believe once we saw people coming in trying to help us better ourselves, then that’s when we start feeling like it was more like home.
What is your favorite community memory?
Down at Lakeview Center, it was Mother’s Day weekend, and we had a tea. We had a “Rainbow Tea” and so we invited all the women out of all ages and races we all just really kind of got together. We had a little program and stuff and got a chance to get to know each other better from all walks of life—and the food was great! Then, we had an International Day, and we invited every nationality from the Lakeview community to bring in their favorite dish and it was awesome! I mean you had a Vietnamese, you had Korean, you had Japanese food, Chinese food, you had people from Africa, and they had American food served there. We had a tasting contest and we actually had an interpreter there too as well to help with that. We decorated everything and it was a really good community outing, we got a chance to see how other people live and eat within their household.
What partnerships have you seen make a big impact in the Lakeview community?
One of those groups that do the vegetables, they have a garden and once a week and they do the vegetables. Which is very nice, fresh vegetables they just give out free to the community and of course that helps everybody eat healthy and feel better about themselves. There’s a lot of other partners, and I don’t know personally, but I know their faces when I see them. Especially this Church of course, Faith Memorial Baptist Church, they are a good resource and partner. They help with a lot of things within the community and actually they’re on our board as well. The pastor, he is on our board chair. That makes the community feel better being a part. They actually have been for years, part of the community helping them.
What changes do you think could be helpful to this community?
I would like to see the Lakeview Center become a recreational center for the neighborhood. I would like to see that over there. We need more lighting on the streets, at night is dark. Little bit more community policing. Seems like they slacked off in the last couple of years and we need them back over here. We would like to see a grocery store chain besides sending us to a Dollar General or Family Dollar down the street. ‘Cause sometimes prices could be very high and you have a low choice of items—not a great choice of items that you can choose—so a grocery store chain would be nice.
What have you seen improve in Lakeview since the Lakeview Neighborhood Alliance has been present?
With Habitat they’ve came in and sold property so that makes the neighborhood looks nice. Jamall, being the executive director, he has great leadership skills. Him coming in and bringing in a lot of great resources and he also is very smart guy and he wants to know what he can do to help. Channel 9 News, we had them out, and they actually have an ongoing commercial sometimes. So that kind of really put Lakeview on the map. That excites me a lot that people know now that we’re good community. We’re a safe community and a place that they might want to move to and live.
If you could describe the residents of Lakeview in one word, what would it be and why?
Carefree. They’re really carefree around here—like it they accept what’s going on and it is what it is, so they just kind of carefree with it. They need probably a little bit more education, a little bit more encouragement that they could do more and fix it up more even within their household. It’s a good bunch of people.
What new partnerships do you think could be beneficial to the community?
The City needs to come in and help us a little bit more, the city of Charlotte. Mecklenburg County needs to come in. Cardinal Innovations ’cause there’s a lot of people have mental issues over here.
Our Stories
My name is Jamall Kinard, I am the executive director of the Lakeview Neighborhood Alliance. I am a resident of Lakeview and moved to the neighborhood in 2017.
What about Lakeview makes it feel like home?
Lakeview is home because I feel like I can identify with the people. People here are more alike than we are different, and we all are victims of an unjust system. I look at the differences with the fish in the lake theory and take a deeper look at something being wrong with the water. I look at Lakeview with concentrated poverty we have and there has to be something wrong with the systems we live in. Living in the system and I think it’s my duty to make residents aware of the system that’s in place, how to navigate the system and how we can begin to do things for ourselves to reform the system. We have to make history now together. Looking at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human needs, most people in Lakeview are at those bottom two levels and are at survivor mode. With the Lakeview neighborhood alliance my focus is family stability and civic awareness. I believe to speed awareness along knowledge of history, data, and the context around that, and to put actions in place. Our strategic plan is about educating, engaging and empowering. We help connect residents to resources and programs.
What partnerships have you seen make a big impact in the Lakeview community?
Some have advantage but as a result of having an advantage others are oppressed. Communities are being divided and there are things like redlining, systematic segregation, oppressive practices and systems that led to concentrated poverty. Black people are in more concentrated poverty and don’t choose to live in poverty but because systematically they’ve been placed in poverty over the years. I want people to have the full context of this happening, so they can change it together. Let’s make history now, together. Engage, educate and empower. Lakeview is a food apartheid and how food can grow in the neighborhood, but systems have chosen not to put grocery stores or sources for produce in the neighborhood. Programs like the Catawba Lands Conservancy, help engage people around understanding the benefits of eating healthy. Catawba Lands Conservancy currently comes in every Thursday 3:15p.m.-5:15p.m. and 25 families are currently in the program. Another partner is the CDC and they helped with the Catawba Lands Conservancy partnership by having a program called Cooking Matters and how the same 25 families learn about the nutrition of food and cook the food and shop for food.
If you could describe the residents of Lakeview in one word, what would it be and why?
To describe the community in one word I would say perseverance. It is a beautiful thing to see people go through so much systematically and still have the ability to smile and make it day to day. Knowing that if you don’t understand the full true of why we are here and how we got here, you will also be satisfied with a bag of groceries. If you ask people in these communities what they want and they’re in survival mode, they going to ask them for the thing that’s going to help them at the immediate point but we need to asking for the things that’s going to help them long term and help them have more ownership and help them sustain and help build a more economic base for themselves so they can be less dependent on these systems that oppress, underserve and help exploit them every day.
I’m Dennis Williams. I’m the pastor here at Faith Memorial Missionary Baptist Church. I’ve been here 15 years. Been honored to serve the residents of the Lakeview community. In every city there are pockets of where residents are not experiencing success in life.
Oftentimes, it is due to an oppressive system that they’ve been introduced to an they’re battling and in every city you have the haves and, sorta, you have the have nots. And have nots, for some reason, they normally end up in one or two pockets in the city. Lakeview is one of those pockets where this community is very very fragile. People are having a lot of challenges but yet there’s so much human potential here so it’s been an honor to help the residents of Lakeview kind of understand who they are in God and that despite all of the challenges that they are facing that they still could have life in heaven in full measure.
If you could describe the residents of Lakeview in one word, what would it be and why?
That’s a tough question. One word: awesome. The fact that they’ve gone through so much and that they’re still existing, and they still have hope, and they still have a future, and so many other people have given up.
What about Lakeview makes it feel like home?
Home where love is. Home is where relationship is. Home is where there are strong bonds of friendship and comradery and unification around a single purpose and that’s what makes Lakeview feel like home for me. And in every home there are always challenges, and in Lakeview there is some pretty clear challenges. What makes it feel like home, is getting a critical mass of people to understand that if we work together, we can solve every problem that we’re faced with and we can enjoy victory together as a community.
What partnerships have you seen make a big impact in the Lakeview community?
There are three partnerships at the heart of it. You have two key partners; you have the church and you have the Lakeview Neighborhood Alliance. We like to feel like we’re brothers. Then the preschool has always been a solid partner throughout the years. A recent partner that we are happy to be in partnership with is Leading on Opportunity. They have some good research about the conditions that must be in place in order for our residents to experience success and upward mobility. So partnering with them, as we make sure that we are leading with our heart, but with research at the same time to solve the problems, it really feels good.
How has Faith Memorial moved into the community and engaged with its residents?
The church’s relationship with Lakeview has gotten better across the years. it’s always been a little strain for a number of years because of who we represent as a church and what many of the residents are experiencing or their behaviors are in conflict to who we are. So it’s been a challenge to let them know that we really are serious about loving them and accepting them no matter who they are and what the hardship is and even their lifestyle at this present time. We’re here for them. Across the years it has gotten a lot better and we really see ourselves as trying to show that tangible love of Christ to this community. So not a lot of heavy preaching-Bible thumping-but getting in the trenches and helping people get meals, helping people get jobs, helping them with their emotional challenges, helping the kids with their academic challenges, and things of that nature. Trying to clothe those who need clothes and doing things where they see that we’re more than just a mouthpiece for Christ but we’re an army of people we’re a campus of resources that could help them with their everyday needs.
What is your favorite community memory?
What comes to mind is that we’ve had a challenge to get the residents to be members of the church. While they will come to the fellowship Hall, and they will meet us out on the campus, and on the street corner, sometimes it’s hard to get them in the sanctuary. But one fella, we convinced him to come to church. He came, and he has the gift of singing. Just impromptu, I called on him to come up to sing. The way he rallied and sang a song, and the way the choirs joined in, and the congregation accepted him, was a very special time for us.
My name is Delores Miller, I am a LNA (Lakeview Neighborhood Alliance) board member in the Lakeview community. I have owned my house since ’91, my grandmother left me a house on Harrison Street in 1987 after she passed away, then I inherited the house in 1991.
What about Lakeview makes it feel like home?
The growth that I’ve seen in the neighborhood. When I first came and I first start living over here, it was not always good. It was really kind of bad, high crime rate. As the people came in to try to help the community—believe it was the CDC first that try to come in and help the community—a couple of people from Myers Park came in to see what they could do to help the community better themselves. We start seeing other people from outside the community like here at Faith Memorial and Myers Park Presbyterian, I do believe once we saw people coming in trying to help us better ourselves, then that’s when we start feeling like it was more like home.
What is your favorite community memory?
Down at Lakeview Center, it was Mother’s Day weekend, and we had a tea. We had a “Rainbow Tea” and so we invited all the women out of all ages and races we all just really kind of got together. We had a little program and stuff and got a chance to get to know each other better from all walks of life—and the food was great! Then, we had an International Day, and we invited every nationality from the Lakeview community to bring in their favorite dish and it was awesome! I mean you had a Vietnamese, you had Korean, you had Japanese food, Chinese food, you had people from Africa, and they had American food served there. We had a tasting contest and we actually had an interpreter there too as well to help with that. We decorated everything and it was a really good community outing, we got a chance to see how other people live and eat within their household.
What partnerships have you seen make a big impact in the Lakeview community?
One of those groups that do the vegetables, they have a garden and once a week and they do the vegetables. Which is very nice, fresh vegetables they just give out free to the community and of course that helps everybody eat healthy and feel better about themselves. There’s a lot of other partners, and I don’t know personally, but I know their faces when I see them. Especially this Church of course, Faith Memorial Baptist Church, they are a good resource and partner. They help with a lot of things within the community and actually they’re on our board as well. The pastor, he is on our board chair. That makes the community feel better being a part. They actually have been for years, part of the community helping them.
What changes do you think could be helpful to this community?
I would like to see the Lakeview Center become a recreational center for the neighborhood. I would like to see that over there. We need more lighting on the streets, at night is dark. Little bit more community policing. Seems like they slacked off in the last couple of years and we need them back over here. We would like to see a grocery store chain besides sending us to a Dollar General or Family Dollar down the street. ‘Cause sometimes prices could be very high and you have a low choice of items—not a great choice of items that you can choose—so a grocery store chain would be nice.
What have you seen improve in Lakeview since the Lakeview Neighborhood Alliance has been present?
With Habitat they’ve came in and sold property so that makes the neighborhood looks nice. Jamall, being the executive director, he has great leadership skills. Him coming in and bringing in a lot of great resources and he also is very smart guy and he wants to know what he can do to help. Channel 9 News, we had them out, and they actually have an ongoing commercial sometimes. So that kind of really put Lakeview on the map. That excites me a lot that people know now that we’re good community. We’re a safe community and a place that they might want to move to and live.
If you could describe the residents of Lakeview in one word, what would it be and why?
Carefree. They’re really carefree around here—like it they accept what’s going on and it is what it is, so they just kind of carefree with it. They need probably a little bit more education, a little bit more encouragement that they could do more and fix it up more even within their household. It’s a good bunch of people.
What new partnerships do you think could be beneficial to the community?
The City needs to come in and help us a little bit more, the city of Charlotte. Mecklenburg County needs to come in. Cardinal Innovations ’cause there’s a lot of people have mental issues over here.