Brotherhood Campaign Leads Fundraising for Altadena Hearth Victims

As firefighters labored across the clock to include the Eaton Hearth in January, one neighborhood group was already making ready for the restoration forward. The Brotherhood Campaign acted swiftly to help their neighbors in Altadena and Pasadena, losing no time to prepare support and sources for these affected by the wildfires.

“We’ve got deep roots within the Altadena-Pasadena space,” the group’s President and CEO, Charisse Bremond Weaver, advised NewsOne. “(These are) communities that we’ve labored with for years.” In partnership with City One Cares, they established the Brotherhood Campaign Wildfire Aid Fund to offer direct reduction to the Eaton Hearth victims.

57 years of service

The Brotherhood Campaign has an extended historical past in Los Angeles. Based in 1968 by neighborhood activist Walter Bremond and members of the Los Angeles Black Congress, the imaginative and prescient was to enhance the standard of life for the folks of South LA, making certain equitable entry to sources, alternatives, and help providers.

 

Now on the helm of this storied group, Bremond Weaver upholds the service legacy constructed by her father and her predecessor, now board chair, Danny Bakewell Sr. At present, the Brotherhood Campaign’s impression reaches past its Slauson Avenue headquarters. It serves the broader LA neighborhood—providing a sturdy vary of programming and sources in youth improvement, athletics, the humanities, and extra.

Bremond Weaver is enthusiastic about working to “make investments and be certain that we’re growing nice leaders who someday can be main this wonderful metropolis as of us poured into me.”

Brotherhood Campaign Wildfire Aid Fund

In instances of disaster, the service group performs a significant function in providing reduction to these in want. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Brotherhood Campaign “supplied over $1.2 million in financial help for neighborhood members who needed to go away their jobs as a result of pandemic,” mentioned Bremond Weaver.

Now, as households in Altadena and Pasadena navigate the aftermath of the Eaton Hearth, the necessity for direct reduction is extra essential than ever. In January, a partnership shaped seemingly in a single day between the Brotherhood Campaign and City One Cares, the philanthropic arm of City One. Cathy Hughes, City One’s founder, and BHC board chair Bakewell rapidly developed a plan. “Because the fires had been occurring, they bought on a name and mentioned, ‘We’ve got to be answerable for our households in Altadena and Pasadena,’” mentioned Bremond Weaver.

Because it did in the course of the international pandemic, the Brotherhood Campaign has centered on offering direct funding to impacted residents. “You pivot in disaster conditions,” mentioned Bremond Weaver. “Our day-to-day work remains to be occurring. However when your neighborhood wants you, it’s a must to discover a option to step up.”

An act of affection

The profound loss that this neighborhood has endured is troublesome to know. The Eaton Hearth claimed 17 lives and hundreds of properties, companies, homes of worship, faculties, and historic buildings.

The Brotherhood Campaign Wildfire Aid Fund is doing its half to ease the restoration course of by addressing the residents’ wants—each instant and longer-term. “It was necessary to offer financial help,” mentioned Bremond Weaver, who acknowledged the massive price to households displaced by the fires, “having to pay a home word and in search of momentary housing till their home is full.”

Distributing funds to households supplies instant, tangible reduction. It’s a direct option to help short-term survival whereas laying the groundwork for the rebuilding course of. Finally, it’s an act of affection, she mentioned. “You handle folks the best way you’d need to be taken care of if one thing like this occurred to you.”

Since January, the Wildfire Aid Fund has raised over $500,000 in funding and distributed over $90,000 to help impacted households. “Our aim is to lift thousands and thousands, in order that over the following three to 5 years we will present weekly checks to households,” mentioned Bremond Weaver. “We all know that each bit of economic help is required.”

Apply for support

If you happen to or somebody you understand was impacted by the Eaton Hearth, name the Brotherhood Campaign at (323) 846-1649 to obtain an software. The appliance will quickly be out there on the group’s web site, so keep tuned for that.

 

Others can donate. Bremond Weaver emphasised the significance of each donor, regardless of the scale of their contribution. “People donating anyplace from $10 to $5,000—each donor is particular as a result of folks give what they’ll,” she mentioned. “You make a selection to provide to an establishment that you simply belief and consider in, and also you additionally know that we’re accountable to the neighborhood we serve.”

LA by way of and thru

Bremond Weaver is “LA by way of and thru”—born and raised within the metropolis, now working carefully with the neighborhood. “I grew up within the metropolis of LA,” she mentioned. “My mother was an educator, my father was a philanthropist—in a time the place of us had been like, ‘Huh? What does your dad do?’ (Laughs) He helps folks, actually.”

Rising up in South LA, Bremond Weaver has fond reminiscences of Altadena. It was the place she loved loads of good instances, events, and get-togethers in a vibrant neighborhood the place “your neighbors knew one another.” “I’ve recognized pals who grew up within the space all of my life—and as you become older, your circle turns into wider,” she mentioned. “If you happen to grew up within the metropolis, you understand somebody who has been impacted by the fires.”

Altadena and Pasadena

There’s delight right here, hard-earned by a neighborhood that thrived within the face of systemic racism. Even in Altadena and Pasadena, the place African People sought an escape from the Jim Crow South in the course of the Nice Migration, these households nonetheless confronted housing discrimination that restricted the place they may reside.

Nonetheless, Altadena particularly grew to become “this secure haven of Black of us who mentioned, we’ll create our personal neighborhood,” mentioned Bremond Weaver. Over time, Altadena grew to become an emblem of Black prosperity—dwelling to artists, activists, educators, and enterprise house owners. “That’s the great thing about the Altadena neighborhood. (There are) so many optimistic Black function fashions, individuals who have constructed their generational properties and handed these properties all the way down to their kids and their grandchildren.”

Love for LA

Now 20 years on the helm of the Brotherhood Campaign, Bremond Weaver says, the work continues. “I really like my metropolis. To have the ability to serve others, I actually consider I’ve the perfect job on Earth. Even throughout troublesome instances, my pleasure is that I get to assist folks.”

Having witnessed LA’s ever-changing panorama through the years, she carries on her father’s legacy with a deep sense of duty. “I’m very happy with being a Black establishment, an establishment that may proceed to develop due to the neighborhood. We’re right here as a result of the neighborhood says, ‘We belief you.’”

SEE ALSO:

Documentary Follows Altadena Household Who Misplaced Generational House In LA Wildfires

Altadena Not For Sale: Preserving Black Homeownership After The Eaton Hearth