Profile: A Neighborhood Leader with Whatever It Takes

Unlike other parents who drop their kids at the school door every morning and drive to work, Loreal Vinson walks into the Alps Elementary School with her younger child. She goes to help her child and other students master their lessons, but she is not a teacher.

Teachers, it turns out, are not the only people promoting educational success for children.

Vinson is a neighborhood leader working with the non-profit program (WIT). Her particular turf is Alps Elementary, serving the neighborhood where she grew up. Having been in and out of work, Vinson started volunteering last year. Along with other new neighborhood leaders, she received initial training in speech and business classes.

Right now, she is being prepared to teach about healthy eating. “Once we get certified from the training classes session from the University of Georgia, we can go to our community and hold our own nutrition classes,” said Vinson.

, which involves meeting a lot of people, helping parents solve their problems, and helping other workers organize events. The most recent was a Halloween “Trick or Treat and Haunted House” at the park on West Broad.

Being involved with WIT has changed her. She used to be shy, she said, not wanting to be with other people. She wanted to stay inside her house and not venture out.

 “Now, I want to go out and , because I know that there might be a child out there who gets hungry,” said Vinson. “And I have the resources and knowledge of resources. I can tell the parents where to go or bring the resource to the parent.”

Tamika Williams, who is also a WIT neighborhood leader, said what impresses her most about Vinson is the passion she bring to her work.

Even though funding for the program has been cut, “she is going to keep going and not let anything stop her,” said Williams. Together they figured out ways to do projects for the kids within the tighter budget.

“She is great,” said Williams. “You don’t find too many parents who are willing to come do the work we are doing, to actually help others in the neighborhood. You do not find that often, so she is beautiful.”

Her job with WIT has not only taught Vinson how to assist other kids and parents, but also helped her become a better parent to her own two boys. She listens to what her boys tell her about problems in school, and she can work with teachers to solve problems for them and other kids.

“I am a parent and an advocate for my child and other students,” said Vinson. “That is the best thing that has happened.,”

Reverend Abraham Mosley, the pastor of the Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church where Vinson has long worshiped, says he has known Vinson “all of her life.” Mosley has witnessed how Vinson changed her life, and he works with her on the WIT’s community projects. He says that Vinson is a good parent and very energetic. He hopes she can “keep the positive things in her life as well as help other young folks to have more positive things in their lives.”

Vinson said she is motivated to stay involved with WIT because she and the other neighborhood leaders want to set off positive chain reactions in the communities.

“It is not like something that is here today and gone tomorrow. I want continue doing it,” said Vinson.