Jerica Richardson’s passion is putting sustainable solutions in place. Since taking a seat on the Cobb County commission in January to represent about 200,000 residents of East Cobb, she’s begun working on goals to address sustainability, while also spotlighting ways the community can get involved to tackle seemingly unsolvable problems.
“I can couple my passion with available volunteer opportunities to look at some issues, even those big goals that make people throw up their hands up and say, ‘There’s no way to get there,’” she said.
Richardson created the Acts of Kindness initiative to show people practical ways to address those big issues. Each month, she hones in on concerns such as the environment, wellness, mental health, safety, literacy, addiction or abuse, and hosts events in partnership with local organizations. The public is invited to participate in an activity related to solving the issue. She’s already hosted events around recycling and personal safety.
“The idea is to highlight a volunteer opportunity and then have a deeper conversation that discusses ways we can influence or create policies to address some of the root causes of those issues,” she said. “When we did recycling, people dropped off items at the Smyrna recycling center, and we had a great discussion about environmentalism and how we can take a systemic approach to preserving our planet and what kind of policies we can implement.”
The kick-off event in March focused on glass recycling and was held in conjunction with Keep Cobb Beautiful and Keep Smyrna Beautiful. In April, the personal safety seminar was presented by the A.C.T. Women’s Self Defense and was followed by a discussion of bigger safety concerns.
“We also talked about what makes a safe community and what divides communities so they become unsafe,” said Richardson.
Richardson plans to select the monthly focus areas based on the pressing concerns and community interest.
“We might even revisit some topics twice or thrice, if people want that,” she said. “The goal is always to get resources out to communities and to highlight the many volunteer opportunities out there to tackle these problems.”
Information about Acts of Kindness is online at sites.google.com/d2cobb.com/actsofkindness.
Who’s doing good? Each week, we write about a deserving individual, charity events such as fun-runs, volunteer projects and other community gatherings that benefit a good cause. To suggest an event or person for us to cover, contact us at ajc.doinggood@gmail.com.
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