Meet Rickie—Advocate, Neighbor, & Empath (Story 11/40)
Pictured: Rickie Brown hauls donated Christmas toys to be handed out to children in the community.
Why do people help others?
It’s a simple question without a simple answer. Some help because it feels good, some because it’s their job, and others because they simply care about their neighborhood and want to make it better. Rickie Brown helps her neighbors for all those reasons, no doubt, but the strongest motivation by far is the fact that she knows how they feel. She empathizes, because she’s been through it.
“I look in a mama’s eyes and hear her talking about how she’s losing sleep at night, unsure how she’s going to afford both rent and food for her babies, and I can’t just move past that.” Rickie says. “I can’t move on without doing something to help because I’ve been in her shoes, and I just can’t stand the thought of someone going through what I went through without having anyone around to sit with them, to say ‘I understand, and believe me when I say it can get better.’”
Rickie Brown works as the property manager of our Hollywood Palms apartment complex, but that’s really just one part of her work in the community.
Rickie was the first Black woman to work with Weights and Standards in LaPlace, a branch of Louisiana’s government, and she’s a part of Crime Survivors, an organization supporting parents who’ve had children killed by gun violence. She has a long history of public activism and advocacy back in Louisianna, up in Sacramento, and most recently here in San Diego. She sits on the Democrats for Equality Board as well as the Martin Luther King Democratic Board as a member of San Diego Housing Federation Policy Committee—and much more.
All of these honors, awards, and positions go back to that ultimate purpose: showing up for people, taking care of people, and refusing to let them go through life alone.
“In the end, I hope people look back at my life and say, ‘She truly cared about the people around her. If she could help, she did.’” To know Rickie is to know this is true already, and it certainly will be for years to come.
This is the 11th of the 40 stories we’re telling in celebration of our 40th anniversary! Click the banner above to join our 40th birthday celebration at our June 3rd Street Food Fest.