$25 Members / $30 Non-Members
Join us on July 18 at Porter-Leath's Orange Mound campus for our July Learn Over Lunch featuring Roshun Austin, President & CEO of The Works, Inc., a thirty-year-old community development corporation. We'll be learning about how Roshun and her team fundraise for equitable community development, climate action, and public health.
The Works, Inc. (TWI) is the developer of single-family and multifamily properties in distressed neighborhoods. TWI operates a farmers’ market, greengrocer, and mobile grocery; provides nutrition education; operates a mortgage loan fund; and does work around the comprehensive needs of children and families. TWI merged with Neighborhood Preservation, Inc. in January 2022, expanding its services to include policy advocacy, the Strategic Code Enforcement Management Academy, the Blight Elimination Steering Team. This merger promoted collaborative efforts to develop practical and sustainable resolutions to blighted properties and to the systems that lead to widespread neglect, vacancy, and abandonment of real estate.
Current development projects of TWI include the adaptive, mixed-use redevelopment of a 270,000 sq ft former high school as a community hub that includes 42 units of affordable housing; the development of a 30-unit open plan subdivision for ownership; 79 units of senior affordable housing; new construction and rehabilitated units in the Klondike neighborhood and across South Memphis.
Roshun Austin earned her M.A. in Urban Anthropology at the University of Memphis and her undergraduate degree at Middlebury College. She’s the mother of one daughter, Lailah who is pursuing a career in real estate and the arts.
Roshun is the Treasurer of the Memphis Fourth Estate (founded to create and support The Daily Memphian). She is also Treasurer of Urban Renaissance Partners. She has long served in an advisory capacity to the Memphis Black Arts Alliance. Recently she joined the Board of Directors of the Mid-South Food Bank. Roshun completed a TedTalk, “A Great Awakening for Building Community" in early 2023.
You don't want to miss learning from this amazing changemaker! Networking begins and lunch is served at 11:30 a.m. The program starts at Noon. Lunch by everyone’s favorite: Big Momma’s & Granny’s Catering. Register today, so you don't miss out!