Volunteering and helping the community is an act that can make significant changes. The Broome Community Land Trust (BCLT), a local nonprofit, is ramping up its efforts in helping people of color in Broome County with affordable living. Land trusts buy land, and an individual or family can buy a house on that land for a reduced price. The homeowners lease the land from the BCLT for a long-term period — if they want to sell their house, the BCLT ensures that they do so at a restricted price to keep it affordable for the next owner.

Ebony Jackson, 39, of Binghamton, helped found the BCLT and wrote the grant proposal that made it successful. She emphasized that it plans on improving generational wealth and uplifting people of color. She had many motivations for getting involved but said that relating to community members over housing issues was the main reason she helped create BCLT. In 2019, she met other housing justice advocates while doing volunteer work in Binghamton.

“After many years of struggling with housing security myself, I started volunteering and working in the community,” Jackson said. “Last year we all got together and decided we wanted to do something long term.”

An important aspect of the BCLT is not only helping the community but helping educate it as well. Emilie Prudent, 29, of Binghamton, works as a liaison between the BCLT and another nonprofit called Network for a Sustainable Tomorrow (NEST). NEST runs a housing project that collaborates with BCLT to educate people of color in the community on financial literacy. BCLT and NEST, as well as other organizations like Binghamton University’s sustainable communities graduate program, all contribute to this community-wide collaboration.

BCLT also has an Ambassador Program, which recruits at least 10 community members to be on a board of decision-makers for the organization. Members receive education on housing justice and how land trusts work as well as a stipend of $1,000. Prudent mentioned that the program is firmly focused on community members. For younger community members, BCLT works with the Youth Story Corps program, which lets local students share their stories of finding good and affordable housing in the region.

“We are trying to start professional development [programs] to empower the board service among the lesser represented [members] within the community to help this neighborhood project,” Prudent said.

The coronavirus pandemic unfortunately forced the BCLT to do its training for ambassadors online, which caused problems for those without reliable internet service. Jackson stated that they planned community dinners offering a free meal in exchange for education on sustainable living, which were canceled. In turn, the BCLT is looking forward to a graduation celebration for the ambassadors and a screening of short stories from members of the Youth Story Corps at the Bundy Museum of History and Art on Oct. 1.

“We want to give people financial literacy, help understand the trajectory goals and how to get wealth in the community,” Prudent said.

Being an organization aimed at helping people of color, the BCLT stands with victims of racial injustice. The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, which has been very prominent in the last five years, was a big motivator for Jackson and her colleagues to continue their work in BCLT — the movement has pushed their goal of focusing on people of color, helping them with financial literacy and giving them the abilities to have sustainable living.

“The unfortunate misgivings with Breonna Taylor and George Floyd have definitely catapulted our work,” Jackson said.