Happy Tuesday HOPEsters! This is it! We are one month away from brand spanking new 2016! Have you taken time out to reflect on the year and your contributions to yourself? Have you also thought about your contribution to your community? If not, fear not! It’s not too late. Reflect & re-calibrate! In the meantime, I’d like to virtually introduce you to one who has made a contribution to her community. Meet Pamela B. Daniels, a strategy consultant for her strategic and public relations firm, The Brickerati Group. Daniels has incorporated her trade into the improvement of her city of Newark, NJ. Take a dive into her work by reading our Q & A.
Tell me a little about yourself. 
This second generation Newarker was raised in the Vailsburg neighborhood of the city. I attended the original Science High School and I love my city. I am quite attached to Newark, always ready to come home when it’s time when traveling and can’t stop singing her praises while away. Having spent many years in hospitality, client services, and community development, I identify as a public relations professional. Pretty early on I realized enjoyment when supporting the work of other people as it leads to the success of individuals or entities. While career searching, I found that the PR industry offered an array of opportunities to do just that. I am an environmentalist, not in a tree-hugging sort of way (although everyone should hug a tree once in a while, or climb one), but I was raised with a longstanding respect for my home, community, and planet. That’s not a value that can be shaken off! In fact, it was something that was only strengthened through the years as I moved out of my parent’s nest and into my own identity.
What impact does your profession have on the future of communities’ and/ or organizations that help communities?
I think it’s important to know where in fact the positive energies are in a community. There are many outlets and entities that thrive on negative energy, and I think, especially in urban communities, there is a resurging flow of creative juices springing up new hope. In my view, there is a unique opportunity in the public relations and community engagement field to steer audiences towards a positive narrative that helps them tap into that creative energy, pick up a seed of change, and plant it in fertile soil so they too can thrive. We are what we watch, eat, say, and believe. Public relations campaigns directly influence these things.
What inspired the name “The Brickerati”?
Actually, it’s a very loose play on “Brick City – Paparazzi.” I started the company in 2008 with my sister, Nina Pilar. The concept came from our looking around the room at the Newark’s Green Future Summit, which was held at the NJIT Atrium in September. We saw a lot of national and even international interest in the future of Newark: corporations, non-profits, lobbying groups, consultants all with great energy and great ideas on how to create a green collar economy driven Newark. While we appreciated that energy and those ideas, we saw there were very few familiar Newark faces (small business, social service agencies, advocacy groups, the fabric of the cities safety-net) in the room. And, we said to each other this must be a PR issue. Either Newarkers didn’t know this summit was happening or they did and couldn’t understand what role they could play in the “green future” narrative. Somewhere between the first plenary and first breakout session we came up with “The Brickerati.”
As of now, you are definitely making your way around Newark and beyond. You have a talented actor as a client and are going on a multi-state tour, you work in sustainable initiatives and programs, and you also play a huge role in Newark’s 350th Anniversary Celebration Committee (whew!!) What steps did you take to achieve these accomplishments?
I think it’s important to have your ears to the ground all the time, sometimes you hear and feel opportunity coming before you see it. It’s probably the organizer in me that is constantly thinking about which pieces fit together to bring what kind of picture into focus. As a result, my ears perk up when I hear about a creative or positive event, program, or speaker happening in or near my city. My first thought is always can this help cast Newark or a client in a positive light? A new light? Can this help inspire someone to figure out his or her destiny? That is my litmus test. Sometimes it’s about being at the right place at the right time, always by divine appointment. I believe Newark Celebration 350 speaks to every native Newarker’s heart. We all want to be involved in someway. I was honored that Junius Williams asked me to work on the Public Relations committee. He isn’t someone you can say no to anyway. Love you, Mr. Williams! ☺
When I think of Ms. Pamela B. Daniels and/or the Brickerati, I think of “sustainability.” Why is this perspective important for the community and economic development industry?
My company slogan is “Organic Connections, Sustainable Relationships” and I think that speaks to the heart of your question. If we are not thinking about problem solving through a sustainability lens, we can’t really develop solutions that are universally helpful or hopeful. There are many people willing to use their gifts to plant seeds of change in the world; people willing to be the change they wish to see in every industry and in every form of community development. If we nurture those seeds, water them with knowledge, fertilize the seedlings with truth, spotlight the leaves with opportunity, and prune away decay, we will reap bountiful blessings forever.
Do you have hope for cities? Why/why not?
Where there is breath of life there is hope. I’ve met so many people through my adult years in Newark grinding, working hard, pursuing their dreams, and demonstrating the resilience it takes to move beyond one’s circumstances of birth. When you want something you go for it and in the PR world you find out who has it and take them to dinner to discuss further. Hope drives resiliency, resiliency creates change agents. Newark is full of many resilient folk.
What advice would you give to an up-and-coming “HOPEster” who wants to bring change to her/his community?
Sometimes your dream is a flame, sometimes an ember. What’s important is that the dream never lose its “heat.”
Is there anything you’d like to share with other HOPEsters around the world?
We’re all in this together. Always share an encouraging word. Like, follow & keep up online via Twitter/Instagram/Facebook @theBrickerati. #NewarkOnTheRise
Hope you enjoyed and were inspired by the LAST HOPEster of the Month feature for 2015. Thank you Pamela and may you continue to turn that hope into impact for our communities!
Until then,
You stay HOPEful, folks,
~Laur, HOPEster-in-Chief
Hope4Cities 