Known fondly by many as “Auntie Na,” Detroit-based community organizer Sonia Brown is the proprietor of a house that many consider to be more than a home. The owner of a space that serves copious purposes — including a food pantry, community garden and free childcare center, among others — will address Oberlin community members at First Church this evening to discuss the expansion of her nonprofit organization.

“Auntie Na’s house is just that — it’s my home,” Brown said. “It’s been in my family for six generations. I opened it up and made every room, in some form or fashion, accessible to the needs of my community.”

Oberlin students have had a relationship with Auntie Na since 2013, when a sustainability club headed to Detroit to do some community gardening and met Brown.

“[She] happened to run into this group of Oberlin students, and Na, being who she is, inspired them to come back,” said College senior Aaron Appel, who worked with Brown the following Winter Term.

The organization has served as an afterschool program, clothing distribution hub, community meal space and temporary shelter, as well as a safe space for women and children in dangerous situations. Additionally, Auntie Na’s House largely supports low-income families of color, folks with developmental disabilities, those recovering from drug addiction and domestic violence survivors.

“The thing is that the needs have outgrown my home . . . But Auntie Na’s village is a vision that I have to purchase a lot of the blight and abandoned houses, and a building that used to be a casket company.”

Brown said that by expanding Auntie Na’s House into a village, she could broaden programs like the community garden and create a training center that would

offer trade classes to the neighborhood’s youth. She added that she hopes to attract volunteers who are willing to help train children in certain vocational skills, such as welding, woodshop, sewing and computer technology classes.

Brown’s talk will discuss some of the ways that Oberlin community members can involve themselves with her program and encourage a wider level of engagement among students.

“That’s the part of the unity that I’m hoping to harvest,” Brown said. “Not just bringing volunteers over from the community, but from all over, so that the children can identify with other cultures, other people and also [be offered] another outlook and intake of the world in general.”

Appel added that the majority of students currently involved with Auntie Na’s House are seniors, so part of the incentive behind the event is to engage younger members of the community to get involved with the organization.

“[Auntie Na] does everything she could possibly do there, and she still dreams for more, and she can handle more,” Appel said. “So why not connect to this amazing woman who is doing amazing work?”

Brown will discuss fundraising and volunteer opportunities for community members during her visit to Oberlin. Anthony Moaton, College junior and Congress representative at the Bonner Center for Service and Learning, has been involved with Auntie Na’s House through Oberlin’s Immerse Yourself in Service program. Through IYS, Moaton has assisted with different forms of outreach and fundraising for the organization.

“I think that the work Auntie Na does is not only important for the community, but a wonderful example of the power of grassroots work,” Moaton said. “[It] can show how other nonprofits can structure their engagement with service.”