Malaak Compton-Rock - If It Takes a Village, Build One: How I Found Meaning Through a Life of Service and 100+ Ways You Can Too

Service is the rent we pay for living. I shared this lesson from my childhood in my own book, The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours. Its a line Malaak Compton-Rock loves to quote oftenbut Malaak does much more than just repeat these words. She lives them every day. I have had the chance to get to know this wonderful woman through her service on the Childrens Defense Funds board. I first met her during a Child Watch visit by a group of very prominent women to New Orleans to see how children were affected by Hurricane Katrina. She did not come just for a day but helped lighten the burden of that devastation by helping establish a CDF Freedom Schools program to provide children safe havens and good books and caring adults and hope. Im so grateful for her example of service and sharing with others. In this engaging book, Malaak passes on what shes learned about living a life of service and gives readers encouraging, practical advice on how to make service a central purpose in their own lives too.

One lesson that resounds throughout this book is that there are many different ways to serve and make a difference. Malaak has served in her own neighborhood, where she cofounded the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation after a mother in her circle of friends was diagnosed with this dangerous form of the disease. Her reach extended to a neighborhood she adopted in Johannesburg, South Africa, after a first visit to the grannies and orphans who lived there moved her to help. She supports youth after-school programs at the Bushwick Salvation Army Community Center in Brooklyn, New York, where her husband, Chris, spent time as a child, as well as at the Childrens Defense Funds Freedom Schools program in New Orleans. Along the way, you will see that as Malaaks own life evolved, so did her ways to serve.

When her full-time work in public relations for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF became difficult to integrate with her husbands travel schedule, she fulfilled a dream of starting her own nonprofit by founding style WORKS , an innovative program that provided salon services and accessories to women transitioning from welfare to work and going on job interviews. style WORKS allowed her more flexibility and the opportunity to use her personal interests in beauty and style. After her children were born and her weekend commitments to style WORKS began conflicting with family time, she adapted again. Today, as the founder of Journey for Change: Empowering Youth Through Global Service, she is combining her passions in a unique way: nurturing inner-city American children through a program that provides them with opportunities of their own, culminating with a trip to Johannesburg, South Africa. These young people, whom I have been able to meet, learn firsthand how privileged their own lives are in a global context and how much they can serve and contribute to making the world a better place for other children less fortunate than they are.

Malaaks example tells us we should not wait for the right time to find the time and resources to give back to othersthe right time to serve is right now! She explains how service and volunteer commitments can fit every persons and familys schedule, on any budget, and provides practical advice for helping us assess and match our own talents and gifts to the needs and opportunities around us. This practical guidebook will help you research organizations, host your own fund-raising events, support products with a mission, learn to advocate effectively for causes you believe in, and more. Parents will especially appreciate Malaaks tips on how to involve and engage children. She is teaching her two beautiful young daughters and the children she mentors that their hands are never too small to help someone else.

And readers will be inspired by Malaak herself. Many people would assume that someone like Malaak Compton-Rock simply leads a very privileged and enviable life. Malaaks life does have many blessings, but she understands that from those to whom much is given, much is required. This book shows how those who have much can give and share much and have an admirable life. Read it and remember to use all the blessings, skills, and talents you have to reach out and help someone and leave the world a better place than you found it.