Egypt Mabins

I was born and raised on the west side of Detroit. I’m the youngest of 10. I’ve always had to be around older people, so it created a passion in me to assist the senior community.

Since high school, I volunteered to have tea and chat with the elderly population in my community just for the love of it. In 2015, I became the activities director in an assisted living facility where I created life enrichment programs and events.

When I first learned about United Way’s 21-Day Equity Challenge on social media, I knew I would love to sign up. I really wanted my clients to experience it, so I used it in my programming.

I would read some of the material and the seniors loved it. They had never participated in DEI or heard stories about it, other than what was on the news. The material really got their minds going.

They’d love to say things like, “Just cause I’m old, I’m not gone, I still want to know what’s going on.” We did at least two years of the challenge.

I came to work here as a community care advocate after graduating with a degree in Sociology from Wayne State University in 2021. It was a new environment and a new way to help people, which is what I love to do.

It’s empowering to give somebody information that they didn’t have before or connect them to an essential resource like food or shelter.

The assistance really does help when people are low income or experiencing extreme poverty. Connecting them to resources lessens the blow on their already tight budgets.

I’m excited to become a certified community health worker. United Way partnered with Wayne State to graciously offer us the 15-week course for free. It was a real class, which was fun because I love school.

I’m still actively doing my 2,000 hours of community service to complete the program. I plan to use all that knowledge to truly advocate, and I want to be even more effective than I am now.