Jamila Walida Simon

Pronouns | she/her/hers

Member Since | 2021

Jamila Walida of House Simon. First of Her Name. Raiser of Future Leaders. Keeper of the Voluntold. Titi Slayer & Best Friend of all of the Nieces and Nephews. Expert of Efficiency. Slayer of One Liners. Breaker of Rules. Queen of the Simon Dynasty.

Jamila Walida is the Associate Director of Innovation in Youth Programming at the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research and the NYS 4-H Civic Engagement Specialist with Cornell Cooperative Extension's New York State 4-H program.

Jamila Walida has worked in the West Hill community for more than a decade and was instrumental in advising Our Children's Future at West Village which runs Dig'Nity Gardens at West Village. The garden was named and started by the young people in the apartment community and singlehandedly allows the community to combat food apartheid. Food distribution is also a vibrant part of this community as Our Children's Future at West Village and their partnership with the service class at the Lehman Alternative Community School and the Friendship Donations Network birthed GIVE (Giving Involves Virtually Everyone). GIVE is a monthly food redistribution program that stands in the gap at the end of the month when food subsidies are nil. Currently Jamila Walida is adding housing equity to her food work and birthed Radical Mama Housing LLC which seeks to pair sustainable housing with growing food on her land.

Learn more about Jamila and her work here.