‘Community is Power’: Mattye Berry-Evans supports neighbors across Pierce County

Mattye Berry-Evans is a plain-spoken woman with a simple philosophy “Community is strength. Community is power. There’s no way around it.”

She lives those words every day as a community-based worker for Serving Our Community, a BIPOC women-led organization founded by longtime Pierce County community leaders. 

Serving Our Community is a contract partner of Connect Pierce, Elevate Health’s community care hub that supports the vital work carried out by community-based workers and improves local health and wellness outcomes through community-based care coordination.

Berry-Evans believes basic needs like affordable housing and access to nutritional food are human rights. As a community-based worker, she strives to connect clients with services that can assist with both.

“Without housing, you have no stability,” Berry-Evans says. “And people have got to have nourishment.”

“I work with people all over Pierce County,” she continues. “Whatever the person feels they need — I want to support them.”

That support includes everything from help paying utility bills to finding a veterinarian who can care for someone’s pet.

“Whatever is going to help them have a better quality of life,” she adds.

Berry-Evans grew up in rural Georgia, where she learned from people like her grandmother that serving the community went hand in hand with practicing her faith. For example, if one of the elders needed round-the-clock care, you signed up on a list at church.

“Everything was faith-based,” she remembers.

Berry-Evans’ rural roots help her appreciate and understand the needs of low-income people outside urban hubs. The need for transportation is particularly acute, she says.

Another area Berry-Evans focuses on with clients is financial literacy. With government cuts to food assistance and job losses looming, she sees a need for more education on ways people can stretch their dollars. To help, she shares recipes and coupons others might discard.

Berry-Evans also collects fast-food coupons and bus passes to offer to people experiencing housing insecurity. She knows these are stopgap measures, not permanent solutions. But she also knows they can be a first step toward building trust.

“It helps build trust when they know you are listening to them,” she says.

Berry-Evans does more than point clients toward resources. She stays in touch with them throughout what can be a complicated and lengthy application process. She encourages them to check in to see when or if help will become available, and she wants them to gain confidence along the way.

“We want you to have all the tools you need to be able to meet your basic needs,” she says. 

“We want you to have all the tools you need to be able to meet your basic needs,” she says.

In the end, Berry-Evans says she takes pride in playing a role in creating a better community for everyone — not just those in need.

“If one falls, we all fall,” she says. But she prefers to focus on the positive: “We must celebrate our wins. And we must celebrate each other.”

ABOUT THE STORYTELLERS:
-Writer Debbie Cafazzo is a Tacoma-based freelance journalist and communications professional. She was a reporter for 25 years at the Tacoma News Tribune where she covered education, health care, breaking news and a variety of other subjects.
-Photographer John Froschauer is a Tacoma-based photographer who has shot for the Associated Press for nearly 30 years. He also recently retired from Pacific Lutheran University where he served as the campus photographer for more than a decade.