We believe the future of our communities depends on leaders who are grounded in culture, connected to one another, and courageous enough to create change.
We Stand For: Values-aligned Engagement and Resourcing for the Black Community (VERB Community)
The word “verb” has a Latin origin, and in ancient rhetoric, the verb was considered the “life” of the sentence—the engine of meaning.
For us, our name is more than grammar, it’s a declaration:
We’re not just talking the talk, we’re walking the walk.
VERB™ is anchored in:
ACTION
The doing, the movement, the shift
CHANGE
Not static, but dynamic movement toward making what you wished for come true
VOICE:
The words we speak are tools for transformation
POWER
Of words, ideas, and actions
Everyone deserves to live a prosperous, joyous, healthy life, free from discrimination and systemic oppression. And, everyone can make a difference in their world.
our foundation
Love, Legacy, Liberation and Leadership.
VERB Community is a community focused social enterprise dedicated to values aligned engagement and resourcing that centers Black changemakers and the wellbeing of our communities.
We believe Black communities carry a rich legacy of creativity, connection, innovation, wisdom, resilience, strength, and power. Our work honors that legacy while helping people activate their leadership and collective potential today.
By drawing on the lessons of our heritage and strengthening relationships with one another, we can develop powerful solutions to the challenges our communities face.
everyone has the capacity to lead
At VERB, we believe that everyone has the capacity to make a meaningful difference in their world. Leadership can show up in our workplaces, neighborhoods, cities, families, relationships, and especially within ourselves.
Through leadership development, relationship building, education, advocacy, and organizing, participants in VERB Community programs come together to strengthen community, enhance wellbeing, and reclaim our collective power to create change for the future.
we are rooted in legacy
We believe in the value, beauty, strength, and brilliance of Black people.
Our work is deeply inspired by Black American traditions, legacies, wisdom, movements for justice, and generations of community leadership. These histories remind us that transformation is possible when people organize, care for one another, and act with courage.
VERB programs draw from historical lessons and models of resilience, social justice, community advocacy, activism, and community organizing to create systemic change for the betterment of the community.
we develop transformational leaders
We recognize that truly transformative leadership development programs must go beyond technical skill-building. They must cultivate liberatory leadership grounded in history, struggle, and community wisdom.
The type of leadership we believe in requires reflection, healing, cultural grounding, and a strong relationship with community.
By drawing inspiration from Black American traditions, liberation movements, and frameworks of justice and care, our work develops committed leaders while nurturing visionaries who can reimagine and rebuild communities where dignity, wellness, safety, and opportunity are accessible to all.
founding story
For years, Melissa Morgan worked inside leadership programs, community initiatives, and organizational strategies that claimed to serve everyone but were rarely designed with Black communities at the center.
She watched talented, visionary people show up fully and still be asked, subtly or directly, to lead like someone else. Their cultural heritage, lived experiences, and community wisdom were often treated as an afterthought rather than a foundation.
That pattern became impossible to ignore.
After more than twenty years working across the nonprofit sector, Melissa had helped launch campaigns, shape organizations, guide strategy, and support community leaders across Southern California and beyond. Yet one belief kept returning to the surface.
Black communities deserve leadership spaces that reflect who we are.
VERB Community was created to answer that need.
VERB is a community driven social enterprise that centers Black changemakers and creates space for people to lead on their own terms. Our programs help participants reconnect with their cultural strengths, histories, and traditions of leadership while building the skills, relationships, and courage needed to create meaningful change.
Here, leadership is not something borrowed. It is something remembered, reclaimed, and strengthened together.
By nurturing Black leadership, we do more than support individual growth. We strengthen neighborhoods, organizations, families, and movements. When Black leaders are equipped to thrive, the entire community benefits.
VERB exists to help changemakers transform their communities from the inside out.
At VERB Community, leadership is something we build together. Through initiatives such as the Changemaker Academy, Liberated Leadership Lab, Connections gatherings, and the B-Well Collaborative, participants develop the skills, relationships, and cultural grounding needed to lead with purpose. These spaces are designed to nurture courage, creativity, and collective care so that changemakers can move from vision to action. The goal is simple but powerful. When people are supported to lead authentically and in community with others, they create lasting change that strengthens families, neighborhoods, and the future we share.
