It has been 12 years since Pharaoh Hamid-Freeman launched OneFullCircle (OFC) as what he describes as a membership driven “social enterprise’ that brings together of Black-owned businesses, organizations, entrepreneurs philanthropists and other individuals.
The ultimate aim of this online community network, as stated in its original mission statement is to “rekindle the spirit of community and the power of the collective” to create generational wealth and empowerment.
A little more than a decade on Pharaoh, as he’s referred by all
, still preaches the doctrine of economic empowerment for those he describes as “a united melanated collective.”
“I think it’s important that we use the term melanated because I see it as a source of unity for all, and uniting people and groups has one of our focuses from the beginning,” he emphasized.
However, he says, “the OFC is also still highly-motivated towards the creation of Black wealth and excellence.”
But he has come to realize that the path to economic viability in the community is littered with challenges.
“It has been an eye-opening experience so far,” he told the CONTACT. “ It has exposed the needs of the community to us and forced us to refocus.”
Pharaoh says the OFC has become more business-minded and more attentive to the well-being of the community, and as such they have been investing heavily on a holistic retreat, which one of their central projects.
The retreat is being built on about an half acre of land, 45 minutes out of Montreal and has a soon-to-be-completed four-season green-house, an expansive camp-ground as well as space for out-door activities, where practitioners of holistic and other spiritual practices such as yoga, reki and meditation offer classes.
“Our ultimate aim is for the retreat to become an outlet and resource where the community can access support for mental and physical health.
What we’re doing is re-imagining the concept of community organizations and community building,” he added. “The OFC collective is built on paid membership and our objective is to assist and support members in whatever way we can.
So, in addition to the holistic retreat project, we offer support to individuals, businesses and organizations in the form of workshops, events, one-on-one assistance.”
Pharaoh says the OFC is able to meet its obligations to members because he has been able to form partnerships with other like-minded groups.
He points to one of the benefits of those collaboration that allows the OFC to coordinate a weekly lottery-type draw among members that pays $500.
He says the network has well over 16,000 people around the world who use its resources but a paid membership of a little less than a thousand.
“Our goal is to build that membership base and increase our resources because money is a determining factor in all that we do in the community.”
He added that over the years he has seen a lot of organizations getting millions of dollars in government funding and the OFC has not been able to access that amount of money, he is happy that funders are conscious about the needs of the Blacks across Canada.
However, his message to those getting the money is to meet their responsibility to the community.
Looking hard into the future, Pharaoh says that it’s encouraging to see an increasing number of young Blacks getting involved in community work.
“It’s a new and different world out there with different needs and different challenges everything from LGBTQ2 to mental health groups, so we’re seeing new organizations with younger leadership…would be good to see more collaboration among them.”
