Can we be relevant in the inner-city?

[Blackwatch]

I was talking to some chapter bruhs recently about how to become more visible in the community. One of them stated that they didn't know if "A Phi A" would ever become recognizable to folks in the inner city because the concept of fraternity and what it means to college aged people and/or college educated people would be hard to translate to people in the inner city who may not be familiar with college culture. We can do all of the mentoring projects, political forums, black history month programs, food drives etc. in the inner city we want, while the people may be thankful for the help we give and the things that we do, they may never understand the cultural relevance of "those seven men in Ithaca". One brother even suggested that the things we do now can be done by various other groups in the community (Big brothers, Big sisters, March of Dimes, NAACP, local food banks, etc.) and therefore may seem to make our community service obsolete in a since. What do you guys think? If all we can be to the majority of people in our community is a social services agency, what cultural relevance will we have TO THEM, the people we are charged to help "uplift"?