When you walk into P30, a nonprofit community coworking space on the Far Eastside, you’re greeted with friendly faces at the front desk on your right.
To your left? A black-owned coffee shop that opened just over two years ago. Two Cups a Day Cafe was the first business P30 helped launch, and it already makes over $40,000 a year.
As you keep exploring, you’ll notice that P30 is more than a coworking space — it’s a celebration of all that the Far Eastside has to offer. The conference rooms and meeting spaces are named after Far Eastside streets and landmarks, and there’s curated local art on the walls. In the name P30, “P” stands for “Post,” as in Post Road.
“Moving here [in the early 2000s], Post Road did not have a good name,” Executive Director Tamise Cross said. “So I thought, ‘I’m going to do something, I’m going to bring something that can enhance our community.’”
But the ultimate celebration of the Far Eastside comes from the community members who gather there.
“It’s a welcoming place,” Cross said. “I think it has been almost like a magnet, in a way, for all of our community partners to come. It’s not just a hub for the people that’s in this space, but it’s a hub for everybody that’s outside.”
P30 aims to “rewrite the narrative [of the Far Eastside] alongside our community partners by disrupting inequality, igniting hope and launching prosperity in [the area],” according to its website.
Wendy West is the creator of Silver Foxx Media, a media production company headquartered at P30. She echoed that the Far Eastside has an unfortunate negative reputation — one that the folks at P30 are actively working to change.
“There are lots of pockets of violence and criminal activity, of course there is,” she said. “But … there’s so much more of a community of support and leadership and people don’t even talk about it.”
A dream come true
West’s journey with P30 began with a dream. Literally.
“Before I met [Cross], I was having these recurring dreams. It would start with me looking at my feet, and I was on a concrete floor, and I’m like, ‘this is weird,’” West said. “Then the next dream came, and … I saw more of the building. And I started running through this building, through obstacles and jumping over different breaks in the concrete.”
When she visited P30 for the first time, it was eerily familiar.
“I opened the double doors … looked at the concrete floor, and I began crying because I knew where I was,” she said. “That’s why I say that I live on the north side, but God called me to the east side.”
Now, West aims to raise the median income of the Far Eastside by teaching people skills and opportunities to work in the media production field. For example, one of West’s cohort students went on to work on a commercial for BUTTER Art Fair.
“When I see people flying, really doing it, that’s what makes me happy,” West said.
The business of making good
West isn’t the only one in the building with a vested interest in the Far Eastside. Every business in P30 must have a social impact plan for how they will give back to the neighborhood.
Melissa Shaw, who runs Project Our Generation, connects young entrepreneurs with mentors who can give them guidance and help them face the hardships that come with owning a business.
“My dad was always willing to be helpful for younger ones [and] just people in general,” Shaw said. “It didn’t matter that you were young. He still saw value in you. And so I wanted to be able to provide a space that would bring generations together and allow them to learn from each other.”
Shaw got involved with P30 when it was first starting out. She and Cross immediately aligned over having a heart to serve people, she said. Now, they go walking every week together.
She described her relationship with Cross, as well as the relationships in P30 as a whole, as being “like family.”
“To me, that is the ultimate [example of] creating something in the community where you can come in and have people feel like they are just a part of it, like that,” Shaw said. “You don’t see that very often. There’s always that separation and that division. But I never felt that [at P30].”
When West first joined P30, the family was 27 members strong. That number has since grown to 546. And West hopes more people will join the important mission that P30 has set out to achieve.
“Just go back and help your brother, and we can change that conversation from being, ‘oh, Far Eastside is just so bad,’ to ‘we’re family, and if we don’t save us, we’re not going to be saved,’ right?” West said.
If you’re an entrepreneur or have a business that serves the Far Eastside, you’re welcome to join P30, West said. “Become a member and do the work for the community, because the community needs us.”
How to get involved
To apply for a membership at P30: Fill out the Google Form after taking a tour of the space.
To book the podcast studio or services from Silver Foxx Media: Check out their offerings and fill out a contact form.
To purchase Shaw’s new book, “Your Voice, Your Impact: The Young Entrepreneur’s Guide to Leading with Purpose,” contact Melissa Shaw for a copy or check it out on Amazon following the launch party. You can also watch her podcast.
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Emily Worrell is a Mirror Indy freelance contributor and Indy Documenters assistant editor. You can reach her at emily.worrell@mirrorindy.org.
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