My Story….
It all started for me in 1966 in North Carolina. I was born in Fayetteville and raised in abject poverty,
completely dependent on the welfare system to survive. I’ve never seen or met my father because my mother was addicted to alcohol and I was conceived during a one night stand. When I was just a few months old, my mother tried to give me away to a more “stable” family, but just in the nick of time, my grandmother intervened and prevented the transaction from happening. From that day forward Grandma Ella Malloy was my primary caretaker.
Grandma was a strong willed woman with a PhD in wisdom. With her monthly welfare checks of $220, she spent the rest of her days raising me to believe that I could do anything I put my mind to. It seemed like every day, she would tell me I could work miracles and that I would be the miracle in our family.
I don’t understand why my childhood was so complex, but for you to understand what God called me to do, you had to hear a tiny piece of my testimony. But, for the sake of time, I can’t tell you the whole story, so let’s fast forward to when God called me to ministry…
In 2002, I was selected to work with one of America’s largest real estate developers to help revitalize a blighted, crime infested, inner city community.
It was a $40 million project and it required what’s called a HOPE VI development grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
As a stipulation of the grant, the developer was required to seek participation from the community. So, one of my first responsibilities was to establish relationships with the key pastors, community leaders, and local business people.
Over the next few months I begin meeting privately with many of the most influential pastors in the local community. It was during these private, closed door meetings with these powerful local pastors that God began to show me what he called me to do…
You see, through this experience, God had given me a rare behind the scenes glimpse into the insecurities and vulnerabilities of many of our community leaders. I saw firsthand that although these men had immense power and influence in their community, they had no idea how to use their power to best serve their people.
As you can imagine, this was a very humbling and life changing experience for me because I realized that if God had not placed me in these pastors lives they would have almost certainly been taken advantage of and the people of their community would have suffered.
Soon after that experience, I established an organization that is now called Urban Awareness USA. 
I began working with Pastors all across the United States and parts of Africa. And although the organization was originally established to help pastors and community leaders navigate the complex the process of community development it quickly grew into something much bigger.
Today, Urban Awareness USA is the only nonprofit organizations of its kind. Our vision is to help bridge the gap between government agencies, philanthropists, faith-based organizations and communities. Our mission is to strengthen empower and equip faith-based and community leaders with the tools and resources they need to better serve their communities.
What’s most exciting is that we do this work on a nonprofit basis. We are able to work on a nonprofit basis, because over the years we have received grants, other forms of private funding and partnerships to support the work that we do.
If you would like to learn more about Urban Awareness USA visit our website at http://urbanawarenessusa.org
More About Tracy J. Brown…
Mr. Tracy J. Brown, devoted father and husband, is a distinguished author, speaker, businessman and urban development expert. He has achieved national prominence by teaching individuals, ministries and community organizations how to socially and economically advance our urban communities to greatness using biblical stewardship principles. Tracy is the CEO of the national non-profit organization Urban Awareness USA