Known throughout the community for his selfless acts, volunteer-extraordinaire Lafayette Jones was recently named 2007 Man of the Year by The Chronicle. But for Jones, volunteerism isn’t about the credit; it’s about learning life lessons.

“Volunteering with things you love to do changes you,” Jones says. “It’s also taught me to be more open-minded, a better listener, and willing to try other things that other people propose. What we all have in common is doing good for the community.”

And good he does. Jones helped found the Goler Community Development Corporation, which has spearheaded downtown revitalization around Goler Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church. The “good” happening here is unmistakable. The smell of new paint fills The Gallery condominiums. A reception in April celebrated the new Truliant Victory Federal Credit Union. The Goler Family Enrichment Center was scheduled to open in late May, and Goler Manor independent-living units are planned to premiere later this month. “Lafayette is the ultimate volunteer,” says Evon Smith, Goler Community Development Corporation executive director. “He is more than a visionary. He is a resource man. If he dreams it, he pushes us to achieve it.”

Additionally, Jones serves as vice chairman of the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership and volunteers as an associate board member of Truliant Federal Credit Union, a role he earned after helping coordinate the merger between Truliant and the Victory Masonic Mutual Credit Union, the oldest minority-owned financial services institution in North Carolina.

Monumental moves
Jones, sixty-three, was born in Cincinnati and grew up in Buffalo, New York, where his father owned a landscaping business and taught Jones the importance of responsibility, hard work, and fulfilling obligations. After graduating from Fisk University, he attended Howard University Law School, and completed executive-management classes at Stanford University and Dartmouth College business schools.

Today, Jones is president and CEO of Segmented Marketing Services Inc., a national marketing, sampling, and publishing firm founded by his wife and chairwoman of the company, Sandra Miller Jones. The late Joseph Lawrence, who passed away in May, served as SMSi’s executive vice president for nearly thirty years.

When Jones and Sandra married in 1986, Jones had three adult children - Kevin, Melanie, and Tara - from a previous marriage. Then, while living in Chicago, the couple adopted their daughter Bridgette. In 1990 the family moved back to Winston-Salem, Sandra’s hometown, where her parents, Robert and Luther Mae Miller, lived. Jones still remembers his father-in-law’s guidance: “Robert used to say, ‘What are you doing for this community?’ “

Fulfilling a legacy

The Miller family had been members of Goler Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church for more than one hundred years when Jones and his family began attending services. Miller nominated Jones to serve on the board of trustees, where he was soon introduced to Michael Suggs. Charged with adding a handicapped ramp to the church, the two discovered the building was landlocked and that a sliver of adjacent land would need to be purchased for the ramp. In spite of land limitations facing the congregation, church members wanted to stay at the corner of Patterson Avenue and Seventh Street. So, Jones says, his “ministry” became economic development.

In 1998 Jones, Suggs, and the Rev. Dr. Seth O. Lartey founded the Goler-Depot Renaissance Community Development Corporation to apply for grants to purchase land around the church. Nearby buildings were in disrepair, and the men asked city officials to tear down some of the dilapidated structures.

“No one had ever asked, but we found asking people to help worked,” Jones says. “African-Americans have the opportunity to provide leadership in some very unique ways. There is a spirit of goodwill in this town. People are willing to help if you are doing good things.”

Another of Miller’s passions was Victory Masonic Mutual Credit Union, which he founded the year his daughter, Jones’ wife, was born. Its special charter allowed African-Americans to form a credit union based on geographical boundaries. Jones was chairman of the credit union when members of Truliant Federal Credit Union approached the smaller operation in an effort to reach out to minorities. The resulting merger retained the smaller credit union’s history, while enabling its members to benefit from advanced services offered by Truliant.

Common goals
According to Jones, working in the community has taught him to “open up and look at my belief system and my values and also to remove some of the anticipated barriers,” he says, “things that I thought were barriers that were not.”

He also believes that the same strategies that led to the success of SMSi are also applicable to community revitalization. “Life has intersections in it,” Jones explains. “It interconnects over and over again. If you watch it, you can learn from it.”

The same holds true for the Goler vision. “We have more in common than we don’t,” says Jones, who believes that despite differences, we all share the same goal. “We want to live in a better and improved community.”