A note from our founding CEO, Aisha Nyandoro ⬇️
“April is always one of my favorite Springboard months. There is so much going on in these late spring months, but the highlight for me is our annual Night of Storytelling. For the last 6 years, our Night of Storytelling has been a special place where our families get to take center stage and share their stories, passions, and true lived experiences with our partners, our board, and the greater Jackson community. After they share, they are invited to be in conversation with an invited guest to dig more deeply into their stories and expand on their experiences. But this year, we got to do something new. Instead of our moms sharing their stories, we had three of our Springboard youth take the stage to share their stories with the world. Our work has always been grounded in a whole-family approach, and as we have built our guaranteed income work and other programming, we always believed that these investments would not just bear fruit in the lives of mothers but also their children, extended families, and the communities around them.”
We are working on a full video recap of the Night of Storytelling along with some behind-the-scenes interviews with our youth storytellers that will be featured on our social media and other platforms soon. But for now, watch this teaser from this powerful evening.
CEO Aisha Nyandoro’s latest op-ed for Forbes came out this month. In it, she shares how the recent government shutdown and failure to pay TSA workers should signal a larger warning about how fragile financial life has become for so many working families in America and what we need to do to fix it.
If you’re looking to hear from us in a different format, Aisha was also just interviewed for Prentiss Hemphill’s podcast, Becoming the People. During the interview, they talk about The Magnolia Mother’s Trust, the true meaning of wealth, and a new vision for what can help communities thrive.
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We know our regular newsletter readers have already met our featured mom this month, Javonica! But she has recently been featured in our latest Front & Center piece reflecting on her time after The Magnolia Mother’s Trust (Her first piece was about a month after she started in our previous cohort.). She also shares more about having had the opportunity to share her story and go grocery shopping with Vice President Kamala Harris back in January. We promise her story and accompanying video are ones you won’t want to miss!
With love,
Team Springboard