Blog

A peak into our trip to the nation’s capital!

A few of our team members traveled to D.C. with our Policy & Systems Change Fellow, Carleen, this week with Community Change to visit various House & Senate offices.

Here is what we advocated for:

• MEDICAID

• SNAP

• CHILDCARE

We stopped by the Mississippi Senate offices and the Mississippi House congressional offices to speak with their staff and share our stories to emphasize the importance of protecting SNAP and why these essential government funded programs help keep families in our state thriving. We were reminded that sharing our stories is powerful. Our voices need to be heard and speaking to folks in person and sharing our truths about Mississippi families is the best way that we can advocate for programs that help families feed their kids, help moms go to work, and provide essential healthcare access to our kids.

We are so thankful for such an incredible team to do this work with. We keep each other strong and we keep each other encouraged. More from this experience soon!

With love,

Team Springboard

READ AMAYA’S FULL STORE HERE

The April addition to our continued collaboration with Ms. Magazine is here! This month we share Amaya’s story and her journey as a full time cake decorator and mother of two.

Amaya shares her experience on how single mothers build their own villages of support, how they juggle all the responsibilities of working while mothering, and why having family leave is essential. Thank you for sharing your truths with us, Amaya. We are so proud of you!

Follow us on Instagram to see more stories from our mothers and for more

content on upcoming Springboard events!!

As we wrap up celebrating Women’s History Month we want to continue lifting up the stories of our amazing mothers! There’s a lot to cover in this one so buckle in, y’all!

Our founding CEO, Aisha Nyandoro, announced that she is now a regular contributor for Forbes and published a piece that you can read here.

NIGHT OF STORYTELLING EVENT ANNOUNCED!

You can RSVP here.

The Magnolia Mother’s Trust was featured on Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien.

You can watch the full interview here.

We shared continued quotes, statistics, and historical info about the women who came before us to truly blaze a trail for us all. You can follow us on Instagram to see more!

NEWSLETTER HIGHLIGHTS

• Spring block parties will be starting back up in April!

• Mississippi decided to not opt-into the federal SUN Bucks program so we will be filling the gap with cash disbursements. Outreach and sign-ups coming soon!

• Our next global fellowship experience will begin accepting applications soon!

FRONT AND CENTER FEATURE: JAVONICA

You can see her story published with Ms. Magazine here.

With gratitude,

The Springboard Team

Women’s History Spotlight: Johnnie Tillmon

We couldn’t possibly get any further into Women’s History Month without giving a moment to share with our community a quote from Johnnie Tillmon.

Johnnie was ahead of her time and was an activist in the 1950-1960s to be one of the very first people to speak clearly about the welfare system in this country. Even more so, she spoken directly about what a guaranteed income was and what it could do for mothers in our country. We have so much to thank her for and so much to learn from her legacy.

“I’m a woman. I’m a Black woman. I’m a poor woman. I’m a fat woman. I’m a middle-aged woman. And I’m on welfare. Welfare is a women’s issue. For me, Women’s Liberation is simple. No woman in this country can feel dignified, no woman can be liberated, until all women get off their knees. That’s what the National Welfare Rights Organization is all about – women standing together, on their feet.”

FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM

We posted about her on our social platforms today and will continue sharing about her work through this year. Happy Women’s History Month!

Our latest feature in the Front + Center series with Ms. Magazine is here!

Javonica shared her story of having two kids of her own, being pregnant with her third, navigating the TANF program, and what is was like being selected for the Magnolia Mother’s Trust year long guaranteed income program.

“When I’m between jobs, it’s always been a struggle to make ends meet. For a while, I was getting about $100 a week in child support. I would also babysit when I could. My sister would send me money if my kids needed anything, but it was still hard. I tried to apply for TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) and went to the orientation, but they make you do community service to get it or just take whatever job they give you if you don’t already have one. And I would’ve maybe done that, but the administrator made it really clear that you were not allowed to miss any shifts and that they don’t care if you don’t have reliable transportation so again, not having a car kept me from being able to access it. And that if I missed a shift, that would also put my food stamps at risk, and I really couldn’t afford to lose those. So I just withdrew my TANF application.

I wish the people in charge of these systems would improve how they work, mainly in having some level of kindness when it comes to the people you have to deal with. They make you feel a certain kind of way when you apply for these programs. Even when I was working, I felt looked down on and demeaned with the way they talked to me—when really I feel like you should care about people if you’re in that line of work. And then they lose your paperwork, and you have to call and wait forever. I’m not even exaggerating, I’ve had to call 20 or 30 times to get through for food stamps before when they messed up my application. The only option to bypass that is to go in person, but again, I don’t have transportation to do that.”

We are forever grateful for our mothers stepping forward and sharing their stories with us in their own words. Thank you, Javonica, for your strength and for your honesty!

Somehow February ended? But also felt like forever?

Either way. We’re still here and our latest Springboard newsletter has arrived!

This month was jam packed with Black History month content, hosting leaders in the GI movement here in Jackson, along with navigating the continued anxieties from the news in our country. Yes, we’re tired, too. But we’re also excited to share with the world some pretty great things we are continuing to work on within our community.

For more of our BHM posts, follow us on Instagram.

Announcement: Upcoming Night of Storytelling on April 16th. You can find the RSVP link here.

Our February newsletter includes updates on our efforts to implement the SUN Bucks program in Mississippi and articles that highlighted the issue, a new story we released in the Front + Center series, key updates on our resident relationships, and information about our policy and advocacy work. 

We’re pretty proud of what our team pulls off in just one month and we are even more proud to share it loudly with the world. Subscribe to our newsletter today! 

With love,

Team Springboard