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Forbes: Women Reclaiming Their Power

How Women Can Reclaim Power In The Room

Our founding CEO, Aisha Nyandoro, sat down with Victoria Nelson, the found of Power of the Ask, to discuss in detail how women can protest their authority without shrinking themselves and why delivering a persuasive “ask” is ultimately about rewriting the rules of the room rather than simply surviving them.

YOU CAN READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

Victoria Nelson founded Power of the Ask, a negotiation consultancy that helps leaders – especially women – build the skills to communicate clearly, manage conflict before it becomes crisis and take agency over how they are perceived in high-stakes environments.

“Behind closed doors, many highly visible women share the same fear. It is not failure. It is cancellation. Over the past several years, we have seen public stories of women taking disproportionate hits for mistakes, missteps, or controversies, sometimes of their own making and sometimes not. A flawed product launch. An internal culture issue. A poorly managed communication moment. For entrepreneurial women and women in politics, reputation is not confined to one company or one role. It shapes the arc of an entire career. Once a name becomes attached to a conflict that was poorly handled, future opportunities narrow.”

SNAP Work Requirements Article

Written and Published by Mississippi Today 3/11/2026

SNAP work requirements stifle access to food for older caregivers and grandchildren, experts say. MS Today spoke to one of our moms, Carleen Hicks, on her experience as a caregiver for her two grandchildren and the time consuming struggle to apply for SNAP.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

Hicks, who is 54 and a custodian at Chapel of the Cross Church in Madison, said she’s happily taken on that responsibility, but it can be hard to make ends meet. She previously relied on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, but the paperwork was confusing and time-consuming. In 2024, she felt she could no longer justify missing work to go to hours-long recertification appointments for the benefits, and fell off the program. As a result, she said, her family eats less fresh produce and meat.

Experts say that versions of Hicks’ story will become more common after newly-expanded federal work requirements took effect in November. Previously, adults over 54 and people who care for children under the age of 18 were exempt. Under the new rules, adults between the age of 55 and 64 and caretakers of children older than 13 must now work 80 hours a month to keep their food benefits. An already-burdened system will become more strained, according to state and national experts who spoke to Mississippi Today.

Work requirements and the red tape that comes with them could disproportionately hurt older caregivers and their families. That’s because older adults are more likely to have fixed incomes, limited access to computers, age-related health problems and care for older children who do not qualify them for the exemption. In Mississippi, 3.3% of children live in grandparent-caregiver households – more than double the national average and one of the highest rates in the country.

Nationwide, family members who step into parental roles save taxpayers and states $10.5 billion by keeping children out of the foster care system. But these families face higher rates of poverty.

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Forbes: Health Insurance

Why soaring insurance premiums are bad for workers, small businesses and the long-term health of the U.S. economy.

READ AISHA’S LATEST CONTRIBUTION TO FORBES HERE

“Rising marketplace premiums translate to impossible choices about rent, childcare, groceries and tuition for families trying to build stable lives. Allowing a hard fought set of subsidies to vanish because of political posturing is pushing many of those families to the financial brink and sending damaging shockwaves through our broader economy. We should treat this moment not as an inevitability — but as a warning that our health care financing system is out of step with both our values and our economic ambitions — and then do the hard work to fix it.”

Forbes: Mississippi’s TANF Scandal

Mississippi’s TANF Scandal Shows How America’s Safety Net Was Built To Fail Families

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

“When a program serves only a tiny fraction of eligible families, it becomes even easier for officials to treat its funds as discretionary revenue, rather than as a lifeline that must be protected with the same urgency as a widespread benefit such as Social Security. And the broader issue is that despite all the evidence showing its inefficacy, TANF reform still hasn’t happened. We have the lesson of what happened in Mississippi, but we are not having the conversations needed to expedite change. Rather than making meaningful change, we have privileged people who abused resources pointing fingers, while those who are still in need are being punished.”

Forbes: A Year-End Giving Playbook

A Year-End Giving Playbook To Invest In Community, Justice and Power

READ AISHA’S FULL ARTICLE HERE

“The throughline in all of these choices is simple: each organization reflects what matters most to me right now — Black women’s leadership, community joy, narrative power, economic infrastructure and civil rights. Year-end giving does not have to be perfect or exhaustive, but it should be intentional. Choose a few organizations that sit at the heart of your values, and commit to being more than a one-time donor. Whether it is a local arts center transforming a vacant building into a community anchor, a national network training Black women to lead, a narrative lab closing the hope gap, a credit union financing possibility in the Deep South or a civil liberties group defending our freedoms — this is a moment to move beyond performative generosity. Because there is no better investment in this moment than in the people and institutions who are quietly making “impossible” futures feel within reach.”

Forbes: 50-Year Mortgages

A 50-Year Mortgage Is A Crisis, Not A Solution

READ AISHA’S LATEST CONTRIBUTION TO FORBES HERE

“After a decade working side by side with families living in subsidized housing, if there’s one refrain that echoes through every conversation, it’s the hope of homeownership — the practical hope of leaving a valuable asset for future generations, as well as a deep yearning for the autonomy and privacy afforded by having a home of one’s own. Again and again, mothers tell me what they really want isn’t just a yard or extra bedroom, but dignity — the right to claim a home that’s theirs, that their children can remember as an anchor, not a rest stop. Nothing makes this more real than hearing about birthdays held in tight kitchens or kids doing homework on borrowed Wi-Fi, all for the possibility that one day, the sacrifices will pay off. Yet in this context, the recent proposal for 50-year mortgages made by the Trump administration lands not as a lifeline, but as a trap — a heavy shackle disguised as a helping hand, and the latest example of policies that promise much while leaving our most marginalized families burdened with more debt and fewer options.”

What would truly help? ⬇️

1. Short-term fixes like stretching out a bad loan simply don’t cut it. Instead, we need to focus on proven, equity-centered solutions: expanding affordable housing supply, investing in targeted down payment assistance and actively combating predatory lending that preys on desperation with false promises of accessibility.

2. Real change demands policy that is not only attentive to what seems possible in the short term, but also to the history and reality of exclusion and financial harm borne by Black families and other marginalized groups.

3. Wealth-building requires predictability, fair access to credit, support for first-time buyers — and, importantly, options for building equity, not just meeting a lender’s bottom line.