Jeremiah Program

Last month, JP moms, alumni, kids, staff, community partners, and friends gathered in Baltimore, MD, for our fourth annual summit! Themed “The Power of Community,” the event brought together moms and alumni from all nine campuses to celebrate the JP sisterhood.

Women, especially moms, have always been at the forefront of change. They are leaders in their families, their communities, and in our democracy. When single moms vote, they advocate for a future where every mom can win and every child has the chance to succeed.

JP firmly believes every mother should be able to invest in herself and her children. We are committed to disrupting generational poverty, and we’re going to do that faster by supporting the person who has the biggest influence on a child’s life.

Poverty in America is often framed as a moral or personal failure on the part of those experiencing poverty, who are disproportionately single mothers and women of color. The only way to disrupt the entrenched stigma is to replace it with a new narrative — one authored by single moms and grounded in their agency, resilience, and power.

Instead of focusing on just the mother or child, JP centers the whole family using a two-generation approach. Working with mothers and their children simultaneously, we create a support structure that addresses their unique needs as they chart a path to economic mobility.

Introducing the 2024-2025 JP Alumni Fellows! During this year-long fellowship, these inspiring women will use their voices and experiences to shift narratives about single mothers and their children — and advocate for better public policy that affects them. Meet the fellows: https://bit.ly/3XO9AsO

See what some of our campuses have been up to these past few months! JP Brooklyn hosted their annual Voices Rising event, where they honored City Council Member Crystal Hudson. Over 100 people gathered to celebrate JP families and uplift powerful women leaders at Las Vegas Voices Rising. JP Fargo-Moorhead piloted a new program with Prairie Public Education Services’ Learning Express, a mobile pre-K learning center. Hip-hop star Metro Boomin donated $20K to JP Minneapolis and St. Paul through his Leslie Joanne Single Moms Are Superheroes grant-giving tour program. He established the foundation in honor of his late mother. JP Austin moms made their own pottery at a sisterhood event! JP Rochester-Southeast MN hosted their annual Jump into Fall event for moms and kiddos.

JP President and CEO Chastity Lord highlights for Forbes the barriers student parents must overcome to earn their degrees and how campus policies can make a difference. https://bit.ly/3TLfKc1

Women in the United States are more likely than men to experience poverty, with single mothers being at the highest risk. A major obstacle to economic mobility for mothers is the lack of affordable child care. This often forces them to spend a significant portion of their income on child care or leave the workforce entirely. That's why access to high-quality, affordable child care is a core pillar of our programming for single mothers and their children.

The US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy recently advised communities and schools to elevate the voices of #parents and #caregivers to develop programming and other supports designed to improve family mental health and well-being. Building on this recommendation, Ascend’s new guide provides strategies and tools that organizations, policymakers, practitioners, and researchers can leverage to create effective partnerships with parents. We developed “Ascending with Parents: A Guide to Centering Parent Voice in Policy and Practice” with input from Ascend Parent Advisors whose insights have helped us better understand how we can foster family well-being and prosperity when we #CenterParentVoice. During #NationalStudentParentMonth and beyond, we encourage postsecondary leaders to recognize student parents as essential partners in this work. We, along with many others in the field, have learned key strategies to ensure equity, foster authenticity and autonomy, compensate parents appropriately, and more. In addition to providing concrete suggestions, the guide uplifts examples of organizations that are engaging parents including The Excel Center CO, Jeremiah Program, The Family Partnership, and The Primary School. https://lnkd.in/gqR_HsiK