Ladies of Hope Ministries

I am applying for the Elevate Prize because I have worked hard to make a difference in my community. A community which includes women who, like me, are formerly incarcerated. We have served our time and paid our debt, but society continues to punish, doubt, and overlook us. Many of us return to our communities without support. Or homes. Or jobs. Or even food.  While I have worked hard to earn my redemption, many of my sisters have not been given that same grace and opportunity. Through my founding of The Ladies of Hope Ministries it has become my life’s purpose and joy to help women and girls who are formerly incarcerated to build lives beyond incarceration. The Elevate Prize recognizes people who are innovators, activists, problem-solvers, thinkers, and doers, and I have taught myself to become all those things. Through prayer, sheer determination, and hard work, I have spent the last 5 years working to restore the dignity and humanity of women and girls who are formerly incarcerated by providing food, community, and housing. I would use the Elevate Prize funding to continue this work and build a movement to end the incarceration of women and girls. 
 

I birthed The Ladies of Hope Ministries while serving 5 years in federal prison. While incarcerated, I met many smart and hope-filled women who would leave the four walls of the institution without support systems, jobs, homes or often even food. Once released, I immediately began to connect these women and their families with healthy food. Today, I am blessed to be able to offer safe housing, reentry support, and advocacy programs that are grounded in the commitment, insights, and ideas of women with lived experience. The LOHM is led and operated by women of color who understand the value and importance of gender-based, culturally- appropriate, and healing-centered approaches to overcoming challenges that arise as responses to trauma and violence. The women we meet every day have a variety of needs ranging from as basic as safe shelter and food, employment, community support, and mental health and spiritual counseling. My vision is to live in a world where women and girls who are impacted by America’s criminal legal system have the resources to rebuild their lives once they have paid their debts to society. My goal is to end the crisis of poverty and incarceration of women and girls.

Between 1980 and 2019, the number of incarcerated women increased by more than 700%, rising from a total of 26,378 in 1980 to 222,455 in 2019. Though many more men are in prison than women, the rate of growth for female imprisonment has been twice as high as that of men since 1980. There are 1.2 million women under the supervision of the criminal justice system. And Black women are disproportionately represented. In 2019, the imprisonment rate for African American women (83 per 100,000) was over 1.7 times the rate of imprisonment for white women (48 per 100,000). Each year thousands of Black women return to their families and communities from jails and prisons. They immediately become members of America’s largest populations of both homeless and unemployed. In many of America’s largest cities the disparities are even more glaring. The LOHM solves this problem by providing healing-centered, safe housing, reentry support, and advocacy programs that are grounded in the commitment, insights, and ideas of women with lived experience. Through our programs, we empower women with the supports to achieve their personal goals, maintain stable employment and housing, reunite with their children and families, and become financially self-sufficient.

The LOHM is unique because it is founded, led, and operated by Black women, many of whom are directly or indirectly impacted by incarceration. We realize that the commitment and knowledge acquired through this lived experience is unique and revolutionary. We understand the value and importance of gender-based, culturally- appropriate, and healing-centered approaches to overcoming challenges that often arise as responses to trauma and violence. As the LOHM scales in cities across the country where we see the greatest need, we proactively seek out community partnerships and align ourselves with local connections and talent and welcome the knowledge of local leaders and partners. These characteristics allow us to stand apart from our allies in this work, who often lead from afar and from the perspective of whiteness.  Our work could be considered disruptive because we not only seek to provide services to meet the immediate needs of the people we serve, we also work to drive systemic change in the criminal legal system through political activism, advocacy and legislative policy. We do this from a perspective that unapologetically centers the healing of women and girls who are formerly incarcerated and the families and communities to whom they return.
 

Our organization helps to restore dignity, humanity and purpose to women and girls who have been impacted by the horrors of America's criminal legal system. Many of our sisters have experienced trauma through violence & sexual abuse, suffered undiagnosed mental illnesses, and/ or lived through unfortunate involvement with other systems, such as the foster care system. We recognize that the criminal legal system is often unjust and believe in the redemptive quality of the human spirit. We believe time served in jail or prison is the punishment, and that people who are formerly incarcerated should not be perpetually punished through the denial of second chances in the form of community support, fair housing, and good jobs.  We believe people are not the sum of their mistakes and that we all have the power to change and become better. The LOHM is effective because of the connections we have with the women and families we serve. Our programs are gender-based, culturally appropriate and healing-centered. Our team works hard to anticipate and meet the needs of those we serve. We are committed to inspiring, influencing, empowering, and uplifting others, especially those who have been most overlooked.