Feeling Seen, Heard, and Respected at Jeremiah Program

For JP Baltimore mom Brittney Strickland, the last several years have been a roller coaster. With a year left in her collegiate career, she shifted her focus from school to navigate her son’s new diagnosis, failing a whole semester’s worth of classes. Then she found support through JP and won third place in JP’s 2024 Spark Tank business pitch competition. With community and faith in herself, she is feeling more hopeful about the future for herself and her children.

She sat down with JP ahead of the inaugural Baltimore Voices Rising event to share her experience. This is her story.

Hi, my name is Brittney Strickland and I’m from Baltimore!

Before returning to school that last semester that I was at Morgan [State University], when I had got Amir’s diagnosis with autism and trying to navigate that, he required most of my time. So I actually failed all of my classes that semester. Obviously, in college, when you fail a class, that impacts your GPA heavily, so I lost the majority of my scholarships. That was also kind of, back of my head, like, “Lord I really, really want to finish school, but I don’t really want to take out loans.” But then I had it in my mind, “OK, bet. It’s just one year left. Who stops in their last year, you know?” My GPA was affected, so just coming back in it, I’m like, “OK, how is this going to work?” But I just had faith in the universe and just myself and just in general.

I think the E&L [Empowerment and Leadership] experience was the glue to get me focused. I’m a mom of two with special needs, so I don’t have a lot of free time, so I needed something that worked. In just 12 weeks, each topic just kind of peeled a different layer in me or gave me a different perspective. It was pretty cool because it was other moms from different states, different backgrounds, different ethnicities, and we’re just all having the same journey.

Just being a part of JP, I like the approach of the two generations. I like that approach because the moms, we still matter too. … I feel seen, I feel heard, and I feel respected.

When they said that they had the ECE [Early Childhood Education] Fellowship, where they would pay the tuition in full, at that point, I was just like, “Wow!” I’m really grateful for that because you gotta pay for this tuition — it’s not free! I started that semester not even having to worry about the tuition, not having to worry about a payment plan, not having to worry about anything. So I think that alone — thank you, JP! — I’m really so grateful for that part. Once you’re not worried about your tuition and worried about that class bill, you can focus on your work.

Just being a part of JP, I like the approach of the two generations. I like that approach because the moms, we still matter too. We gotta fill up our tank every day too. I feel seen, I feel heard, and I feel respected. That’s the thing with the stigma of being a mom or a single mom or anything. It’s just kind of, “Oh, you’re a stereotype. You don’t really matter. Just make sure the kids are good.” And that’s kind of how my life has been: “I just need to make sure my children are good, taken care of.”

I am not the same Brittney before I joined JP. I’m just not. I have help now. I have support. I have community. I have way more resources, endless resources, where networking has just been beautiful. I’m meeting people that I never thought I would meet that know somebody that know somebody. I’m not the same, so now when I do my vision boards each year, it’s looking a little more hopeful.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

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