jeremiah program
Our Misson & History
serving families since 1998
Our Story
In the fall of 1991, a Minneapolis initiative supported moms experiencing poverty so they could attend local colleges for free while their children were cared for nearby. It began with 38 families.
Within a couple of months, there were only six.
The organizers discovered that these women faced a range of obstacles that forced them to leave school. “First of all, they had to deal with their income situation,” said Michael J. O’Connell, an early partner in that program. “Often, they had very unstable housing. The cars didn’t work. The children got sick. There were all kinds of things that could stop a woman in the middle of her first semester if she didn’t have the support system that she needed.”
Michael recognized the need for that coordinated support system, which led him to found Jeremiah Program in 1993, in partnership with community leaders. The program was rooted in five core pillars that ground JP’s work with mothers and their children to this day: access to higher education for moms; affordable, quality early childhood education; affordable housing; empowerment and leadership training; and career development. The first JP campus opened and began serving families in 1998. Since then, JP has grown to support families around the nation.
mission
Disrupt the cycle of poverty for single mothers and their children, two generations at a time. When a mother invests simultaneously in her personal and professional goals and the education of her children, she can re-author her family’s outcomes and act as a change agent within her community.
JP’s philosOPhy
Guiding Principles
These principles guide everything we do at Jeremiah Program.
two generations
Mothers should not have to make the untenable choice between investing in themselves and investing in their children’s educational development.
mom’s expertise
Mothers are experts of their own lives and architects of their own solutions.
leadership
Women experiencing poverty can serve as key bridge-builders between decision-makers and communities to scale those solutions to meet the needs of their families and broader communities.
investment
The disparities between women in poverty and their more affluent peers can only be dismantled by an aggressive investment in women closest to the challenges we are trying to solve.
public policy
Generational poverty is a social justice issue, not an economic issue; systemic barriers keep women and children in generational poverty.
4,000+
Moms and children served
JP has worked with families across the country for the past 27 years, supporting them on their paths to economic mobility.
visionary founder
Michael J. O’Connell
At the time of our founding in 1993, Michael J. O’Connell was the Rector of the Basilica of Saint Mary in downtown Minneapolis. O’Connell worked with city leaders to engage the community in breaking the cycle of poverty for single mothers and their children, assembling stakeholders from the business, education, government, philanthropy, and faith communities to move the vision forward.
He remains a vocal advocate and supporter of Jeremiah Program, and is the namesake of our legacy fund, the Michael J. O’Connell Society, which honors individuals and families who remember Jeremiah Program in their wills and estate plans.