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Jeremiah Program to Open New Campus in Baltimore
National Nonprofit Expands Footprint in Multiple Markets to Support Single Mothers and Disrupt Systemic Paths of Poverty
BALTIMORE (February 25, 2022)—Jeremiah Program (JP), a national nonprofit with one of the most successful strategies for disrupting generational poverty by building economic mobility among single mothers and their children, today announced it will expand its two-generational model to Baltimore, Maryland. JP uniquely sits at the nexus of everything we are navigating as a country – supporting 100% women, 100% single moms experiencing poverty, 100% student parents in pursuit of economic mobility, and 80% BIPOC.
JP Baltimore will start with a non-residential model that is reflective of the organization’s commitment to building strong partnerships and leveraging current ecosystems across the city in service of the single mom student parents and their children. Baltimore has a diverse portfolio of options supporting economic mobility, but many of the resources available are not delivered through a two-generation framework centering single moms in pursuit of a post-secondary degree.
“JP is a national thought leader on generational poverty and the systemic barriers facing single-parent families. Our success lies in our commitment to meeting the moment, addressing structural inequities, and supporting the leadership of women most proximate to the issues of early childhood education, college access, income inequality and access to affordable housing,” said Chastity Lord, President & CEO, Jeremiah Program. “With the pandemic disproportionately affecting single mothers, families experiencing poverty and people of color, the potential reach and impact of Jeremiah Program has only grown. We are proud to create this opportunity in Baltimore and hopeful about the positive effect we will have in partnership with other resources currently doing great work in the community.”
Over 45 percent of families in Baltimore are headed by a single mom, and 31.1% of female-headed households in Baltimore City live below the poverty line. Young single parents disproportionately come from Black and Latinx families who face structural barriers in accessing higher education, quality jobs and economic mobility. Research shows that achievement gaps between children in low-income households and those in higher-income households emerge in the earliest years of life, and these disparities widen as children grow older. Households led by single mothers are especially vulnerable to economic insecurity and the pandemic has exacerbated preexisting inequalities.
“Jeremiah Program’s mission complements our dogged focus on men and our belief that, by helping impoverished fathers access the tools to be responsible, positive role models for their children, we can change the trajectory of families in our communities. Moreover, its unapologetic focus on single parent mothers and their children would be well-received in Baltimore neighborhoods like Sandtown Winchester, Druid Heights and Madison, where over 70% of households with children under the age of 18 are female-headed,” Joseph T. Jones, Jr., Founder, President and CEO, Center for Urban Families (CFUF). “CFUF looks forward to welcoming JP to Baltimore and collaborating closely.”
“We are excited to build out our JP Baltimore leadership team with partners and perspectives from the Baltimore community, and look forward to recruiting our first class of 100 moms and kids this summer,” added Lord.
JP currently operates across seven cities in the U.S. Under its current Strategic Plan, JP is focused on increasing impact through its existing campuses while responding to opportunities to bring its five pillars of service into new communities. In addition to Baltimore, JP will also launch a new Las Vegas campus in 2022 as part of its expansion. By 2023, JP seeks to quadruple the number of mothers and children served by pursuing three new, cost-effective strategic priorities and continuing to leverage efficiencies across the current model.
About Jeremiah Program: Jeremiah Program (JP) is a national organization whose mission is to disrupt the cycle of poverty for single mothers and their children, two generations at a time. JP believes the impacts of generational poverty require the centering of the family unit through a two-generation (2Gen) approach. By investing simultaneously in a mother’s vision for her personal and professional goals and the education of her children, she simultaneously reauthors her family’s outcome as well her community’s—proof points matter. In 2021, JP supported 1,100 moms and children across seven cities in Austin, TX; Boston, MA; Brooklyn, NY; Fargo, ND-Moorhead, MN; Minneapolis, MN; Rochester, MN; and St. Paul, MN.