EP 15: The Power of Support: No Moms Left Behind

Jennifer Maggio is the founder and CEO of The Life of a Single Mom, a faith-driven nonprofit that now powers more than 2,000 church-based support groups across all 50 states and serves 150,000 moms each year. Her story moves from homelessness and government assistance to a surprising contest win that seeded a national organization focused on practical help, deep community, and real outcomes. Learn more about The Life of a Single Mom by visiting them at thelifeofasinglemom.com. Learn more about Danos' The Seeds of Giving at theseedsofgiving.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Hey everyone, welcome to the Producing Confidence podcast. I'm your host, Samantha McGee, and today we are so excited to have joining us Jennifer Maggio, and she is the founder and CEO of The Life of a Single Mom, and it is a nonprofit organization based out of Baton Rouge, but has a footprint across the country. And the Life of a Single Mom has been a Danos Gives grant recipient for several years now. And so we are proud to partner with them, proud of the work that they're doing. And we are so excited to have you on the show. Thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

I'm so excited to be here. I so appreciate you guys having me. All right.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

Well, we'll just dive right into it. First, let's just start a what inspired the creation of the life of a single mom and how did that come about?

SPEAKER_01 1:40

You know, I would say that probably most nonprofits have a similar story in that, you know, you've got a founder who has a lived experience and they overcome the challenge and they want to give back to the community that they just came from. And that would be, you know, very similar for the life of a single mom. I spent many years of my life as a single mom and the journey was hard. The journey was one of homelessness for me. I utilized government assistance. I used, you know, food stamps and welfare. And it just was a very difficult journey of trying to figure out how to parent my children alone, how to manage my money when I didn't have very much. And frankly, I didn't have much of a community either. And so all of that and the challenge that was there culminated into what I thought at the time was an un an insurmountable obstacle. Like I would never get out of it, you know? And the Lord was faithful and there was much to my story. But when I married and moved into my next season of life, I vowed that I would never forget what it was like to be a single mom. And I didn't know what that meant at the time, uh, to be really honest with you. I just knew that if I had an opportunity to serve single moms in some capacity, I would. And eventually decided to start a small support group in my house back in 2007. And that really is where the life of a single mom kind of started.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

Wow. And your story is so inspiring. So in 2007, you started the support group. You were working a corporate job at the time, right? Right, right.

From Corporate Career To Calling

SPEAKER_01 3:15

So I was, um I had been in that corporate job almost 10 years, and I thought I would retire there. Um, I had had done very well for myself financially. I had kind of climbed the corporate ladder, and that's where I met my now husband. And so I thought, wow, this is this is everything I had hoped to achieve. I had no idea that what was a small support group was going to really morph into a national organization. It's just kind of been one incremental step after another.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

And and how did that transformation come about from, you know, the small support group to, I mean, obviously lots of things have happened between now and then, but how did you kind of start that big leap or take that big leap and dive right in and say this is gonna be what we're doing and move from there?

Launching The First Support Group

SPEAKER_01 3:59

I would say, you know, one of the first things when I started the support group, it actually was just, I don't know what I'm doing, but I know single moms need help and I want to pour into them the things I learned on my journey. So it started with three single moms, and over about six months, 75 single moms were coming to my house every two weeks. And I thought, okay, this is this is definitely bigger than I thought. And so we moved it into a local church, my home church that I've been part of for 20 years, and we just started morphing over time. What do they need and what can we do to serve them? So we're gonna serve them a meal, we're gonna provide child care, we're gonna teach them life skills, we're gonna do all of these little things that will lighten the load. Again, I was still kind of working in corporate America at the time and stepped away, actually not really knowing that I was going to do nonprofit work full-time. I just kind of stepped away waiting on really vision from the Lord on what the next season would be. And so I decided this was very interesting. I don't know if you if you knew this or not, but there was a contest that was going on, it was a national contest, and it was called the Mother of All Ideas. I mean, this was, you know, 15 years ago, more than that now. And you wrote an essay on an idea you had that would make a mom's life easier. And so I wrote an essay on how I thought single moms' lives could be easier, and I won the contest. And so I think it was like$2,500 I won. And that was the money that my husband and I used as the seed money to file all the nonprofit paperwork to start the life of a single mom.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

That's amazing. I did not know that story. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

Uh, and they designed a logo for me. They it was just kind of like you won all these little things. And really, when I had stepped away from corporate America to serve single moms, I went from making six figures a year to nothing. And so as I was serving single moms, I'm clipping coupons at home in order to be able to financially stay home to do that. And so that that money when I won that contest, that was the only way we would have started the life of a single mom. Honestly, we didn't have the extra. And then, you know, as you start it, you kind of don't know what you're doing, but you're like, okay, I think this is what we could do to serve moms. And one small grant would come in at a time to kind of further the vision, you know, to get a business plan together, to get to hire a staff member. And it just it's it's just been amazing to see all that has happened.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

That's incredible. So can you tell us about how that vision did evolve? You know, at first, you know, you were just trying to help moms and if, you know, things happened. Now I'm sure you've got a solid set mission, vision. Tell us how what that evolved into to from where you were.

Seed Money And Nonprofit Beginnings

SPEAKER_01 6:35

So, really what happened when I first started was very simply, you know, we exist to serve single moms. It was, you know, the mission statement was so simple back then. And again, the way we served them varied. So if a mom said she needed her light bill paid, that's what we did. If a mom said she needed a babysitter for the weekend, that's what we did. It was just whatever way. And over time, what happened is I'm still meeting with these single moms in my living room every two weeks. And I realized that what we were trying to accomplish was really to create a tribe for these moms, to create community so that they did not feel alone. And so it started with a little word document where I was just giving churches and nonprofits, you know, a template on how to start a single mom support group. You know, that that word document morphed into a workbook and then that morphed into an entire series of curriculum. But the goal was always to really make sure that these mothers did not walk alone. And so we started with, I think in year one, we had four single mom support groups around the state of Louisiana. I mean, it was very organic. It would be like someone would hear that I was doing a support group in Baton Rouge and they were from North Louisiana and they would call me and say, can you tell me more about what you're doing? And then, you know, we we really were over 2,000 support groups now. So, you know, average of about a hundred a year. But if you would have told me that, you know, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, I would just, you know, I would have had no idea that we were going to be the catalyst to start all these single mom support groups.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

That's uh such an incredible inspiring story. I mean, to go from just you and your your house to over 2,000 support groups across the country, it's really special. And you're really having a big impact out there. You talk about these different groups that start. What does it take? How what happens? You know, I call you, I say, I want to start this group in my church. What do we do? What happens next?

SPEAKER_01 8:22

Yeah, so um we really we have people, everything from a lay person who's just attending their local church to a staff member at a church who's maybe a pastor or an outreach minister, that type of thing. And so part of it is when we're talking to a lay person, it's usually a former single mom or a current single mom who sees the need and she says, I really want to start something in my church. So some of the initial process is really educating her on the church process. What does that look like to get approval, et cetera? Uh, let's say it's a church staff member who's calling. The goal is that every church or nonprofit that wants to start a support group, they start with our ministry kit. It's, you know, kind of a ministry in a box. It's, you know, think old school vacation Bible school. So it's like you get all the curriculum in the box. We walk you through day one, what you need to do. So things like recruiting and establishing a volunteer team, what curriculum you should be teaching, what subjects resonate with single moms, how to grow the group beyond just the few single moms that may be in your church, et cetera. And so they get a kind of a they get a print box of materials, and then they also get an electronic plethora of materials to support them along their journey.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

It makes it seem a lot easier when you put it in that way to where it sounds like a big challenge, like, oh, we're gonna start this group. But if you have all this this kit to where you have everything you need that you got to walking them through that, I feel like that's really beneficial.

Clarifying Vision And Model

SPEAKER_01 9:49

Yeah, and I and one of the things we want to do is really remove this burden that you have to have all the answers for a mom. Because I think what happens a lot of times is that, you know, when you get an idea to serve, and I think that this would parlay into a lot of different aspects of service, whether it be single mothers or something else, is that you always feel like you're ill-equipped, you always feel like you don't have all the resources you need, you don't know enough, et cetera. And I really do believe that that's the thing that hinders us is our fear, not necessarily the reality that we can't. And so what we do with these leaders is they they will often say, Oh, I don't know enough of the Bible, or oh, I don't know if I've arrived to the level of serving others. And it's like, no, we all have something to give. We all have a life experience that we can share. And so what we tell them is, hey, we're gonna hold your hand through it, we're gonna give you everything. We're we literally have it broken down to as simple as the icebreaker you need to stay, say, to start your group. And so it's we do go super detailed, but we also say over time you're not gonna need us as much. Over time, you're gonna get more and more confident. And you know, when you're talking about numbers of 15 to 20 million single mothers in the country, depending on what data you look at, I mean, this is a huge, huge need. And what better place than the local church for them to get the resources they need and build the community they need to thrive? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

And so you mentioned that it tells the groups which subjects to teach and that sort of thing. Are there particular subjects or areas that y'all focus on? And what what are those?

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Yeah, so we have found that whether a single mom is maybe like a teen mom who uh you know has an unplanned pregnancy, or whether she's a 45-year-old divorced mom who is kind of starting over again from scratch, or kind of in the anything in between, single mothers all are going to have struggles in three areas. It's parenting, finances, and health and wellness. So those areas doesn't matter divorce, death, you know, unwed pregnancy, you name it. These are the areas where moms are going to struggle at some point along their journey. And so for us, all of our curriculum houses those three areas. So parenting, what does it look like to parent a toddler? What does it look like to parent a teenager? What do you do when you have a teen son and no male in the home? These are all things we're addressing in the curriculum. And then financially, it doesn't matter whether it's a low-income mom, you know, a low to mid-level, or even a high-income mom. The truth is if she's going from two incomes to one, there are going to be some gaps that she may not know how to navigate. And so we're teaching a lot of financial principles on really what to do to get to the next level. For some of our moms, the next level is, hey, um, I'm living on food stamps and welfare, and I want to learn how to move from government assistance into a more stable income. For some of our moms, it's, hey, I'm working two jobs right now and I'm a homeowner, but I really like to get to the place where I'm not scared I'm going to be in foreclosure every month. So it's really a hodgepodge of different socioeconomic demographics that we're serving. And then the health and wellness piece is everything in between. How do you manage time? How do you overcome stress? How do you recover from trauma? How do you recover from abuse, from narcissism? I mean, it is every subject that a single mom could imagine is probably in some of our curriculum.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

And does that curriculum carry over into single mom university? How what's the correlation there?

How Churches Start A Group

SPEAKER_01 13:16

That's exactly. So what happens is we have print curriculum. We have some groups that just love that kind of old school, we're all going to sit around with a book and talk about it. And in our print curriculum, we have five different books they can choose from. And every book has a leader's guide and homework inside the book. So it's just kind of like you've got 10 moms come into the group, all of them get the book, and you get started. Then we have other groups who really prefer that more video uh model. And so you sit around, you play it on the smart TV, it's a video inside single mom university. And then inside the university, we have the chat discussions. Here are the 12 questions you need to ask to facilitate discussion in your group. You know, homework, hey girls, this is what we're gonna do to learn more about this subject when you leave. So it's really as deep as they want to go into a subject, even additional resources if they want to teach on a subject for several meetings. Let's say they wanted to talk about how to prepare for marriage. Okay, that's a hot button issue that moms want to know. Like, hey, I want to be married again one day. You know, we have a class or series of classes on that. Well, they may decide they want to spend six months on that. We have enough content just in that one course uh selection that they could stay on it for several months. So we like how it gives each group the autonomy to kind of be flexible inside their groups depending on what their women are wanting to learn.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

So is that the same? Like do people, when they're in single mom university, do they do that at home or just through the support group?

SPEAKER_01 14:47

So what happens is they let's say you're a group leader, you're going to get, you're going to purchase single mom university as a group leader, not an individual. So you are going to then enroll all the mothers that are in your support group. So you can buy in increments of 10 all the way up to 500 women. So you've got 25 women in your single mom's group. You uh manually enroll all of them. Together, you're going to play a class and you're going to say, okay, we we watched class number one on, you know, how to prepare for marriage. And then the instructor may say, I want you to take class two and three before we come back for our next meeting. So it is group study, and then they can use it individually. They will have access to either or. Got it.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

And so if I say I'm a single mom, I don't have a support group. Is there a way for me to get access to the single mom university?

SPEAKER_01 15:42

Yep. So um Dan Ox has been a great funder of our single mom university coursework just for individual study. And so let's say that you've got your mom in, you know, gray and in gray, Louisiana, and you're like, okay, I am isolated. There's no support group near me. I just feel like I'm drowning. My family doesn't understand what's going on. They don't know how heartbroken I am because I put a smile on my face and go to work every day, right? So she can log in. She applies for a scholarship. It's right there on the website at single momuniversity.com. And she gets in. And not only is she going to get access to 200 classes, but she's also going to get access to a chat room. So maybe for her, there's not a support group in her area, but there is a chat room where she can talk to other students. And it's a great place to maybe, I don't want to say vent because we don't really promote like wound licking, but you know, sometimes you just need to share, hey, you know, I had a really hard day with my toddler. And you know that another student in the university, you know, has a similar life experience. It can be encouraging.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

Absolutely. I love that. You know, it's helpful to walk alongside somebody who's been through what you're going through and to really, even as you're just talking, you know that they can relate and you don't feel like you have to explain yourself, right?

Curriculum Pillars: Parenting, Money, Wellness

SPEAKER_01 16:58

Right. Right. Yeah, I think that even when you have family that really cares about you deeply and they're there for you, sometimes if you've gone through a really difficult divorce or perhaps you had a child, you know, unexpectedly and you thought the relationship was going to last and it didn't, or whatever, you know, when you've undergone trauma, it can be really difficult to speak with your family about it. And even sometimes close girlfriends, like you almost, there's almost like this value in the anonymity of like talking to strangers about it, you know. But when you're sitting in that support group and you're talking and they say, Oh, I remember the first few weeks, I remember the first few months, but they're way longer in their journey. You know, they're they're two or three years in and they're thriving, they're happy, they're they're serving in their community. There's so much inspiration that comes from that. I mean, and I think the same thing would be true if you're talking cancer. You know, if somebody had cancer and they overcame it and they share about that experience, if you've not lived it, it's very hard for you to understand how difficult those chemo treatments are, you know?

SPEAKER_00 17:56

I'm sure you've got hundreds and thousands of examples of women who have gone through Zing Mom University, gone through support groups, and really just had a life significantly changed by the life of a single mom. Are there any particular stories that come to mind that that may be worth sharing? Gosh.

Single Mom University Explained

SPEAKER_01 18:12

Yeah, I think it's so many that I mean, we we're we're serving 150,000 moms a year, and it is unbelievable the the notes that we get of things that have happened that you just you it would just rock your world. I'll I'll share a couple of things that just stand out. One, I'm thinking through, I have an employee now who I met 10 years ago, actually, maybe 12 years ago now. Anyway, she came to a single mom support group. We actually were hosting an annual Christmas party here in Baton Rouge. Someone invited her and she came and attended that event. It so blew her away. Just the fact that there were so many single moms, and there was just there was just, you know, lightheartedness and fun and all the things that she wound up starting to attend regularly. After she attended regularly for a while, she moved on to a volunteer team. So it's like she's attending, but she's also plating the food in the back of, you know, of the room to help other moms. Over time, it morphed into two years in, she becomes a mentor. So she then is pouring into other single moms. She's stabilized, she's thriving. Now, you know, here we are 12 years later. She's she's been employed with me, gosh, four or five years now. She's, you know, she's married, she has three children, she's thriving in every way. But it just to me is such a full circle indicator of she would have never 12 years ago been employable by me. Like she wasn't, she wasn't emotionally stable enough, she wasn't spiritually stable enough, she wasn't at a place where she could really give back to other single moms. That's an excellent example of how the program works. Another one, actually, just today, we got an email from a girl who, well, it was actually an um an essay. When women go into single mom university, they can complete a certain number of classes and then they're eligible for graduation. And when they go to apply for graduation, they write an essay telling us what all they learned, what stood out to them, what it meant to them, et cetera. And one of the things that stood out to me, it wasn't that it was this earth-shattering thing that she put her finger on. She said, when I enrolled in the university six months ago, she said, I didn't know what I was getting into. I didn't even really know why I was enrolling. But she said, I just felt like my life was a mess and I didn't even know where to start. And she said, she goes kind of line by line about all these classes she took and what she learned in the class. And she said, you know, the biggest takeaway that I have, it's that I can do it and that there are other people doing it. She said, My savings account is more than I ever thought it could be. And what's interesting about that to me is that it wasn't about that she couldn't have done it without us. It's that she didn't know that she could. You know, like she said, I never had anybody to talk to me about my finances. I never had anybody to give me real parenting advice. I came from a broken home. And so for us, that's the measure. It's like, did we improve the mom's life? Improvement is going to be different for every mom. Improvement might mean, you know, we raise the bar financially where she's in less debt or she increased her credit score or whatever. But it also could mean, hey, I have hope when I didn't have any. Or hey, I'm no longer suicidal because when I came to you guys, I literally was contemplating suicide. It can be so many ways that we're helping them stabilize.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

Yeah, those are both really great stories, especially with your employee. That's such a beautiful full circle story that she started, you know, needing, needing to be served, and now she's serving others and thriving. I I love hearing that. What are some of the your bigger challenges that your organization faces, whether it's, you know, misconceptions, funding, finding these support groups, what's that look like?

SPEAKER_01 21:46

Yeah. I would say um the challenges are number one, the misconception. I think that they there will be some who will say, oh, well, if you are a faith-based nonprofit serving single moms, you are promoting divorce, you are promoting unwed pregnancy, you are somehow promoting an anti-biblical behavior. I mean, those are certainly things that we've heard over 20 years of serving moms. And I would say that drug addiction ministries don't support drug use. They simply meet people where they are. And so for us, we're not advocating for more single mothers. We're, we want to work ourselves out of a job. We want to be in a place where every family, you know, a mom is not having to parent her children alone, you know. But the truth is that's not where we are. That's not reality for our state and for our nation. And so one is overcoming that misconception. The other thing is, is and um this is one that we have spent a lot of times with our moms on. We are not, we are elevating mothers to the next level. And I think when we look at the Bible and we see that, you know, iron sharpens iron, for example, we see in Proverbs, that's what we're doing. We are sharpening these women. We you may have had a tough time of it. Maybe you were, you know, sexually assaulted, maybe you were abandoned in the middle of the night by your husband. Maybe you, you know, he stole everything you had and you're starting over again. There's some really traumatic things that we're dealing with as an organization, certainly. But there's a time to mourn and grieve, and there's a time to laugh and dance. So there's a time to move past that, to heal, to receive everything that you need to move into the next season. And so we are really teaching these mothers how to move into the next season. So we're not sitting around licking wounds, we're not sitting around promoting bitter beddies, we're not promoting victimhood in any way. We're teaching these mothers, yes, it was bad, but through Christ, all things are possible. We're teaching them that you can be an overcomer. And so it is, it's been really exciting to see that we're not just trying to pay a light bill every month. We're wanting to teach you how to fish. We're wanting to teach you how to be self-sufficient such that you can pay your light bill. Um, and I would say that's part of it. That's probably the biggest challenge we have. And then I think, you know, parlaying off of that, it's really getting into the churches, like starting the single mom support groups. Most nonprofits don't have a huge marketing budget. So, you know, most profit for-profit businesses, you're going to allocate a certain amount of dollars to ensure that you're marketing your business appropriately. Most funders don't want to support non nonprofits' marketing budget. I mean, that's the truth. And so, and a donor doesn't. A donor doesn't say, hey, I think you should run some more social media ads. You know, even though we know that in order for the client to find out what we're doing, those things are part of it, right? So I would say that's probably the other biggest challenge is is identifying the the pathway for a church to start a group on low marketing dollars and limited staff.

SPEAKER_00 24:41

And I know y'all, I've seen some of your social media ads. Do y'all find that that's successful? Do y'all get a lot of moms enrolled or moms who are who are seeking support from there?

Access, Scholarships, And Community

SPEAKER_01 24:50

So we have about 60,000 followers on social media. Um, so that is probably our biggest outreach effort is continuing to just kind of nurse those relationships so that they come back to the site and to the social media pages over and over. And that is done through a combination of paid ads and just a lot of free posting. Same thing thing with like Google nonprofit. We buy Google nonprofit ads and then we also utilize grants for um Google. So we're trying to do as much of a balance as we can to attract new clientele, likewise attracting new donors. We also get, you know, a lot of donors through social media ads. So, yes, does that work? Certainly. Now, when it comes to churches starting new groups, that is more of a relationship building over time. So, what we find to be most successful, first of all, churches don't make decisions instantaneously. So you plant a seed and you plant a seed and you plant a seed and it may take two or three years of nurturing. You know, they're watching your character as an organization. But we find that pastors' breakfasts are a really effective way. So we'll go into different communities and invite 25 to 50 clergy members to come in and to be part of a pastor's breakfast. We share the vision of the organization and what we do. And out of that 25 to 50, we may get two or three new new group launches. So, you know, so it just it's just constantly tilling the soil, honestly.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

Yeah, absolutely. And so kind of scone going back to your outreach, and you mentioned you've got, I was at 2,000 support groups across the country. Do you have any idea what the footprint is? Like, you know, we're in all 50 states or we're we were reaching women in, you know, 45 states. What does that look like?

SPEAKER_01 26:26

Yeah. So we are we are in all 50 states now. Um, I know sometimes people will ask, like, oh, do you have one in you know, Buffalo, New York? It's like, I don't know. We have a national map. I can't, I can't remember now because we've we've done so many, but we have 47 here in Louisiana. Our biggest footprint is in Texas, but that makes sense. The southeastern part of the U.S. is the, you know, obviously probably a little more interested in single mom service because I find that, well, even statistically speaking, you see that the southeastern part of the U.S. is the most generous, you know, in terms of giving to organizations. And so that is our biggest footprint, but we do have some in every state. We have 47 here in Louisiana with a goal to launch 10 new ones every year. So we know there's a lot of places throughout our state where they're kind of like deserts, you know, single mom support group deserts. They're not places where people have a lot of connection. So if you're in Baton Rouge, we have, you know, lots of things in Baton Rouge. We've got great nonprofit stuff. We've got, you know, we're we're the capital of the state. But if you go to Manny, Louisiana, you're not going to see as much support for single mom there. So if money was no object, you know, and if and if resources, time and resource were no object, then we then we would expand tremendously throughout the state.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

Right. Speaking of resources, something I wanted to ask when we're talking about the single mom university and the programming, how do y'all develop the coursework? Do y'all have, you know, experts come in? Do you do that?

SPEAKER_01 27:48

Yeah, a combo of both. So through the years, it has been we will do, um, especially around strategic planning time, we do a tremendous amount of focus groups and surveys. And so we're trying to identify through our single moms groups, what do you what do you want that we don't currently have? Those are the types of questions we're asking or, you know, from our donors, what are the things you would like to see us teach single moms that we don't currently do? So that's part of it is you're always, I have what I call a financial needs file. I've had it since the day I opened the organization. And it's like if money was no object, we would do all of these things, right? So part of it is in there. The other thing is that we we utilize about 50 experts from around the country that teach our curriculum. And then we do write curriculum in-house as well. Some of it is based on personal life experience. Every instructor has to have had a single parenting experience. So we're not just randomly getting a financial expert. If they are teaching in single mom university and they're financial, a certified financial planner, let's say, they have to be a single mom, have been a single mom, or be raised by one. And that was really important to us because we felt like that this connection would automatically give us credibility with our clientele. And it has. That's one of the reasons we've grown so quickly.

SPEAKER_00 29:05

Yeah, I think that's really impactful to have someone with a connection to a single mom. Because you know, you can empathize with someone, but until you've been there or you know, know someone who you know, your mom raised you that I imagine you can't just you can't fully wrap your head around the challenges and the struggles there. So you talk about planning. Sorry, you talk about planning. Is there anything that you're looking forward to in the coming year or what do you what is going on next with y'all?

Impact Stories And Outcomes

SPEAKER_01 29:29

Yes. Oh my goodness. So much. Um, okay, so I'm trying to think about what okay, so a couple of things. One, we um have just finished recording 34 new classes for single mom university. I mean, just finished within the last couple of weeks. Oh wow. And we're in the middle of getting all of that integrated into the portal now. So that will crest us over 200 new classes in the university. Very, very exciting. It's it's far and away the most robust life skills classroom in the country for single moms. And those 34 classes, gosh, so much good stuff is in there. I can't even tell you. It's been, it's been so fun to record it. So that's coming in uh early 2026. The other thing we're doing, which is super exciting, it's brand new and it's a pilot program. So we'll we'll see how it goes. Um, but it's called Money in the Single Mom. And it is a very specific financial coaching mechanism that we're implementing in January, where 50 moms are going to apply, and we are matching them with a financial coach that will walk them through how to stabilize their income. Um, and so it's gonna be everything from looking at their debt, looking at their income level, looking at, you know, side hustles and entrepreneurism, looking at establishing an emergency fund. Everything we've been teaching in single mom university, they're gonna have a personal coach that's gonna walk them through how to actually do it. And so it's it's really exciting. Again, it's a pilot program we've been thinking about for a number of years. We will have 20 financial coaches in 2026 looking to expand it each year thereafter. And every coach is only gonna take two or three moms. And so it's just, hey, I'm gonna hold your hand, kind of like the way a parent would, a really good parent that has good money management. It's gonna just kind of hold your hand in a personal way to help you get through the hump.

SPEAKER_00 31:18

Wow, I'm excited to see how that works out. I can't wait to to hear more. It's for the end of 2026. Uh so um, we're kind of winding down here a little bit. If if you could offer one piece of encouragement or guidance to a single mom who's listening, what would that be?

SPEAKER_01 31:34

Um, I would say one, you're not alone. I know that when you've got really difficult stories, uh, some that are cloaked in shame sometimes, you know. Um maybe like I mentioned, where a husband walks out on you and and you're just so embarrassed and so overwhelmed and so heartbroken you can barely breathe. You feel very alone. And I want to just say to you, number one, you're not alone. And there's value in knowing that others have been there, done that, and lived to tell about it. So I'd say that would be the first piece, but I think the other piece of it is maybe you're not a single mom that's listening right now. Maybe you're just really overwhelmed. Maybe you're just, you know, you're a married mom with three kids in the midst of parenting middle schoolers. You know, the truth is that all of us can go through seasons where we're very alone, where we feel isolated, where we feel like we're not going to get through it. And just now as a grandmother, as you know, I've I've been through all the parenting seasons, I've been through singleness, I've been through, you know, married life. I just know that I am living to tell about the goodness of God. I just know that I have seen him get me through every season. And so I just want to encourage every listener out there, if maybe you're starting a business, whatever, you are going to fulfill your purpose with the hand of God on it, not in your own power and strength, but by the Spirit of the Living God, the word says.

SPEAKER_00 32:52

Wow. I feel like I could just listen to you all day. I mean, that you you got me to bring in little tears into my eyes. That was super powerful. You're such an inspiring speaker, an inspiring person. I mean, your story is absolutely incredible. And to see what you've done with this organization is is amazing. You're truly being the hands and feet of Jesus and and you truly are solving big challenges in our communities. And that's of course what we look to to partner with with the Dano's Foundation. One more question. How can listeners best support the life of a single mom?

SPEAKER_01 33:21

I'd say two things. One is if you are attending a church that does not have a single mom's Bible study support group, Sunday school class, whatever, a small gathering of single moms, then you need to reach out to us. You need to make the connection between your church and us because a lot of times they've just not considered it. It still is, even 20 years in, it's still a fairly new ministry idea. And so churches haven't considered that the single moms might be falling through the cracks. And particularly if you've got a singles group already in your church, they may assume single moms are assimilating there. Statistically, they're not. So I would say that would be the first thing. Be a voice for us. The second thing is I would say that for us, small things matter. So getting on our social media page and resharing, having conversations, looking at single moms in your life that you may think are doing really great and connecting them to us is a great way. There are so many that we hear from who say, if you ask all my friends and family, they would say I have it together. And so sometimes it's just giving them space to be okay sharing their story. And so those would be two things. Obviously, all the other things, volunteers, financial support, those are all things that most nonprofits need. We are no exception to that. But that would be two things I would say up front.

SPEAKER_00 34:37

I feel like I saw you speak at one of your luncheons one time and you were talking about, you know, the statistics of children who are raised by single parents. And, you know, can you go into a little bit more detail of that if that's something that you know of? Because I know that's super powerful to hear those numbers and the impact of that.

Misconceptions And Core Philosophy

SPEAKER_01 34:53

So yeah, so we so statistically, about a half million children in Louisiana are being raised by single mom right now. So we know that this is a really big need. If you look at it on a national scale, you'll see very similar that we have about 15 to 20 million moms that are raising children alone. When you start looking at the children that are coming out of these homes, you see that 78% of the U.S. prison population was raised by single mom. When we start looking in Louisiana at the recidivism rate and we start parlaying the adults that are in the incarcerated now versus those that had a two-parent family, there are almost none that are incarcerated that had a two-parent family. You start looking at education and you see that the child of a single mom is 10 times more likely to drop out of high school than her two-parent peer. The child of a single mom is five times more likely to commit suicide than her two-parent peer. We see they are 33 times more likely to run away from home. They are 17 times more likely to be abused. So you start looking at all of this data, and there's no mistaking that having a two-parent family, a traditional family, is statistically more advantageous to a child. Now, I want to say this because one of the things that happens when I start sharing statistics is people can become really discouraged that are living that out. Like, hey, my child is being raised and it's to no fault of my own. Like his dad walked out. I hadn't no part of it. I share the statistics so that people understand the scope of the problem and how big it is. But I also want to say to those that are listening that maybe walking this out right now, that every statistic that I share are ones that I have personally lived through. So I have lived as the child of a single parent. I don't share this part of my story very often, but my mother was killed when I was very young. So I was raised by a single dad. Um, I've been through being suicidal. I've been through living in poverty, I've been through very, very difficult things. But I want to say that God is far bigger than a statistic written on paper. And I think that's part of what makes our organization so powerful is because it's not about just saying, oh, this is my lot in life. I've resolved that my child is just going to statistically be, you know, poor the rest of their life or a single dad or whatever these things would say. That's the reality of what the numbers say. But the reason we exist is because we believe that the numbers can be changed. We are seeing if you are, if you come from a single parent family, you are more likely to duplicate single parenthood in your life. So how do we address all of that? Hope is found in the foundation of a relationship with Christ. That's the truth. And we can, you know, we partner with lots of government agencies and we partner with lots of uh other nonprofits. If we don't build that as the foundation, we're not changing a life. The reason moms, I've had mothers, I can't even tell you how many times Samantha have come to me and said, like when I came to your organization, I didn't believe that God existed, or I didn't even believe that there would be a God that could care about me with all that I've done in my life, or or I felt very forgotten by God. These types of things are common and they have margin to be able to express those things to us. But what they say on the other side of the story is, I saw God in everything that you do. I don't know why I'm so emotional now, but I see God in everything you do and it and it reestablishes hope for them. And so, yes, the statistics are overwhelming, but so is the goodness of God and so is his provision. And so that's why I still love it 20 years later and still, you know, beat my chest about it.

SPEAKER_00 38:28

That is so powerful and so inspiring. You got me tearing up over here, and I think Casey's got a little tear in his eye in the corner. Um thank you. Thank you for sharing that testimony. It is truly beautiful and impactful. I know our viewers or our listeners are gonna be inspired by your story. Is there anything else you wanted to add that we didn't cover?

Outreach, Marketing, And Church Buy-In

SPEAKER_01 38:46

No, I just want to say that to the entire Danos family. Um, you guys really supported us in a transitional time. So you mentioned that you've been supporters of ours for years now. You came along at a time when I'm sure you didn't know we existed and we didn't know you existed, but you you opened up your grant portal and you just, you know, you were inviting nonprofits to apply. You took a chance on us. And I just I went back and looked in preparation for this, for this time together of just the hundreds of mothers that you guys have impacted, not just here in Louisiana, but in Midland and in other places where you you guys have just been on the forefront of supporting us. So I just want to say to employees that may listen or to stakeholders that do business with you guys, you are truly a Christian company that is doing not just what you write on paper, but what you say you're going to do. And it blesses my heart. Your staff blessed my heart. The integrity that I've seen in your company does. So I just want to give accolades where they're due as well. We thank you for your partnership.

SPEAKER_00 39:46

Wow, thank you so much. Um, we love what you do. We love, love to hear your stories. I'm getting all tyrient again over here. Gosh, first time crying on the podcast. But you know, that's where we are. Again, thank you so much, Jennifer. We really appreciate you. You have a wonderful rest of the year and we wish all the best things for your organization.

SPEAKER_01 40:03

Thank you guys so much for having us.