Caring Causes: Jeremiah Program

Jeremiah Program offers one of the nation’s most successful strategies for ending the cycle of poverty for single mothers and their children, two generations at a time. Two-generational – or 2Gen – programs uniquely focus on the whole family and achieve long-term, sustainable results. The approach has been proven to achieve significant educational, health and economic benefits for parents, children and communities.

Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minn., Jeremiah Program is expanding throughout the country to meet the growing demand for its model. The organization has campuses in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., Austin, Texas, and Fargo, ND. Construction is set to begin on a campus in Rochester-SE, Minn. in 2019. In Boston and Brooklyn, Jeremiah has introduced an innovative nonresidential model, working with leading organizations to serve mothers and children. Learn more atJeremiahProgram.org.

Jeremiah Program recently announced Chastity Lord as its next President and CEO. Lord is a dynamic leader who has dedicated her career to disrupting systems of inequity through a social justice lens.

“Jeremiah resonated with me on a deeply personal level, as a first-generation college graduate who grew up poor with a single mom and a lot of housing instability,” said Lord. “Education was the lever that disrupted my own family’s cycle of generational poverty.”

“Because of its successful model, Jeremiah is in a unique position to frame a national conversation about the investments required to disrupt cycles of generational poverty, while simultaneously illuminating what systems and structures lead to it,” said Lord.

One immediate goal is to increase Jeremiah’s visibility and voice.

“One of my key priorities is to ensure that anyone who is committed to disrupting cycles of poverty and dismantling the systems and structures that lead to it, know the work of Jeremiah Program,” Lord said. “I want them to know who we are, what we are about, and about our twenty plus years of impact. We will have to broaden our tent of supporters and champions as Jeremiah Program seeks to demonstrate transformative impact at a larger scale.”