When high school senior Tamya Buck walked up to the podium in her baby blue Springboard to Opportunities shirt and a shiny black bag slung over one shoulder, she smiled like she already knew she owned the room.
Standing before dozens of friends and strangers gathered in Jackson’s Mississippi Museum of Art, 18-year-old Buck talked about her love of dance and how her life changed when her mother, Tamara Edwards, was chosen to receive a yearlong guaranteed income through the Magnolia Mother’s Trust. While her mother didn’t often talk about the family’s financial pressures, Buck saw how funds from the trust eased the strain of paying for dance uniforms and travel fees.
“She was less stressed, having the extra support to put food on the table, and I think my mom got to see all that investment she made pay off when my coaches wanted me to be captain,” Buck said. An audience member called out, “Yes, girl,” as the room erupted with applause.
The Magnolia Mother’s Trust is run by Springboard to Opportunities, a Jackson-based social justice nonprofit. Since 2018, the organization has provided financial and social support to roughly 100 Black mothers living in one of four affordable housing complexes in Jackson. Once accepted through the lottery system, women receive $1,000 a month for a year with no restrictions on their spending.
Three high school students speak at Springboard to Opportunities’ annual Night of Storytelling. Left to right: Kentavius Christmas, Tamya Buck, John Beals. Credit: Chuck Washington via Springboard to Opportunities
At the annual “Night of Storytelling” Wednesday, participants illustrated how the program allowed them to shift their lives in radical ways. This year, their children took the stage to share their experiences.
Buck was among the three high school students who spoke, along with John Beals and Kentavius Christmas. Last June, these students joined Springboard to Opportunities’ inaugural youth leadership program. In their speeches, the young storytellers explored different ways the program helped shape their lives. Beals described his dual love of sports and math, Christmas philosophized on the difference between equality and equity, and Buck shared her goal of travelling the world. Collectively, they connected the stability a guaranteed income program brought to their family with their own well-being and expansive dreams for the future.
For Aisha Nyandoro, founder of Springboard to Opportunities, watching the students speak fulfilled an ambition she’s had for years. She’s seen firsthand how storytelling can be used as a tool to create new personal narratives. “This night as it relates to our work is really about making sure that the community understands that they are the holders of their stories, therefore they’re the dictators of their narrative,” she said.
Many of the Magnolia Trust mothers are raising children on their own. This is the case for Tamara Edwards, who has four children with Buck being the youngest. She first found out about the Magnolia Mother’s Trust through a flyer posted in her apartment complex. Edwards remembers the moment she found out she had been accepted to the 2021 cohort, she started crying.
“I couldn’t believe that there was something out there that had no strings attached, that they was trying to do this for me,” Edwards said. “And you know, it just opened up so many doors.”
Tamara Edwards, mother of Tamya Buck, shares how proud she is of her daughter for leaning into her leadership potential. Credit: Chuck Washington via Springboard to Opportunities
With the additional funds, Edwards was able to attend cosmetology school, pushing her closer to a long-delayed dream of being a hairstylist. She fixed her car when it broke down, and paid for her daughter’s dance expenses without needing to work extra shifts as a chef at Cracker Barrel.
High school sophomore Christmas explained in his speech how the trust promoted equity for Black families. Instead of constantly working, his mom had time to take him and his brother out to eat and buy new clothes for herself.
“My mom had the chance to just be a mom,” he said.
Relieving burdens was the goal, Nyandoro told Mississippi Today, when she began dreaming of more direct ways to help families. When establishing the trust, she invited a group of Black mothers to envision a new program with her, and realized many of their daily challenges could be addressed with cash. In 2018, her team set about raising the funds.
At first, it was a tough sell. Funders were used to organizations that provided a service, not money. Guaranteed income was a radical concept, and the trust led the first wave of pilot programs with a cohort of 20 women in December 2018. Nyandoro was adamant that mothers receive their first check before the holidays. The California Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration, a precursor to many income programs, began a few months later.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, several income programs sprang up nationwide, and a network of mayors agreed to support pilots in their home cities. Mayors for a Guaranteed Income now includes nearly 180 leaders across the country, and a pilot tracker lists 61 active programs. Of those, Magnolia Mother’s Trust is the longest running guaranteed income program in the United States.
In Mississippi, Black women earn on average 58 cents for every dollar paid to a white man. But a program like the Magnolia Mother’s Trust is designed to uplift those who experience both a racial and gender wealth disparity. The benefits can include a huge mental impact.
“The idea of being able to wake up on a daily basis to be able to just exhale, that okay, this particular thing is covered in your life, it’s just like a breath of air,” Edwards told Mississippi Today.
Research has shown that similar programs have allowed participants to pay off debt, spend more time with family and afford medical expenses, stabilizing households.
That stability can also boost children’s mental health, said Dr. Patricia Tibbs, a pediatrician in Ellisville who has worked with patients and families for over three decades. “Whether or not they will manifest an inherent tendency to anxiety in childhood is very highly linked to stress in the home, which is very highly linked to, among other things, poverty.”
Springboard to Opportunities founder Aisha Nyandoro speaks at their annual Night of Storytelling. Credit: Chuck Washington via Springboard to Opportunities
For Buck, the connection between her mother’s mental health and her own is simple.
She explained that when her mom is stressed about money, the household mood feels heavier. “I feel like you move based off how your family moves,” she said.
Despite being initially nervous about public speaking, both Buck and Edwards felt they needed to share their stories and wanted to support the team at Springboard to Opportunities, who had continuously invested in their growth.
“They taught me to always drive towards success no matter the circumstances,” Buck said. “This is a program with kids that live in low-income apartments, so no matter your circumstances, you can still be heard, you’re still as important as anyone else.”
