Who is Hope?

Hope’s Bio: 

I strongly believe that even just one person can give off enough positivity to influence the frequency of the world causing a positive chain reaction. As an individual, I aim to go above and beyond to influence the people that cross my path. Starting with myself, I was always an over achiever. I was very ambitious from a very young age. My mother had me when she was 15 and raised me and my siblings as a young, single mother of 3. Being the oldest, I saw how difficult it was for her to raise us, but she did it to the best of her ability; however, I was a very empathetic child, very in-tune with my mother’s feelings and always wanted to help make things easier on her. I believe that’s what brew a deep passion within me to want to help others especially ones who were suffering in some way from the lack of love or support, or injustice, inequality, or lack of stability and resources. I always excelled in school being the first in my family to graduate high school and college. Having obtained a bachelor’s degree in Psychology, I went on to work with children and families. I worked hard at everything did. I was able to buy my home as a first-time home buyer at the age of 25 which was a great achievement for me because I was trying to obtain the first property in my family. I often bumped heads with coworkers and supervisors always being labeled as an “overachiever” because I always went above and beyond to make sure the people I served got their needs met hoping that I left them in a better situation than they came to me in. I always believed that protocol and procedures were there to keep order not to restrict the level of service and I always wanted my clients to be happy and fulfilled in every position I’ve held. I never liked being told what I couldn’t do, but rather I always wanted to know what I could do because it was my mission to help people as much as I could. I became an advocate for children and families as a Family Services Coordinator in Head Start hoping to teach families how to better their family units. I became a Youth Advocate working with children with disabilities and mental health issues advocating for services to help them thrive in their communities. I also became an advocate for returning citizens serving as Board Secretary, Vice President, and then President as a member of a non-profit organization called Out for Justice, Inc located in Baltimore, MD. I opened my own home to ex-offenders who couldn’t get housing otherwise and allowed them stay in my home until they found somewhere to live and work. As a member for Out for Justice, Inc., I helped draft and lobbied for bills to be passed such as the “Band the Box” laws and the “Second Chance Act” in Maryland for ex-offenders to have an equal chance at life in society after incarceration. My grandmother used to always tell me that it seemed as though I always had someone I was “nurturing or molding.” While I love helping others, I am most passionate about working with children. I have worked with children of all ages from 3-21 years old with the hope that I can help teach them and guide them in the right direction to be the leaders of tomorrow. In working with children, my first intervention is always showing them unconditional love because I believe that love is lacking in the world and in a lot of homes today. It is said that when someone feels loved, they are more likely to live up to their fullest potential. My goal in life, and I believe it to be my purpose, is to love people and give hope to others. Currently, I write poetry with the hope of inspiring and uplifting people’s souls. Even on my personal Facebook page, I only post positive, loving, uplifting content trying to effect a change in the world one person at a time. It is very fulfilling to see children and families I work with make so many improvements and have so many successes. People have told me that I inspire them and that gives me a confirmation that I am doing my job. I may not be able to change the whole world, but I try to be the example of the change I want to see in the world. Sadly, I lost the Head Start position I held for 6 years due to federal funding cuts and could no longer afford my home. I was going through foreclosure and had to short sale my home, the same home I helped house returning citizens in as well as friends and relatives who needed a place to stay. As I faced this difficult journey, I reached a point in my life where I felt there has to be more to life than just this material world we live in. A sequence of events made me realize that I was losing everything I had worked so hard for and I was feeling empty inside. Simultaneously, and incident happened in my city, Baltimore, where a young man by the name of Freddie Gray was killed at the hands of the police and cause my city to be in an uproar. Being the advocate that I was, I felt it my duty to organize Out For Justice members to teach people all we had learned about organizing and peacefully protesting. We went to the neighborhood where Gray was killed and advocated for the Gray family and his community. We came together with many other groups and arranged peaceful protests to stand against the injustice. I gave a speech about peace on City Hall in Downtown Baltimore under Malik Zulu Shabazz’s platform to rally for justice. During this time, I felt the cloud of hopelessness fall on my people, my hometown and my very own heart. My soul was crying out for a spiritual healing. All of this personal and external turmoil just fueled my poetry. I always believed in God in my heart and during this time, I called out to Him to guide me, to help heal the hearts of the people and to lead me to my purpose, so I continued to write. God’s love and gift of being able to write poetry has helped me to filter through my own emotions and thoughts, to combat feelings of despair and hopelessness and has helped me to heal and grow physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally. Unfortunately, I am no longer able to help people materialistically, so that fuels my poetry even more. I want to be able to help people grow spiritually and hopefully heal many broken hearts in the world and empower the youth.  It is my hope that my words will impact the masses and hopefully my story can instill hope in others. Thank you for supporting my work.

I am HOPE!