Model and Strategy
Through The Magnolia Mother’s Trust: Storytelling Lab, Springboard To Opportunities seeks to change the narrative surrounding low-income, Black mothers in our country by providing them with the tools and platforms to share their own stories. Throughout our country’s history, low-income, Black mothers have been subjected to the stories and narratives others put upon them, labeling them as welfare queens, unmotivated, and untrustworthy. These false descriptions have been used to justify decades of punitive welfare policies that make it nearly impossible for women to meet their basic needs, let alone begin working toward their goals and dreams.
It is our hope to change that narrative by changing the narrator. Through the Storytelling Lab project, mothers who are a part of The Magnolia Mother’s Trust, Springboard To Opportunities’ guaranteed income initiative providing 110 Black mothers residing in affordable housing with $1,000/month, will participate in small group courses taught by communication professionals who will equip them with the tools and confidence to share their stories across multiple platforms, helping shape a new narrative owned by these women.
Impact
Our project has the potential to drive narrative change for low-income, Black women and ultimately lead to new policies grounded in the honest stories of families, rather than problematic cultural myths. While many factors go into creating new policies, we cannot deny they are informed by the stories and assumptions we hold onto as a society that tell us who is deserving and who is not. The myth of the welfare queen, which paints low-income, Black mothers as poor decision makers and irresponsible mothers content to “live off the system,” has been an enduring story since the 1980s that has been utilized by politicians on both the right and the left to justify cutting welfare programs and putting tighter restrictions around how funds can be used and who they are available to.
But it is past time for these mothers to have the opportunity to tell their own story. By equipping mothers with the skills and confidence to begin telling their story, both orally and in written form, they will be fully prepared to share their stories regarding the complexities and obstacles of the current welfare system, as well as the differences they experienced receiving a guaranteed income through The Magnolia Mother’s Trust.
As an organization, Springboard will be able to utilize its vast network of media partners to ensure these stories are shared in opinion editorials and a podcast, hosted by CEO Aisha Nyandoro and author and activist Mia Birdsong, on a national stage that can begin to change the convoluted narrative surrounding low-income, Black mothers. With new stories can come new policies based on the lived experience and expertise of women who have been navigating these systems for years and can help policymakers determine the best ways to put a very broken system back together.
Leadership
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Aisha Nyandoro
CEO
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Sarah Stripp
Program Manager