Jennifer has a long history and deep connection with mental health and financial struggles starting from her early childhood.  As a young toddler, Jennifer’s father was asked to move out by her mother due to his mental health struggles that led him to be an alcoholic and unstable individual. Without a second income, her mother struggled financially to care for herself and her 3 children on a teacher’s salary.  This led to a chaotic childhood made up of a lot of moves and inconsistency around resources such as food and even electricity or water. Jennifer struggled with her mental health from her earliest memories feeling constantly like something was wrong with her.  

It wasn’t until she was an undergraduate attending Baylor University that she was able to begin getting the support she needed. Two big factors on why that was possible was that Baylor provided counseling staff on campus and heavily subsidized the cost for each session.  Through that process Jennifer was able to begin the journey of working through her negative experiences and deeply held beliefs that she wasn’t good enough.  Medication was even made available to her to assist with her depression. This was the beginning of what has been a curvy path helping Jennifer get to the right diagnoses, medications, and support needed to be able to be not only a fully functioning member of society with a steady job, wonderful family, and rich community, but also the internal psychology to accept her worthiness to have all those things.

After a mental health crisis in 2022, Jennifer built a support group to help those with mental health disorders connect and support one another.  Throughout the time running this support group, a common theme was repeated over and over again.  The theme of someone struggling to either get or keep their disorder in check due to their financial limitations.  These individuals had a very strong desire to get in a better place in order to either gain new or even better employment for themselves.  If they received that financial support there would have been tangible impacts to themselves and also to the community through their ability to earn income. Jennifer had the initial idea for the foundation at this time, but it took her time to gain the confidence that she could truly build something this powerful from the ground up. Jennifer truly believes that if we can come together to increase our power to help those struggling with mental illnesses, we will reap great benefits as a community and society.