Jaquetta Jenkins, a New York real estate investor, started a nonprofit providing emergency shelter to domestic-violence survivors with children after witnessing violence growing up. A Westchester County business accelerator helped her get 501 certification, build a board, and assist two families through mentorship and local agency connections.
Questions this video answers
From the economic development office in Westchester County.
501 (501 certified).
Two families.
Chapters
I'm Jaquetta Jenkins, a real estate investor here in New York. I'm a wife, a mom of three beautiful children, and I decided to launch a nonprofit to provide immediate assistance and emergency shelter to domestic violence survivors with dependent children. Growing up, I witnessed violence against a loved one quite often. And being a child in that situation, I know exactly what the children are going through. And I just had to do something to help out. I didn't know what that looked like, but then I received an email from the economic development office here in Westchester county saying that they were launching a business accelerator program. And I knew that this would be the chance that I needed to get my idea out of my head and into the world. When I joined the program, we were asked to speak to stakeholders who serve domestic violence survivors currently in our county. And what I found was there was a lack of available emergency shelter. So what that meant was if there is a survivor that really needed to escape a violent situation, they would have nowhere to go. And so I knew that I needed to do something to help. I had no experience with starting a nonprofit. This is not something I've ever done before, nothing that I've taken a course on. So I really wasn't knowledgeable. However, being in the program, we were asked to seek outside resources and speak with people in the community, agencies, other nonprofits that had more experience than we did. And through those actions, I was really able to gain a lot of insight into the nonprofit world. I was able to accomplish so many things from getting the idea of wanting to help domestic violence survivors to actually starting a nonprofit. We are 501 certified. We have a full board that is very active in helping survivors here in our county, we've helped two families so far, and that's just an amazing feeling. The most beneficial part of the program is having that one on one mentorship, that weekly confirmation of what you're doing is right on target. And if not, here's the way we can pivot. I want you to think about what, what you can do better, what you haven't done yet. But that one on one feel was really important for me. I would recommend this program to another entrepreneur in a heartbeat. Anyone who has an idea and they want to start a business, this is the perfect program for them. It allows you to conceptualize what you want to do and actually have you think about how you're going to do it and the best way that's going to benefit you. So this sign here, it speaks to me. It says she believed she could, so she did. I knew I didn't want to be a victim of my past, and so I didn't. I took my idea and I ran with it, and I'm so glad I did.
