SwagHer Spotlight: Samora Coles

“Cut the check! Don’t leave that part out.” Samora Coles is on a mission. Well, as Executive Director of The Alex House Project, she’s on quite a few missions. Her first is to provide education and emotional support to teenage parents through her nonprofit. Her second is to empower the people that are empowering people. 

What drives one to start a nonprofit benefiting teenage parents, you may ask? Being a teenage parent yourself. When she was just 17 years old, Samora became pregnant with her son Alex. Unlike many of the teens she supports today, she wasn’t homeless. Yet, Samora didn’t have the help needed to raise a child on her own. She didn’t know where to turn. So, one day Samora visited her school counselor because she had run out of options. 

Her counselor told her that she had to choose between raising a child and being a student. When she told her grandparents what her counselor had told her, they asked her, “Well, what do you want to do?” In response to this question, Samora remembers thinking, “Dude, no. I just need someone to tell me what to do. I’m 17. Do I continue being a student? Do I give birth to my kid?” 

Samora chose to raise her son, Alex. She knew that whatever decision she made, it would have challenges. Raising a child meant that she would be a few years behind her peers who were graduating high school and getting “good” jobs. Meanwhile, Samora had to apply for welfare and food stamps. She didn’t understand why she was asked so many questions, why she had to fill out so many forms and why she had to visit the welfare office every month. This was all unfamiliar to her. Samora also turned 18 just four months after her son’s birth, which means that her grandparents could not speak on her behalf. 

Samora eventually got a job working at a Brooklyn nonprofit called The Red Hook Initiative. Her boss approached her one day and asked her to start a program for the community. Samora declined.  

As the days passed, Samora’s decision began to weigh on her. She thought back to how much she struggled as a teen parent. Two weeks later, Samora went to her boss to say that she’d changed her mind. She would create the program, but only if she could focus on teen parents. Her boss agreed, and Samora started a simple support group consisting of 8-10 young mothers. She spread the word through flyers and a long-dead form of communication, MySpace. 

Samora’s “AHA moment” came when she met this one particular young mother. This young woman traveled from Queens to Red Hook, Brooklyn, where Samora was running the program – about a 2-hour commute on public transportation – every week. Samora offered to help her find a support group in Queens. She remembers thinking, “That’s a lot of hours of your life to give up for some conversation and some pizza.” The girl informed Samora that she’d tried support groups in Queens. She said the women, who were in their 30s and 40s, talked negatively about her. Since she was the only teenage mother there, the other mothers looked down on her. 

At this point, The Alex House Project had no structure and no curriculum. It was just a group of moms who got together and discussed what was stressing them out. Things went on like this until the group got so big, there was no other choice but to add structure. Samora wanted to create something more sustainable. She wanted to let the young mothers know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Understanding all the untapped potential of motherhood, Samora created classes that she held twice a week.

A new job was calling. Samora left The Red Hook Initiative behind and began to work in a women’s correctional facility two hours away from her home. Samora helped the women find housing, clothing, and anything else they may need during their transition from prison life to normal life. This job required Samora to put her phone away for the entirety of her shift. At the end of her shifts, she’d turn on her phone to see tons of missed calls and texts asking for help relating to parenting. Samora says at one point she started talking to her phone, saying, “What do you want me to do? I don’t work there (at Red Hook Initiative) anymore.” 

While she doesn’t claim to be “holier than thou,” Samora does believe in a higher being, and they had a talk. “What am I supposed to do? These girls keep calling me; I’m getting home late at night. What do you want me to do?” 

The answer came shortly after. Three days after Samora called on the divine for help, despite having a car note and her son Alex in college, she quit her full-time job. She recalls asking herself, “Are you crazy, lady?” She couldn’t believe she’d done that. But Samora’s prayers did not go unanswered. Her old boss from The Red Hook Initiative reached out to her, wondering if she knew anyone who needed a part-time job. “Hello! I’m your girl! I need a job!”  

With her part-time job, Samora officially started The Alex House Project, named after her son, in 2013. They walked into their facility, located inside a daycare center, and the rest was history. TAHP provides parenting education programs for both young moms, ages 14 -24, and young dads, ages 17-30.

Aside from attracting parents from the neighborhood, local schools, and group homes, TAHP’s work has garnered attention from agencies around the city. If a parent is at risk of losing their child, needs to show that they are a fit parent, or is looking to be reunited with their child, the City [of New York] reaches out to TAHP. COVID nearly caused a crisis when it broke out, causing the city to shut down completely. Thanks to TAHP’s new virtual programming that is no longer an issue. 

When asked what she thought things would be like in the city had she not stepped up to the plate to provide these services, she said this, “I’m not sure what it would look like. But our secret sauce is that the clients we serve become our leaders. After they’re finished parenting classes, they have the opportunity to become a parent-educator for a two-year trial period. There’s nothing more rewarding than a 16-year-old mom teaching and uplifting a 24-year-old mom through being a peer-leader. A lot of times, our clients come in as a damsel in distress. They come in with their head down; next thing you know, six months later, they’re sitting with their chest poked out. No one is doing that, and if they do, they’re not doing it like we do.”

Samora’s second mission is to make sure that the “official adults,” or the behind the scenes workers, are economically empowered. “How can we say we’re uplifting women if the people steering the ship aren’t getting paid what they should?” 

Samora is working to provide her staff with livable wages. She realizes that once her workers complete their two-year trial period, making minimum wage isn’t acceptable. Getting funding has been an issue. A grant writer by trade, Samora sends out a lot of proposals. She receives a lot of “no’s.” After running the organization with her own money for years, Samora finally got her first $100,000 from the New York Women’s Foundation in 2016. Before that, Samora was on the verge of giving up. She couldn’t afford it anymore. Samora didn’t start paying herself until 2017, four years after she’d started the organization. 

There were some very important lessons learned from funding TAHP on her own. She was forced to ask herself if this was a hobby or not. Turns out, it was more than a hobby. Samora still struggles to get funding but continues to build relationships with organizations that could potentially fund TAHP. She has put in the years and is waiting on the day where someone will say, “You’ve put in this time, now here’s $1 million or here’s $300,000 to help with staff for the next two years.” 

Funding struggles have prevented Samora from hiring much-needed positions, such as a social worker. “I don’t know rich people. But I need rich people to hear my voice. Don’t leave any of this out. Cut the check, make sure you put that in there!”

Samora Coles works hard to uplift marginalized members of her community. If you’d like to donate, connect, or learn more, visit the TAHP website.

 

 

About Kaitlan Darby

Kaitlan Darby is a graduate of UL Lafayette. She has a B.A. in Mass Communication with a concentration in Public Relations and a minor in promotional management. She is a publicist, writer, and aspiring actress. She is the founder of Black Mamba Creative, which is her creative arts/services outlet.

Instagram: @blackmambacreative

LinkedIn: Kaitlan Darby

Website: https://www.blackmambacreative.com