2022-100-Faces-Book - Flipbook - Page 42
Jawharrah
Mother. Organizer. Esthetician.
A mother of three, Jawharrah is on the frontlines
advocating for voting rights, prison reform,
reproductive freedom and families staying together.
To her, this work is necessary and deeply personal—
Jawharrah was eight weeks pregnant when she
became incarcerated.
“I spent the majority of my pregnancy in there.”
During her incarceration, her mother and sister cared
for her other two children. After she delivered, they
cared for her newborn son. He had just turned three
when she was released.
She says even after all this time, nearly seven years
later, she’s still making up for lost time and building
back those relationships.
After her release, she visited McGruder Family
Resource Center, a United Way partner, to learn more
about resources available to her. That’s when she
heard about The Family Collective, a United Way
program that partners to prevent and end family
homelessness in Greater Nashville. Soon after, she
was in the program.
“Life was very chaotic before then. I had the tools
and everything; they just kind of helped me put it
together and map that out and be that support, that
accountability. They were the support system that
I needed when I was going through my trials and
tribulations. When I got into that program, it was hard
for me to find a job being that I have a record.”
Jawharrah started volunteering with Free Hearts, an
organization led by formerly incarcerated women. She
started out part time, helping other families who had
been impacted by incarceration—and was eventually
hired on full time.
With more income and the help of The Family
Collective, she was able to secure housing for her
family, go back to school to become an esthetician and
open her own business, Lashing Artistry.
—
Two days after giving birth to her third child, Jawharrah
tearfully and painfully handed her baby to her mom so
that she could return to jail to await sentencing.
“It was very emotional … very, very emotional.”
She’s working hard to ensure that other mothers facing
incarceration don’t experience that same trauma.
In 2019, she advocated for legislation, the Primary
Caregiver Bill, which requires courts to consider other
options for keeping parents facing incarceration with
their children. Thanks to her hard work, Tennessee
now offers alternative, community-based sentences
like drug rehab, counseling and education for those
convicted of non-violent offenses and have children
that depend on them.
“Just to give them other alternatives versus just
sending people away and locking them up … trying to
give them other skill sets and things to kind of help
them support their family.”
The Family Collective
