Why should we care?
SCS’s ability to provide a quality, equitable education is being undercut by high teacher turnover and year-long teaching vacancies, as well as significant maintenance deficiencies within the schools, all of which leads to higher financial, educational, and health costs. A lack of access to wraparound services provided by qualified social workers, psychologists, and nurses inhibits the successful treatment of trauma or Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE). Abuse, neglect, and trauma significantly increase the likelihood of suspensions, juvenile criminal behavior, and incarceration. With a median age four years below the national average, Memphis’s population can support economic development, but only if we provide children in our community access to opportunities and support.
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Equipping people of faith and goodwill to organize communities for systemic change through collective action.
Liz Reid
Organizer
Liz Love hails from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, by way of Memphis, TN. After her parents' death, she was adopted by her grandfather and raised alongside five older sisters and two younger brothers. This midwestern girl with southern roots defied the odds and overcame adversity to arrive at her dream of being a college student.
While serving as the 80th Miss University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, she created Essence of a Woman, a peer to peer mentorship program to help young women matriculate academically, mentally, and spiritually while in school and life after graduation. Liz earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and commissioned in the United States Army Reserves as a Medical Service Corp Officer. Ten years later, the program has transformed into a formidable organization with-stranding the tests of time.
She is heavily involved with charities, organizations, and boards that support girls, women, veterans, and entrepreneurs. Her husband, Michael, is an Engineer Army officer who proudly serves and shares the same passion for helping others. Her son Michael III is an adventurous toddler. Both of them are her biggest supporters.
