Home Team: The Tender Foundation

The Tender Foundation supports single moms living on the margins by providing emergency financial assistance with rent, utilities, grocery store gift cards, and everyday items like diapers and wipes. 98% of moms that Tender supports are Black women. Driven by the concept of "community care” - believing we all need a village - Tender is committed to empowering all mamas by making the essentials accessible.

We have had a few visits with Tender’s ever-thoughtful and humble founder, Jaycina Almond. She set up an entire business for a for-profit venture with a social give-back component, and realized she only cared about the latter. Combining her passion for philanthropy with her experience as a mama, she has a hustle that is so easy to root for. 

As always, we loved getting her answers to a few simple questions about what her work and the city of Atlanta means to her. Enjoy–

What does Atlanta mean to you?

On a personal level - Atlanta means comfort. I didn’t move to Atlanta until I was 19, going on six years ago, and what a privilege it is it to live in a city where you see yourself reflected back at you wherever you go for the most part. I always joke whenever I travel, “I miss Black folks.” Atlanta has spoiled me that way.

What do you want more of for our City? What’s a hope you have?

I want the city to stay a place of comfort for ALL Black folks. My folks living in Bedford Pines to Ben Hill. So much has changed in just the 6 years I’ve called Atlanta home - when people visit places like Ponce City Market or the Beltline I want them to recognize who has been displaced, heavily policed, and left behind in order for them to be there. The hope is that at some point it stops. The hope is that we’ll do something about the city’s income inequality gap, the largest in the US, instead.

 —

“When people visit places like Ponce City Market or the Beltline I want them to recognize who has been displaced, heavily policed, and left behind in order for them to be there.”

—

What's got you busy? (What work has your attention at the moment?)

We’re building out a new initiative - a more holistic take on the gap assistance we do currently. Right now, we provide emergency financial support with rent and utilities, grocery store gift cards, and everyday essentials like diapers and wipes.

The question we’re asking ourselves as a team is what happens if we are able to focus on our mama’s personal wellbeing(mental and physical health, workforce development, etc) AND provide direct, unconditional cash payments for 6-12 months. Is a program like this able to change the trajectory of our families lives? Is access to an influx of cash on a regular basis for Black mamas living on the margins the beginnings of shaking generational poverty? Working on making the answers to those questions, yes.

Who or what are you inspired by as you do that work?

My own daughter. The mamas we serve everyday. Claudia Jones.

My place in Atlanta is _________

The eastside. I named my daughter Syx, an ode to East Atlanta. My first adulthood home.