The Women’s Foundation for a Greater Memphis used its annual tribute luncheon Thursday, April 23, to highlight measurable gains in South Memphis — from declining poverty to rising household incomes — and doubled down on that momentum by raising nearly $80,000 in the room to support expansion of the work.
With a triple-match challenge from the Hyde Family Foundation and an anonymous donor, that total climbed to nearly $250,000, underscoring both the urgency of the effort and the level of community buy-in behind what leaders described as a proven model for strengthening families and neighborhoods.
“We’ve created a blueprint,” said Shante K. Avant, president and CEO of the Women’s Foundation. “The headline is not aspirational anymore. It’s a real one.”
At the center of that claim is South City, the mixed-income redevelopment that replaced the former Foote Homes public housing complex in the 38126 ZIP code. Foundation leaders pointed to years of coordinated investment there — in housing, education, workforce development and family support — as evidence that sustained, place-based strategies can shift outcomes over time.
“It’s not an overnight transformation,” one speaker noted. “But steady, sustained progress — family by family, neighborhood by neighborhood, generation by generation.”
Among the indicators cited:
- More than 66,000 individuals served since the expansion of Vision 2025 to reduce poverty in 38126
- An 18 percent drop in poverty in South City over the past five years
- Average household income rising from $6,646 to about $30,000
- More than 1,200 individuals placed in jobs
- Over 120 small businesses launched in targeted neighborhoods
Foundation leaders emphasized that the work extends beyond single programs to a broader ecosystem of support — including early childhood education, job training, financial literacy and access to basic needs.
Examples highlighted during the luncheon included the Porter-Leath Early Childhood Academy in South City, the community school model at Booker T. Washington Middle and High School, and a Food and Essentials Hub serving students and families across dozens of schools.
One Story of Success
For all the data points and projections, the luncheon paused to focus on one family, a reminder of what those numbers look like in real life.
Taneshia Bates, a South Memphis mother and first-generation college graduate, was presented as an example of what sustained investment can produce over time.
“I was working. I was a college student. I was a full-time mom,” Bates said in a video shared with the audience. “I had to set an example for my children.”
That example became a shared journey. While Bates was pursuing her degree at LeMoyne-Owen College, one of her daughters was still in middle school, watching closely.
“When I was in high school, she was in college,” her daughter said. “I used to see her on campus a lot.”
Their timelines eventually overlapped. The daughter graduated high school in 2016; Bates earned her degree the following year. For one year, mother and daughter were both college students — even inducted into an honor society together.
Today, Bates holds a bachelor’s degree in education from LeMoyne-Owen College and a master’s degree in early childhood education from Grand Canyon University. Nearly two decades after beginning her journey, she now serves on the board of Knowledge Quest, one of the organizations supported by the Women’s Foundation.
Speakers framed that arc as more than personal achievement.
“When you think about a first-generation college student, you’re talking about breaking cycles,” one presenter said. “Now there’s a trajectory that others can follow — that ‘Mama did it.’”
Bates captured that transformation in simple terms: “We are positive products of Memphis.”
O’Brien: ‘Support people where they need it’
Bates’ story nearly brought keynote speaker Soledad O’Brien to tears.
“Ms. Bates — you made me cry in my lunch,” O’Brien told the audience. “Your story is so amazing. And I love that it is not just your story. There are so many other stories like your story, and everybody in this room is here to support that.”
O’Brien, an award-winning journalist and founder of the PowHERful Foundation, used her keynote to connect those local efforts to a broader national reality: Communities thrive when they invest in the people most often overlooked.
Drawing on nearly four decades in journalism, O’Brien said stories like Bates’ were once treated as secondary — the kinds of assignments given to young reporters because they were seen as less important. Over time, she said, she came to understand the opposite.
“Stories about women, education, job training — those were once treated as small stories,” she said. “But those are the underpinnings of a thriving community.”
O’Brien described her own evolution as a reporter, recalling early coverage that often focused on dramatic headlines without fully exploring the lives behind them — families facing poverty, single mothers navigating impossible choices, communities lacking access to basic resources.
“I did not dig into understanding people’s lives and perspectives,” she said. “We were covering a dramatic headline.”
That changed, she said, through experiences like reporting in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, where she witnessed firsthand the consequences of systemic failure — and the urgent need for more thoughtful, human-centered storytelling.
In the years since, O’Brien has worked through her own foundation to support young women pursuing higher education — an effort that reinforced what she said organizations like the Women’s Foundation for a Greater Memphis already understand.
“Large or small — three young women you’re helping, or thousands of people in a community — you need more,” she said. “You need wraparound services. You need support. You need patience.”
She illustrated that point with a story about a student who was on the verge of dropping out — not because of academics, but because she lacked access to basic hygiene.
“People were offering things like STEM classes,” O’Brien said. “But what she needed was soap and a shower.”
The lesson, she said, is simple but often overlooked: Solutions must match real needs.
“You need to support people where they need it,” she said. “Helping a student get an internship doesn’t work if they don’t have food. Helping a student go to college doesn’t work if they don’t have a place to stay.”
For O’Brien, the stakes extend beyond individual success stories to the health of entire communities.
“You cannot have a thriving community if a large portion of the population is being pulled under,” she said.
Her message echoed the Women’s Foundation’s broader theme — that sustained, intentional investment in women and families is not just charitable work, but essential infrastructure for a city’s future.
“Communities that have figured out how to help the most vulnerable succeed,” she said, “are the communities that are doing well for everybody.”
Avant: ‘We know how to do this and we can do more’
Avant said the Foundation’s next phase will focus on scaling what has worked in South Memphis to additional neighborhoods — a move she described as both necessary and urgent.
“We know how to do this,” she said. “And we can do more.”
By the end of the luncheon, organizers had surpassed their initial $40,000 goal, with 667 donors contributing and a continued push to expand participation beyond the roughly 500 donors who gave at last year’s event.
“Every gift matters,” Avant told the crowd. “This is generational work.”
