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Jennifer Maggio – People to Watch 2017


JENNIFER MAGGIO
FOUNDER OF THE LIFE OF A SINGLE MOM MINISTRIES

Jennifer Maggio was 17 and had just become a teen mom when her father kicked her out of her family home in rural Louisiana. She had no money, no friends—and a newborn child. Living out of her car, she spent the next few years making her own set of mistakes while trying to survive as a single mom.

While living on government assistance, she landed an entry-level position at HSBC Bank and eventually climbed the corporate ladder to become assistant vice president. But while her job allowed her to work her way out of welfare, she says the emotional and financial struggles of solo parenting stayed with her. In 2006, Maggio’s experiences spurred her to start a single mom support group.

Four years later, she founded The Life of a Single Mom Ministries, a non-profit organization that works with churches of all denominations and all across the country to develop similar support groups. The organization has grown to more than 1,500 groups—meaning the 39-year-old’s work is making an impact on more than 50,000 single moms each year. thelifeofasinglemom.com


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Why she works with churches to accept single moms:

“I think for a long time, the church community in general has struggled with how to meet the needs of a single mom especially because their arrival to single parenthood is varied and sometimes doesn’t always align with what a church’s theology may be. So what they do is just ignore that [single moms] exist because they don’t want to endorse anything like divorce or unwed pregnancy, etc. …. Consequently what has happened is that single moms have fallen away from [churches] in droves. They don’t see the church as a place for hope and freedom and peace—which is why the church exists.”


HOW TO:

Run a successful non-profit:

It takes a mix of passion and business sense, Maggio says. Human resources, recruiting, training, building budgets, long-term strategic planning and working with low- to middle-income clients are all part of the job.


This article was originally published in the January 2017 issue of 225 Magazine.