Every scar tells a story!
Meet Our Founder
Jennifer Jones
If you know Jennifer Jones, you know she’s not shy to hard work. If anything, she encourages it. As a wife, the mother of three and a business owner, she works hard to remain grounded.
Jennifer is a graduate of Columbia College where she obtained her Bachelor of Arts Degree in 2007. She honors the second women’s college in South Carolina as the foundation of her growth. She prides the college for its commitment to the development of world leaders.
After facilitating her first nonprofit job for four years, she felt a pulling on her heart to lay down the foundation of her own nonprofit organization, Beauty Marks for Girls. Beauty Marks for Girls is a leadership program for young girls whose mothers are incarcerated. After living through the incarceration of her own mother, she states she would not want to do anything else.
"The call that the Lord has placed on my life is to protect and equip young girls who are in a place that I once lived in. Everyone gets a pen to narrate their own story. Despite the odds, I teach our girls that you are the designer in your own destiny. You must be resilient. My vow is to pass down everything that I have learned to each participant in my program. I would have never known that the very thing that hurt me the most in my past, would help save someone else’s future. Young girls need so much direction today, I try hard to be the role model that I needed when I was young,” states the founder.
The Founder also enjoys serving in local prisons. Jennifer faithfully traveled back to her hometown and served at Leath Correctional Institution in Greenwood, SC. She acknowledges that the institution pushed her to a completely different level in life. Jennifer recalls the first class she taught at the institution to be extremely intimidating, but empowering. "I did not just find my voice teaching in women prisons, I found my calling."
When asked what is one of her favorite quotes to sum up her life right now she replies, “The important question is never who's going to let me do something great in my life, the question is who dares to stop me!” This seems to sum up a little of this fierce leader’s drive and passion for life.
Jennifer remains enthusiastic about being an advocate for children affected by parental incarceration. She states the goal in her organization will always be focused around raising awareness for the girls in her program and providing for them a safe place to grow.
What our program provides
Building a strong community
Customized Career Development Program
Building a strong community
Providing a fun, yet interactive environment for our youth is important to us. Many children of incarcerated parents give up having a normal childhood to just be a KID. We provide group outings such as skating together, Bowling, Movie Day, Pajama Parties, Field trips all FREE OF CHARGE. We watch participants bond together and help each other through the challenging days.
Mentorship
Customized Career Development Program
Building a strong community
Mentorship is the organizational structure of our organization. We believe in providing a protected and comfortable space for mentors to offer teaching, affirmation, and guidance.
Customized Career Development Program
Customized Career Development Program
Customized Career Development Program
A program designed to help each participants explore career opportunities that align with their personal design, talents, and preferences.
What our program provides
College Scholarships
Birthday Celebrations
Birthday Celebrations
To help each girl reach her potential, we support their educational and career endeavors through offering college scholarships to graduating high school seniors.
Birthday Celebrations
Birthday Celebrations
Birthday Celebrations
We believe in celebrating youth! We believe it is our job to champion them as an act of social activism so that they can change the world they live in and the world around them.
Free Wellness Sessions
Birthday Celebrations
Free Wellness Sessions
Mental Health referrals for youth are on the rise. Beauty Marks for Girls focuses on the mental wellness of all participants. We provide sessions with a certified Mindful Meditation Coach to help our participants use mediation as an outlet of coping with emotional distress.
Monthly Care Packages
Teaching long-term financial sustainability
Free Wellness Sessions
Every month Beauty Marks for Girls supplies hygiene and personal care packages for the girls in our program.
Free Gas Cards to visit Moms
Teaching long-term financial sustainability
Teaching long-term financial sustainability
Enrollees keeping a consistent mother/daughter bond is important to our organization. To ensure communication is focalized, we provide gas cards to guardians to help participants visit their mothers.
Teaching long-term financial sustainability
Teaching long-term financial sustainability
Teaching long-term financial sustainability
Financial literacy program that teaches students the basics of money management: budgeting, saving, debt, investing, giving and more. This program plays a foundation for students to build strong money habits early on and avoid many of the mistakes that lead to lifelong money struggles.
Beauty Marks for Girls awarded!
We are honored to be chosen as a Ms. South Honoree for The Ms. Foundation for Women!
“The South is a region where women and girls of color have the least access to philanthropic resources while leading innovative and impactful efforts to advance equity and justice for all,” said Roz Lee, Vice President of Strategy and Programs at the Ms.
We are honored to be chosen as a Ms. South Honoree for The Ms. Foundation for Women!
“The South is a region where women and girls of color have the least access to philanthropic resources while leading innovative and impactful efforts to advance equity and justice for all,” said Roz Lee, Vice President of Strategy and Programs at the Ms. Foundation. “Ms. has a strong history of supporting WGOC-led grassroots advocacy and leadership in the South, and is eager to partner with social justice leaders and Southern funders to go deeper.”
The Ms. Foundation will seek to assemble a balanced portfolio of rural, urban, emerging, and established organizations. By advocating for greater investment within the philanthropic community, the organization aims to influence philanthropy to increase giving to WGOC by a significant margin.
Our Focal Areas
Identify & Self-Compassion
Social behavior and Mental Wellness
Identify & Self-Compassion
Most girls look up to their mothers. In fact, a mother’s self- esteem is one a girl learns to mirror first as a child. Well, what happens when a girl no longer has that role model to look up to? Girls who have a mother incarcerated are sometimes left alone in a big world trying to find inner strength and self-worth. Statistics show that
Most girls look up to their mothers. In fact, a mother’s self- esteem is one a girl learns to mirror first as a child. Well, what happens when a girl no longer has that role model to look up to? Girls who have a mother incarcerated are sometimes left alone in a big world trying to find inner strength and self-worth. Statistics show that unhealthy self-esteem can lead to depression, destructive behavior, self-harming, eating disorders or alcohol/drug abuse.
Our organization ensures that our participants have a strong sense of true beauty and self-respect. We conduct monthly activities with our young girls to help strengthen their core values. In addition to that, we partner with local beauticians to serve our girls hair needs. We also provide personal hygiene and care package needs.
Academics
Social behavior and Mental Wellness
Identify & Self-Compassion
Research shows that children of incarcerated parents may be particularly at risk in disconnecting from school and becoming involved with negative peer groups. For this reason, we focus heavily on education to ensure that our participants have everything that is needed in order to thrive in their schools. We do not want our young girls t
Research shows that children of incarcerated parents may be particularly at risk in disconnecting from school and becoming involved with negative peer groups. For this reason, we focus heavily on education to ensure that our participants have everything that is needed in order to thrive in their schools. We do not want our young girls to just ”go” to school; we want them to be leaders in their school.
Our Leadership program offers free after-school tutoring, weekend assistance, and monthly progress reporting. We partner with every participant’s principal, guidance counselors and teachers to guarantee that our girls get the attention and support needed inside the classroom.
Social behavior and Mental Wellness
Social behavior and Mental Wellness
Social behavior and Mental Wellness
The overall wellness of the youth in our program is extremely important to us. Studies show that separation from a primary caregiver can impact a child’s emotional well-being. One behavior that is linked to girls having a mother incarcerated is destructive relationships. Some girls tend to shut down completely from trusting other people
The overall wellness of the youth in our program is extremely important to us. Studies show that separation from a primary caregiver can impact a child’s emotional well-being. One behavior that is linked to girls having a mother incarcerated is destructive relationships. Some girls tend to shut down completely from trusting other people, while others have difficulty developing healthy relationships with men and women. Additionally, most young girls with a mother incarcerated victimize themselves in believing that it is “my fault.”
We, at Beauty Marks are committed to breaking the cycle of wrong thinking. We plan purposeful monthly exercises with our participants to find out how they are truly feeling inside. Our girls are taught how to use these various activities to express their emotions. We are also partnered with a certified child therapist to help with more severe cases that need immediate attention. So whether they feel alone on another Mother’s Day or the first day of school, we show up for our participants to guide them through difficult times.
Educate. Empower. Inspire.
Why we Serve?
- According to research, an estimated 5 million children in America have at least one parent in jail or prison.
- Parental incarceration is now recognized as an “adverse childhood experience” (ACE); it is distinguished from other adverse childhood experiences by the unique combination of trauma, shame, and stigma.
- The loss of a parent to incarceration can have a significant impact on a child. Some of those impacts include financial hardship, the physical care of the child, and psychological distress.
- Unfortunately, children with incarcerated parents are often forced to give up their dreams and future due to choices made by their parent(s), not through any fault of their own.
501 (C)(3) EIN-82-548-7846
