Success Stories
Girls Inc. — Growing Leaders from the Ground Up
Through WFGM funding, the Girls Inc. Experience at Girls Inc. of Memphis is preparing girls for adulthood through research-based programming focused on healthy living, academic success, and workforce readiness. Mentorship, exposure to role models, and career exploration help girls build confidence, competence, and leadership skills that last a lifetime. 
At the Girls Inc. of Memphis’, Patricia C. Howard Campus, your support is taking root through the relaunch of the Youth Farm—a hands-on learning space that is growing far more than food. The expanded urban farm now includes a greenhouse, a farm-to-table teaching kitchen, and a dedicated environment where girls explore nutrition, sustainable farming, and healthy living while strengthening leadership and teamwork skills.
Your investment is also creating real workforce opportunities. Teen interns are hired to support farm operations, gaining paid, real-world experience while helping provide fresh food to families and the broader community. During Fall Camp, ten teens worked directly with local food and farm-to-table entrepreneurs—learning how to plant, harvest, market, and sell products, and discovering career and entrepreneurial pathways they may never have considered.
What’s growing at the Youth Farm goes far beyond produce. It is growing confidence. It is growing leadership. And it’s growing the next generation of young women equipped to strengthen communities and shape Memphis’ future.
Leading to Influence the Next Generation
The Women’s Foundation for a Greater Memphis along with our grantee partners connect families in the communities we serve to resources and opportunities that empower both adults and children and bring families towards self-sufficiency and stability. Yolanda Robinson, a former Foote Homes resident, is a mother of five and a grandmother of nine. She was a participant of the first Getting Ahead class at WFGM.
Once a teen mother, Robinson says she always put her focus on her kids first. She worked several jobs but was rejected from careers she wanted to pursue because she dropped out of high school. With encouragement from the staff, Robinson enrolled in the Excel Center, a free program for Mid-South adults to receive their high school diploma.
“At the age of 45, I graduated with honors. I felt so whole that I did it after all these years. My main focus was my kids and grandkids. Now they look at me with proudness. I wanted my children to be able to see me as an inspiration to them and to see that it's never too late to get where you want to be,” she said.
Robinson is now enrolled at Southwest Community College, majoring in Criminal Justice.
“I would like to thank the Women's Foundation for everything that they do for me, my family and all the families of 38126 and the surrounding communities. I would like to thank you guys for being there, being an inspiration to us and just being leaders of women.”
Finding New Pathways to Success
The Women’s Foundation for a Greater Memphis is committed to building a community where women and children see hope for the future. Thanks to your support, women like Leanne P. get an opportunity to find their new pathway to success.
After her release from prison, Leanne needed a place to stay and was accepted at Karat Place, a transitional housing facility where women ex-offenders are rehabilitated to reduce recidivism and become productive citizens in Greater Memphis.
Leanne enrolled in forklift training classes and was offered a job at the Advance Memphis Warehouse, “A job that I love,” she said. “Since then, I have received an increase in wages and I started saving money. The program at Karat Place has taught me responsibility and how to be accountable for all of my actions. I know I can have everything I need and want if I just keep doing what is right.”
Together with our Grantee Partners, Advance Memphis and Karat Place, we are helping break the cycle of poverty and create systemic change for the Memphis community.
Grantee Partner Spotlight - Urban Strategies, Inc.
Lontina McGary (pictured right) personifies resilience. A former Foote Homes resident, she has overcome many barriers as a single mother of two daughters. Lontina was a recipient of wraparound services from Urban Strategies, Inc. (USI) and in a true full-circle moment, she is now an employee at USI and gives back to others in her community.
In 2022, Lontina worked on family, personal and career goals with a family support specialist at USI. Her goal was to find a better job to connect with people. 
Later that year, USI hired Lontina as an ambassador outreach specialist to recruit participants to the Renters Advantage Program for help with financial services and repairing their credit. She has excelled in her new role and enjoys giving back to others.
“I go to places in the community such as libraries and community centers and reach out to people to educate them on how to remove some of the barriers that are keeping them from moving forward in life,” she said.
She is thankful for the Women’s Foundation for a Greater Memphis (WFGM) for providing services and opportunities for personal growth when she needed it as a Foote Homes resident. She also expressed gratitude for WFGM’s investment in programs that meet the needs of the community.
“I am grateful to the Women’s Foundation for being in my life, for helping me make a change in my life and for showing me how important my life is. Because once you realize how important your own life is, you’re able to help others as well.
Giving back is now a ministry for me. It’s important for me to give back because I was helped.”
Self-determined and optimistic, Lontina’s next goal is to obtain her associate’s degree.
WFGM is committed to building a community where women and children have access to social and economic mobility. Together with our Grantee Partners like Urban Strategies, Inc., we will continue to help break the cycle of poverty and create systemic change for the Memphis community, one family at a time.
Can you make a difference today? Support the Women's Foundation for a Greater Memphis as we strive to empower thousands of women and children in Memphis by providing funding and resources to nonprofit organizations dedicated to advancing economic and social mobility.
