People in education often get a frontline look at the trauma and poverty that young children experience growing up. Many wonder what they can do to combat those experiences and give those children the best fighting chance possible to make a good life for themselves.

Fifteen-year BCPS veteran teacher and pupil personnel worker (PPW) Jennifer Cox’s passion to make a difference in these children’s’ lives inspired the birth of her nonprofit organization Empower4Life. The spark for Cox’s passion to begin the organization began with her volunteer work with homeless children at the Eastside Family Emergency Shelter in Rosedale, Maryland. “My time at this transitional shelter opened my eyes to the tremendous disadvantages faced by children coming from turbulent situations including homelessness,” she shares.

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