After an incredibly difficult childhood, Tanesha Grant completely turned her life around. Now, with three children of her own, she's working tirelessly to advocate for students in NYC to ensure that other children don't suffer in the ways that she did.  

"I was a school-to-prison pipeline child. I spent my teenage years in group homes. I was harmed in all kinds of ways in those group homes, and I didn't know what it was to be loved until I had my first daughter at 18 years old," says Tanesha. "If you empower children and you nurture children and you tell them that they are somebody, it makes a difference, so I wanted to make sure that my children had that and other children have that," she explains.

It was during the height of the pandemic in 2020 that Tanesha began to recognize the immense need for further support in under-served communities, so she started Parents Supporting Parents New York, a non-profit to help parents support their children.

"It starts with the basic needs: housing, food, groceries, and paying utilities. We do whatever our funds allow us to do to help families and parents and children in our community," Tanesha explains.  

One of the most important things Tanesha noticed during the pandemic in her community was the lack of technology. "The Department of Education said that they would make sure that all of our children had the technology that they needed to learn remotely. That didn't happen," she says. So, Tanesha started a GoFundMe page to raise money to buy children laptops—and it just continued to grow. So far, she's provided laptops for over 550 students. How incredible!  

Our friends at Gateway are giving Tanesha $10,000 towards her organization and an additional $3,000 worth of laptops, so she can continue to help provide essentials to under-served families in need and keep up all of her amazing work!