Guest blog: An update from Smile Baggs
This blog is guest-written by Sarah Phelps, Smile Baggs Board Member
Our Smile Baggs founder, Desree Coleman, often says that she wants working moms to have the opportunities, resources, and respite that she didn’t have as the single working mother of two children. She sees that moms in our community could thrive and lead so much more with a little help along the way.
That insight led to a winter full of refinement and planning in our organization. Desree’s first non-profit, Smile Baggs, was built to give communities an easy way to build goodwill and spread kindness to those around them. But this wasn’t the only change we wanted to see. So, we pivoted.
Under the leadership of Desree and her daughter, Marisa Hattab, we have created and refined an inspiring new mission and vision that truly reflects the heart and soul of the empowerment we want to bring to communities. It all centers around the moms in the middle. Working moms raising kids and sustaining households. The moms who are so often left behind in programming for women in our city.
Our new mission statement reflects our service to those women: To transform communities by providing professional, personal, and restorative resources to working moms. We believe in a world that fiercely cultivates the well-being, growth, and leadership of working moms. How much more could we be if working moms had the time to get the education they want, to build community with other moms, or to have free childcare available while they attending coaching or training? How much more could a supported, thriving, and rested mom empower her family and community?
Our first Thrive Sister Circle concluded in June and the next begins in August. We could not be more excited to bring healing, growth, and new knowledge to these moms. They will be finding their joy and purpose every week while receiving free licensed childcare and a catered meal. We also have an unveiling of our new name and programs planned for November (location tbd). We invite everyone in the community to attend and learn about what we have planned for the future of moms, their families, and our communities.
This is truly Motherhood, redefined.
Sarah Phelps, Board Member