Nonprofit Spotlight: We Reign, Inc.

Tawanna Jones has been working in the School District of Philadelphia since October of 2001. She joined the district as a Special Education teacher and has worked as a School Psychologist since 2008. She is currently working toward her Doctorate degree in School Systems Leadership. For her doctoral dissertation, Tawanna’s intent was to focus on boys of color enrolled in special education in Philadelphia public schools. As she progressed through her research, however, Tawanna realized that she hadn’t been paying enough attention to girls in special education, particularly, girls of color. Ultimately, Tawanna shifted gears and is now writing her dissertation on Black Girls’ Perspectives on Education and the American Dream. 

 As Tawanna dug deeper into her research for her thesis, she felt inspired to hold a community-based event to raise awareness about the issues that black girls face at disproportionate rates in schools The event attracted 70 people, facilitated discussions about emerging research in education, and raised over $1,000 for a local nonprofit organization. Given the great success of the inaugural event, Tawanna discovered that she and her colleagues had the wherewithal to run these kinds of events on their own, without the help of an existing entity. With that, the concept of we.REIGN was born.we.REIGN. incorporated as a nonprofit at the end of 2016, and came to ExemptMeNow to earn 501(c)(3) status in the fall of 2017. Tawanna learned of ExemptMeNow through an article featuring the company’s Founder and CEO, Sevetri Wilson, in Essence Magazine. She felt that working with ExemptMeNow would demonstrate to the girls in her program the endless capabilities that women have as entrepreneurs and business leaders. we.REIGN officially became tax-exempt at the end of 2017.we.REIGN, standing for “Rooting / Empowering/ Inspiring/ (a)/ Girls’/ Nation,” holds events to empower girls of color with tools and resources to advocate for themselves and their communities. “We want black girls to define themselves for themselves and live unapologetically,” says Tawanna, the Executive Director of we.REIGN. Events put on by we.REIGN range from fundraisers for the organization; to workshops on topics like academic wellness, identity development, relationships/ sexual health, and activism; to “community days,” where the organization provides information on one of the workshop topics to community members at large. To date, all programming has been free. You can learn about their upcoming events by visiting we.REIGN’s website, http://wereign.net/.In addition to these events, we.REIGN runs a high school ambassador program for girls participating in the organization’s programming. As an ambassador, girls get to design programs and voice their opinions on the kind of topics we.REIGN should cover during workshops and on community days. Tawanna and the rest of the organization’s board felt that creating the ambassador program was essential to their mission: giving program participants the agency to design the programs themselves gives them the agency to advocate for better educational and community resources. 

 The focus of 2018 for we.REIGN will be laying down roots in Philadelphia and raising awareness about its mission and work. To do this, we.REIGN has secured a partnership with a Jefferson University professor, and their upcoming workshop on college and career readiness will take place at the university’s East Falls campus. Additionally, we.REIGN will bring back its week-long summer workshop, covering topics like human trafficking (and what it looks like) in urban areas, teen dating violence, and related topics. The organization is also looking to expand the workshop by bringing the program to summer camps throughout Philadelphia.In the future, we.REIGN hopes to provide stipends to girls participating in their workshops. While participation in these workshops are invaluable, all too often girls are having to choose between missing work and attending the workshops; if they miss work they are missing out on crucial income for themselves and their families, but if they miss the workshop they are missing out on crucial information and experiences for their own personal and professional development. Providing a stipend to participants would rectify this issue by limiting the burden of financial resources.In less than two years, we.REIGN has positively impacted the lives of Black girls in the City of Philadelphia in concrete, tangible ways. As the organization grows and scales, we look forward to seeing how their girls become leaders and change-makers in Philadelphia and beyond!To learn more about we.REIGN and what you can do to help out, check out their Facebook page.{{cta('34d901c5-1ba2-41ed-8b23-405556c7fa4f','justifycenter')}}Check out some of our other Nonprofit Spotlights and the great work that they're doing: STEM Library Lab, Baton Rouge Soldier Outreach, and more.