December 2004

Cyd Heyliger-Browne (JD'00) and her daughter, Trudy Browne, are founding members of The Imani Foundation, a grassroots organization of mothers and daughters that provides financial, educational, and moral support to unwed teenage mothers. Cyd and Trudy founded the organization with four of Cyd's friends and their daughters in 1998. Imani, which is one of the seven principles of Kwanzaa representing faith, was initially started as a mentoring program done in teams of mothers and daughters. "The idea of the mother-daughter mentor program was to provide two mentors. The daughters would become surrogate sisters while the mothers would provide advice on parenting techniques and 'mommy' concerns," says Trudy, who will graduate with her JD from the University of Miami in December 2004.

Over the past seven years, Imani has continued to expand its services and the number of girls they serve. Imani now works with girls at two local high schools and the juvenile justice system, and they are establishing relations with a teen parenting program. Imani offers programs in the following five areas: 1) mentoring, 2) survival-practical workshops, 3) career shadowing and internship opportunities, 4) educational counseling, and 5) legal assistance. Once a month the entire group comes together for a social activity intended to build self esteem and family values.

One of Cyd's responsibilities is to provide academic counseling and to monitor the girls' academic progress toward their high school diplomas. Cyd, who is originally from the Virgin Islands, has over twenty-five years of experience in education. In addition to her JD, she holds a bachelor's and a master's in education from the University of Miami and is currently a doctoral candidate at Florida State University.

Trudy was born and raised in Miami. She attended Florida State University for undergraduate where she majored in public relations and minored in business. Both women agree that their law degree is a valuable asset, allowing them to research and provide guidance to the girls on legal issues such as domestic abuse, adoption, and child support. After earning her JD, Trudy plans to increase her role in the organization. Her first project will be to apply for not-for-profit status to allow Imani to receive funding.

"The majority of people in the United States designated as living in poverty are single women and children, with the majority of women heading single parent families by default. We support and nurture our girls in order to break the cycles of poverty, welfare dependence, and child and domestic abuse. We are rebuilding and renewing these teenage mothers and saving two lives" says Cyd. "This work is my dream."