LIFETIME: Low-Income Families' Empowerment through Education

01/31/2026

This is our red hat ❤️

A Minneapolis knitting shop has resurrected the design of a Norwegian cap worn to protest N**i occupation. Its owner says the money raised from hat pattern sales will support the local immigrant community.

01/31/2026

📢 ¡PRIMERA LLAMADA! 📢 ¡PRIMERA LLAMADA!

✨ Explora Economías Alternativas regresa esta primavera para acompañarte a llevar tu espíritu emprendedor al siguiente nivel.

Un curso gratuito, en español y con cupo limitado, donde aprenderás sobre liderazgo, cooperativismo y nuevas formas de emprender con impacto real.

📅 Cada martes a partir del 10 de marzo, de 5-8 pm PST por Zoom
🎓 Graduación presencial en Oakland el 28 de abril
👉 Regístrate hoy y asegura tu lugar: https://bit.ly/Explora-Prospera-Prim-2026
📩 Dudas: Celia Alvarez | [email protected] | 📲 408 813 5726

10/31/2025

Evelyn Uba never gave up on her dream of becoming a lawyer. After moving from Nigeria to the U.S. in 1983, she took the California bar exam more than ten times before finally passing—nearly a decade later. Her viral celebration captured the joy of perseverance, proving it’s never too late to achieve your dreams. 💃🏾📚

10/29/2025

A growing wave of Bay Area restaurants will provide free meals to people on federal food assistance when SNAP benefits run out Nov. 1.

10/27/2025

Ieshia Champs, a single mother of five, has officially passed the Texas Bar exam, bringing her one step closer to becoming a licensed attorney. After overcoming homelessness, personal loss, and raising her children alone, she graduated from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law earlier this year. Her viral graduation photos with her kids continue to inspire countless others to never give up on their dreams. 🎓

10/27/2025

In 2023, seven incarcerated men made history as the first inmates to graduate from Yale through its Prison Education Initiative in partnership with the University of New Haven. The graduates earned associate degrees in general studies, completing rigorous Yale-level coursework while serving their sentences.
Among them was Alpha Jalloh, who achieved the highest GPA, and Marcus Harvin, who had been released but returned to celebrate with his classmates. The milestone marked a powerful example of education’s transformative impact, proving that access to higher learning can create opportunity, dignity, and hope even behind prison walls.

09/13/2025

Meanwhile the so-called richest country on earth can’t even forgive a person’s student loans.

08/30/2025

Rafael Aguirre held on to a dream for more than 60 years. He was born in Mexico, and came to the United States to work and support his family. School had to wait. At 83 years old, that dream finally came true this year when he graduated from Amarillo College in Texas.

Rafael earned a technical degree in Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC). For decades, Rafael repaired machines and installed satellite dishes. In an interview, Rafael said, "It wasn't easy. I worked eight to ten hours a day and took classes in a second language, but I had clear goals. It’s never too late to learn."

Outside of school, Rafael gives back to his community by volunteering at his church in Amarillo as a greeter, parking host, and security officer. On graduation day, Rafael showed the world something bigger than a diploma. He showed all of us that it's never too late. You just have to keep believing in yourself and remember that age can't stop a dream.

📸 (Photo: Lily Gamble / Amarillo College)

11/06/2024

Keep Kamala and carry on 💙💙💙✊🏼✊🏼💙💙💙

10/19/2024

My insights on our upcoming election:
This is an interview of my friend and colleague Lateefah Simon, who I met when she was a 19-yr old mom and CEO of the Center for Young Women's Freedom in San Francisco, a grassroots nonprofit by, for, and about young women working to transform the criminal justice system. I knew the moment I first heard Lateefah speak that she was extraordinarily special, and wise beyond her years. Specifically, when she said that the Center for Young Women's Freedom cultivated "the indigenous wisdom" of the young women in their organization, I fell in love. I felt like I'd found my kindred spirit in this vibrant young leader.

In Lateefah, I found a leader who understood the importance of cultivating the leadership of people with lived experience with poverty and injustice. This was my guiding principle in founding LIFETIME: Low-Income Families' Empowerment through Education, the organization I founded as a single mother on welfare, and ran for nearly 25 years. LIFETIME was born out of my struggle with the welfare system, after I was sanctioned for getting a Pell grant and enrolling in community college to better myself. That experience is why I've always firmly believed that in order to fix the welfare system, the most important stakeholders in that endeavor: low-income parents and children themselves - must lead that conversation. And I never had to explain that to Lateefah, because she already knew.

Lateefah is also why I know that Kamala Harris will be an outstanding President. When Harris was first elected to be San Francisco's District Attorney, one of the first things she did was hire Lateefah to help her create alternatives for incarceration for young people in San Francisco, and offer employment and educational opportunities instead. When she hired Lateefah, I knew that Harris was a smart , compassionate and strategic leader, who would always deserve my vote.

That's why I voted for Kamala Harris when she ran to be California's AG and again, when she ran to become our Senator. It's why I'll proudly vote for Kamala Harris to be our 47th President and that I hope you'll join me.

I'm also so very proud to be able to vote for Lateefah Simon to represent Oakland and the East Bay in the House of Representatives. It is the silver lining to all the roadblocks I've faced in moving back to S.C: I'll get to vote for Lateefah before I leave. Lateefah is exactly the kind of person we need in Congress.

These two women are the leaders who will give us the government we deserve!!! ♥♥♥

Lateefah Simon worked with Kamala Harris during Harris’ tenure as San Francisco district attorney. Simon led Harris’ “Back on Track” program, an initiative t...

10/14/2024

Trump's stolen election lies put the lives of election workers in jeopardy in 2020.

His lies about FEMA are endangering the lives of relief workers now, too. The National Guard had to move relief workers in North Carolina today, putting relief efforts on hold, after truckloads of armed militia went out "hunting FEMA" today.

Trump's lies are going to get people killed. It would't be the first time. But it needs to be the last. To Trump supporters out there, is this what you want? Because this is what you're enabling if you vote for that man. Donald Trump is a dangerous, dishonest, unprincipled man. He is unfit for office.

Vote blue down ballot people and lets stop this insanity. Vote like your life depends on it. The lives of FEMA workers do.

The U.S. Forest Service warned on Saturday that the National Guard had ‘come across x2 trucks of armed militia saying [they] were out hunting FEMA.’

10/02/2024

This is such good news! When I taught my class for CalWORKs students at SF State, the student moms in my class were from all nine Bay Area counties.
We had to learn the welfare higher education rules in all nine counties to make sure no one would be forced to quit school.

San Francisco State University students can now enjoy unlimited rides on public transportation throughout the Bay Area, including on SF Bay Ferry. Learn more about the Gator Pass here: https://bit.ly/3BvcniU