JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Aida Seeraj’s journey of helping thousands of people in underserved communities in Duval and Clay counties began in 2018 when she attended a women’s conference.
That women’s conference led Seeraj to start her own non-profit, Inspire to Rise, which helps people who need essential resources, especially people in the Latino community.
“So no one is carrying the burden or the weight all by themselves,” Seeraj said.
After 25 years of working in child welfare, Seeraj said she had a moment where she found herself struggling.
“My husband and I, my sweetheart, high school sweetheart, and I had not only had a child, but also adopted two children, and we were trying to navigate services for them and trying to meet their needs,” Seeraj said.
So, she knew that if she was struggling in her position, others were most likely going through the same struggles.
That’s how Inspire to Rise was born.
By the end of that year, she had closed on a location to what would be the home of a community center that offered basic needs.
“When we did the analysis of the Westside of Jacksonville, it was the highest incident of overdose, the highest infant mortality rate, second highest crime rate. And this is back in the 2018 time frame. And it was, it just was the high needs and no resources over here,” Seeraj said.
Inspire to Rise offers much-needed resources such as Narcan kits, condoms, diapers, baby bags, and bus passes. Plus, it provides mental health services, help with substance abuse and medical and dental appointments.
“We partner currently with about 22 agencies that kind of share the same at its core, it’s the same mission, helping transform people’s lives, right? And so if I can bring a partner to come and help us meet those missions and common goals, then we can be more impactful,” Seeraj said.
Kiana Feliciano, started with the Healthy Start Program, then she had her first child and turned to her own place of work to get her back on her feet after she was struggling postpartum.
“I’ve been on both sides, so I knew how to better support my moms and through pregnancy and postpartum, and you know, if they had to go back to work, or they were stay-at-home moms, whatever journey they were on, being on both sides really was able to just give them much better support than maybe initially, if I was not part of the program myself,” Feliciano said.
Now, Feliciano is a beacon of hope for women going through postpartum.
“But it’s, it’s honestly amazing. I love working with our Spanish-speaking population. Like, I have one neighborhood specifically that I have six families in that neighborhood because they are like, ‘Oh, yeah, you can help me with this, or she can help me with that.’ And just word of mouth has made our program like, tripled in size since I first started like we’ve grown so much,” Feliciano said.
That word of mouth had grown the organization to over six locations and even helped Briana Taylor get through her addiction to cocaine with the help of her peer Jessica Williams.
“That has been such a blessing, truly, to watch Briana overcome the obstacles that she has faced. I mean, seeing her from day one to where she’s at now when she first started here at Inspire to Rise...I don’t even have the words to explain it. It’s just, it’s been emotional too for myself, we do have a very similar story,” Williams said.
Seeraj said all of these success stories couldn’t be possible without her team.
“I’m really proud of my team and everything they’ve done, and I try to tell them all the time like, thank you for bringing to life the vision, because I could have just been a great idea, and nothing came out of it, but then doing their job every day and being intentional and being purposeful and loving towards the participants in this community,” Seeraj said.
