Jackson-based organization Operation Shoestring recently received a $2 million investment. The gift will help build the nonprofit’s decades-long mission of supporting Mississippi children facing economic and educational barriers.
Operation Shoestring is a nonprofit organization that was founded in 1968 amid the Civil Rights Movement. Today, the organization mainly focuses on providing free, high-quality after school and summer programs to Jackson’s youth.
Those programs serve as a safe space for children in central Jackson and surrounding neighborhoods. The programs also provide additional education through tutoring.
The name “Operation Shoestring” comes from the phrase “shoestring budget” and refers to the fact that the organization’s founders managed to make a significant difference with very little resources. Over the years, the notion of a string that ties something together has fit aptly with the nonprofit’s motto, “We all rise together.”
The one-time $2 million investment comes from the Yield Giving Initiative in partnership with Lever For Change, a non-profit organization affiliated with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Operation Shoestring is one of 250 organizations chosen out of a pool of nearly 6,500 applicants.
Operation Shoestring Executive Director Robert Langford said he and his team weren’t necessarily expecting to make the selective list of chosen organizations, making the grant award a happy surprise.
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The grant comes at a good time as well; the nonprofit recently kicked off a months-long strategic plan that Langford described as “transformative and courageous to make our work more effective.”
The money will support that plan, which includes increased wellness and emotional health support for Jackson parents.
“The needs of the community that we serve are great, and we hope that this funding will help us leverage additional opportunities to better serve the kids and families and other individuals in our neighborhood,” Langford said.
Langford emphasized that the grant money serves as an affirmation of the decades of hard work from the people who make up Operation Shoestring.
“We also see this as something that we hope the public will understand creates an opportunity to address really deep challenges and tremendous opportunities to better serve children and families in the heart of Mississippi’s capital city,” Langford said.
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Got a news tip? Contact Mary Boyte at mboyte@jackson.gannett.com
