Today, we’d like to introduce you to LaTonya Baker. LaTonya was introduced to us by the brilliant and talented Nakisha Adams.
LaTonya, thank you so much for joining us today. We’d love for you to bring our readers up to speed – can you introduce yourself and share your story?
My name is LaTonya Baker, I am the founder and CEO of Generation of Excellence Trendsetters, GOE House of Purpose Transitional Living Home, I’m Still My Sister’s Keeper the Movement and Fashion Show, and Purpose Driven One Non-Profit. I started this journey in 2012 after losing my mother unexpected. I was depressed, lost, confused and I felt like life was over for me. My mother played a huge part in our lives, she was the glue to our family. I had made up in my mind that there was no reason to go on without her. But then I was reminded by my family, what my mother had taught and instilled in us, the power of prayer and that, “God would never put more on us than we can bare,” so I chose to live again. I not only chose to live; I chose to break cycles. I started asking questions about my mom’s upbringing, I read her journal, discovered disconnect notices, lapse insurance coverages, and so much more. My mother lived her life doing and caring for others, putting them before her and making sure they had all that they needed, this was what she knew how to do. Along with that, she was barely making it, but that never stopped her from helping others. I learned that not only did my mother pass in her sleep from obesity, hyper-tension and clogged arteries, but so did her mother and grandmother, each one was between the ages of 50-60yrs. This frightened me, because I was a reflection of my mother, so I made the choice to break the cycles. It took me years to find my self-worth, change my eating habits, practice self-care and successfully open my own businesses. I experienced being homeless, broke and broken. But it made me who I am today. My mother taught us that, what we go through isn’t completely about us, it’s about who we will impact. Now that I have a business that mentors, provides resources, personal and moral support, I understand what she meant by that. I trusted the process, the piercing, heart aches, let downs, loses/lessons and I turned my pain into my passion!
We’ve heard great things about your organization. For our readers who might not be as familiar, can you please tell them about the organization?
My organization provides prenatal care and child care coordination to expecting mothers and/or mothers who recently delivered (0-6mths old infants). We provide resources for housing, continuing education, healthy nutritional training, job readiness skills training and more. We also provide clothing, household cleaning items, and donated appliances and other home furnishing. What sets us apart from others is that, we decided to become a one stop shop for our clients, after discovering that providing resources was not always enough. Our goal was to dig deeper into what our client’s mind set was and provide a unique approach. We knew that temporary solutions were not the answer and focused on longevity. We also determined that a lot of our clients lacked life skills and focused more on this area. Some of the additional services we have implemented include, focus group meetings, career focused training, business management introductory training, job placement, home economics, financial literacy. Due to the increase demand in homelessness, we opened a Transitional living home and implemented a lot of our services within the home. We also offer, interior decorating services, creative arts, performing arts, self-care, exercise classes and more. These services are also provided to the family members of our clients. I am most proud of being able to expand and open 2 additional offices which allows us to service more clients and connect more with the community and other partners in the surrounding areas. Our clients are very faithful, involved and a huge part of the changes and success of our company, they are our most valuable asset!
As you know, we’re big fans of Skribble inc and we know you’ve worked with them quite a bit as well. We’d love to hear about your experience working with Skribble inc.
My experience with Skribble Inc has been amazing! I met Nakisha 2 years ago and what I love about her is that she’s a huge advocate of minority entrepreneurs. She provided a lot of information as it relates to grant writing services as well as entrepreneurship. Ms. Adams made it really easy to talk to her and followed up expeditiously, she’s always professional and comes with a lot of knowledge. I have referred several companies to her and each one has had a great experience.
Website: prenatal.goeacad.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/generationofexcellencepncc/about/?ref=page_internal
