Since 2021, we have worked to connect our community.

Meet the Founders

Tashyra (Shy) Jackson
Executive Director of Operations

My name is Tashyra Jackson, I have been a resident of the La Crosse community for 21 years. Originally, I am a Madison, Wisconsin transplant but I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I am the third oldest of eight children and I moved here with my family during my junior year of high school. We have been calling this our home ever since.

I received my bachelor's degree from Viterbo University, where I studied business and psychology. I have 2 kids, my son Carter whom I have homeschooled for the last two years, and my daughter Maria who is out of school now and moved to Arizona. Maria did all her schooling in the La Crosse area, and it was very hard on her. This prompted her to seek more diversity immediately following graduation. The hardship here was my story and my daughter’s story. I’m trying to stop it from being my son’s story as well. I am an advocate for my family and many other people in the La Crosse community.

I got into this line of work because I am passionate about helping people and I am passionate about equality. There is so much work to do and we are so far from where we need to be. If we are going to experience equality in this area it is necessary to consider all the connecting pieces in order to truly grasp the big picture. There are many systems in place that make it difficult for black and brown people to succeed. Broken systems have created surmounting barriers for black people with very little hope of resolution.

It is my belief that courageous conversations need to be had and we must be brave enough to hold ourselves accountable for the parts we play in upholding broken systems. Most importantly, we all need to be proactive about being part of the conversation and then challenge our capacity to truly listen with the goal of understanding.

In short, I am dedicated to building a better world for all through my own accountability of how I show up in this world with my character, hard work, and passion. I know that hope can restore!

Shamawyah (Mya) Curtis
Executive Director of Development

I was born in Mattson, IL on October 11th, 1983 to Kimberly Lawrence and Leonardo Curtis. I am the second oldest of 5 brothers and 2 sisters. I moved to Madison WI when I was 5 years old. I graduated from James Madison Memorial High in 2001. I was one of the first high school students that receive my Lead Childcare Teacher Certification from a high school. I went on to Mesa Community College in Phoenix, AZ to study Child Development. I missed my family and decided to move back to Madison. I opened my family daycare, Home Away from Home. I ran the daycare for 15 years. I have four children Chaya, Mia, Jermaine, and Seth. They are my heart and I work hard to provide them with a better life than what I had. I teach my children to persevere and advocate for themselves while also being creative and practicing self-love.

My little brother was murdered in 2016 and I decided to move to La Crosse, WI to open up the Yellow Brick Road Youth Group Home and get away from the pain of my brother's death. I was heartbroken and full of grief when I arrived in La Crosse. I decided to go back to school for human service, and I graduated from Western Technical College.

It is my true passion to help others and I know personally how important it is to have a support system backing you up. I believe that human connection is like food - “We all need it to survive.” I decided that I wanted to open a service that could help others, like was helped. The African American people were going through community trauma after George Floyd's murder. I knew that we needed a safe place to talk and heal. My business partner/best friend and I opened Hope Restores, an urban hub that fights for equality for the African-American community in Western Wisconsin.

Our Services

Cycle Breakers (3 month calendar cycles, 3x per year): Providing mentoring to the male youth of color in our community which will have a significant impact on their confidence, leadership skills and resilience. The importance of this male mentorship is to impress upon positive values and experiences to help avoid negative behaviors and achieve success. By having a safe male role model to learn from and talk to it, widens the youth support system, and enhances their mental health. The objectives of our youth mentor program are to increase coping skills, build resilience and build the confidence to break away from unproductive cycles or behaviors. Through mentoring, youth have a supportive social environment available, and youth are encouraged to identify specific personal goals they would like to achieve. Meeting on a weekly basis, youth will spend 2 hours of one-on-one time with their mentors.
Little Women of Melanin (8 weeks): The Little women of Melanin is a support group for ages 5 - 10 years of age. LWM Focus on different forms of relationship building and challenging barriers at a young age. People like to believe that children cannot experience stress, but stress begins in children at the of age 4. My goal is to help young girls practice self-love, show resilience and believe in their own success. We have field trips, mental health conversations, baking club, emotional paint sessions, dance parties and engaging conversations surrounding education and activities and bullying. The impact has shown feeling less lonely, isolated or judged! Reducing stress, depression and anxiety.
Girls Group (8 weeks): Girl Group is a program supports girls ages 11-18 years old to grow up healthy, and learn how to be safe, educated, resilient, and independent. Girls will learn different lessons about self-respect, positive self-talk, healthy eating, body image, peer pressure, and bullying. The program will focus on fun community activities and events. Girls Groups will help girls be their best, culturally authentic selves.
BREAD Program (8 weeks): Early work experience program for youth ages 14-18, that help young people build resilience around todays workforce by learning how to complete an application to how to get the supporting documents needed to secure the job. Youth learn how translate skills from their life experience to attributed skills employers look for.
Transportation (year round): The purpose of our transportation program is to reduce the barriers our clients have when accessing basic needs. Many of our clients live in food deserts and struggle to access affordable groceries due to limited public transportation schedules. Supportive transportation to Hope Restores programming provides a safe alternative to clients facing complex barriers.
Women of Melanin (12 weeks): A support group empowering black women of Lacrosse with educational, financial, emotional, social and all around wellness support. We recognize the burden of not having a support team within your culture that understands specifically the strength it takes everyday to encourage and uplift your family while forgetting to do the same for yourself.
Brothers Battling Barriers (12 weeks): A support group for Black men fighting barriers, resource connections, mental health and all around wellness. We will provide Counseling referrals, support groups, basic needs like helping them obtain a valid driver’s license to finding or creating meaningful employment and life tools to help the black male and restore their importance as a cornerstone in the family dynamic. We recognize the lack of support for black men and how it perpetuates them being under valued in society.
Family Nights (1x per month): Family night is a fun trust building night with Hope Restores that is designed to be fun for the entire family, teenagers included. It takes place once a month and includes games and prizes available for everyone in the whole family as well as a yummy hot meal.
Drop-in Childcare (year round): Affordable, safe, culturally competent, drop-in childcare does not exist in La Crosse. This is a significant barrier to our clients who often do not have the social support network. We provide up to 2-hour drop-in childcare for children ages 12 weeks to 11 years old for caregivers needing a bridge service for job search, interviews and medical appointments.
FAST Program (10 weeks): The FAST Program is an evidence-based family engagement program that supports child well-being and learning readiness, empowers parents, and builds social capital so children can thrive. It strengthens family relationships and increase cohesion, engage parents more with the school and enable them to advocate for their children’s education and connect families to other families and community resources to reduce isolation and stress. Families eat a meal and play games together, parents discuss and bond over shared experiences, kids and youth make friends with their peers, and parents engage in one-on-one special play/conversation time with their children free from distraction.
Diaper Pick-Up (year round): This program helps families with diaper aged children get the supplies they need to support those healthy living. The average monthly cost of diapers is $100 and that's for families with a single diaper aged child. This number doesn't account for other diapering needs such as wipes, powders, creams or ointments.
Coffee with Hope Restores (year round): This is a monthly program that take place the 1st and 3rd Friday of each month at 8:30 am. The purpose of this program is connection and healing amongst community members, allies and interested organizations.
Giving Pantry: The giving pantry is a small donation driven pantry that does offer some food items but we try to focus on hygiene and household cleaning items that can be difficult to purchase for economically disadvantaged individuals.
Gladiator Program (year round): Gladiators are allies that engage in advocacy and public education and specialize in innovative, systemic civil rights litigation with the goal of re-sensitizing the legal system and our culture to the injustice and brutality that characterizes the contemporary U.S. legal system.