Each Child. Every Community.

In celebration of Family Engagement Month, Smart Start and our collaborative partners are taking this time to recognize and celebrate the important role of families in the education and well-being of their children. Smart Start is working across the state to elevate the voices of family leaders and support them in advocating for their children and their communities. Throughout November we have invited family leaders and Smart Start Local Partnerships participating in the Family Engagement & Leadership work to share their stories, and we will feature them here. To learn more about Smart Start’s Family Engagement & Leadership initiative, visit the FEL section of the website. 

I am a wife and mother of 4 handsome boys. My childhood experience was the starting point of my passion to help children. I came from a low income community, where I had a drug addict for a mother that was not present in my life due to being in and out of prison. I had no stability in my life and if stability presented itself my mother would come back, interrupt it and then disappear back into the system. I had no real childhood because I had to grow up fast so I could take care of my little sister physically and financially.

After graduating high school and giving up my college scholarship to take care of my mother I started coaching sports in the community and I even got married to the wrong person, just to escape that part of my life. I endured 5 years of emotional abuse and sexual abuse to which a child was born because I don’t believe in abortions. But after having my son I looked at him and I was in love all over again. So when I was finally able to get out of that situation.

I started helping children with drug addicted parents by using my experience to help change theirs for the better. Although things were getting better for most of the family I needed to figure out how to make things better because no child should have to endure a bad home life just so you don’t experience a worst one which was very common in the black community. After getting remarried and having my youngest two boys and enrolling them in head start I got involved in their programs taking on leadership.

In doing so, I got connected with Micki and Lisa at the Partnership for Children and the true journey began. These two amazing women never judged me by the color of my skin, by where I come from, or by my background. This was out of the norm for me but they welcomed me with open arms into the group creating a space that was open, where they listened, recognized my passion for change and nurtured it and they recognized what I had to offer and presented me with an invitation to serve on the board of directors.

These ladies are truly God sent; they saw things in me that I never imagined for myself. They took that shy behind the scenes woman with a lot to say and nurtured her into the forefront to be the outspoken woman you see today. Now I go where my voice for change is needed so I can help empower others the same way I was empowered.

Sharee Pemberton