Today we’d like to introduce you to Tenaj Moody-Perry. They and their team shared their story with us below:
After being criminalized for surviving an abusive relationship at the age of 16, Tenaj is a firm believer that you can use your struggles as your motivators to help the world become a better place to live in. Now, at 30 years old, she is the founder and CEO of Light To Life, a 3x award-winning social enterprise dedicated to preventing gender-based violence, she established this program in 2012, during her sophomore year at Wesley College. Mrs. Moody is a nationally-renowned educator and keynote speaker in domestic violence, sexual violence, the criminal legal system, and mental health and a 2x best-selling author. She was born in Virginia, raised in Northeast Philadelphia, and is a Licensed Behavior Specialist with a Master’s in Criminal Justice.
Tenaj’s lived experiences have been a catalyst that drive her dedicated career to human services, the criminal legal system, and victim advocacy which influenced her to become the founder of Light To Life. Light To Life works with women, girls, and gender non-conforming people (GNC) who are survivors of gender-based violence and are justice-impacted. Light To Life partners with public and private sectors where they provide gender-responsive programming that is evidenced-based, culturally affirming, and trauma-informed.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I believe anything worth having doesn’t come easy and anything that comes easy is usually not worth having. The start of my journey has not been a smooth road but I have paved it along the way, which has helped but there still is a lot more construction and development to build and expand upon, which excites me! This means there is room for growth and continued learning.
Many social entrepreneurs are not driven by profit, I’m driven by mission and societal needs. Because of this, many people may not see gender-based violence and justice-impacted women who are survivors of violence as a social or public health issue.
With that said, I have had to demonstrate the significance and impact of our work either through our workshops, research, and the testimonies from the women, girls, and GNC people we work with. However, I have grown to understand if someone truly believes in your mission that you don’t need to prove yourself to anyone and your work speaks for itself.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Light To Life’s mission is to educate, empower and engage communities to prevent gender-based violence. Light To Life fulfills this mission by providing gender-responsive, culturally-affirming, trauma-informed programming, technical assistance, and consulting tailored to: survivors of gender-based violence (GBV), women, girls, gender nonconforming (GNC) people, and justice-involved women and girls.
I believe what sets up apart is our ability to create safe spaces, we’re able to cultivate a supportive community in-person or virtually that teaches, guides, and equips survivors, justice-involved women, girls, and gender-expansive youth through a journey of self-awareness.
Light To Life provides national gender-responsive support and trauma-informed programming through digital resources, leadership opportunities, and educational workshops. Our speciality is our a workshop series which provides resources and tools that focus on prevention and healing efforts that address the unique needs of survivors who experience gender-based violence, mass incarceration, and structural racism. Our program introduces healing tools, strategies, and best practices that will educate and empower women, girls and GNC people to prevent and identify unhealthy/abusive relationships, develop a healthier relationship with themselves and how to best advocate for themselves, their children and others around them.
I believe what we’re known for is what sets us apart, which is understanding how our society and our legal system do not look at all survivors the same. We challenge the narrative that “survivors” and “people who have committed crimes” are two diametrically opposed groups. There is a major lack of gender-responsive programming and strategic approaches to meet the needs of incarcerated women and formerly incarcerated women, girls and GNC people.
Because of this, I’m most proud of one of our partnerships with a national nonprofit organization named From Prison Cells to Ph.D. (P2P), where they provide educational counseling, mentoring, workforce development, and transitional housing to men and women who are currently and formerly incarcerated. Through this partnership we have been able to support 400+ justice-impacted women and girls nationally.
Light To Life and P2P were recently awarded two grants from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and seed funding from Morgan CARES to evaluate Light To Life’s programmatic outcomes of P2P’s Womxn’s Cohort. Grant opportunities like this make it possible to provide the appropriate interventions for women and girls to break the cycle of violence and trauma.
I would like for readers to know, especially if you’re a survivor to never give up and understand how resilient you truly are. My mom always tells me, “Where there is a will, there is a way.” I encourage you to be part of this mission by sharing our work, mission and story to your communities to uplift women and center girls and GNC people voices always.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
In my experience, partnerships are keys to success!
Through partnerships, I have been able to develop meaningful and lasting relationships. My advice is to develop partnerships that will add value to your mission and services and from those relationships, you will naturally learn invaluable “GEMS” that will support the work you do and the people you do it for.
Contact Info:
- Website: Lighttolife.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onemissiononevoice/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tenaj-moody-perry-m-s-lbs-9a021188/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@onemissiononevoice29/videos
- SoundCloud: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-state-of-blossoming/id1531405895#episodeGuid=Buzzsprout-6712162
- Other: Tenajmoody.com
Image Credits
Marnie McCown https://mccownphotographydc.com/
