Rhonda Jackson is a lived experience community engagement consultant and Senior Fellow with the Family Homeless Coalition, Family Peer Advocate (FPA), certified Master Coach, specializing in Mindfulness training, with an emphasis in trauma intervention, and council member of Families Together New York State Health Minds Healthy Kids campaign and Co-founder of IMANATION, a grassroots project dedicated to advocating for change and shifting the trajectory of children and families experiencing shelter by investing into their future.

The work she does is intensely personal employing direct knowledge of what living in shelter integrates into the mindset of children, and the trauma of losing home, family and community.  Ms. Jackson is a native New Yorker, who was employed by Metropolitan Transit Authority until 9/11 where her homeless journey began. She ultimately experienced transient homelessness from coast to coast until returning to New York in 2016.

As a Fellow with Settlement Housing Fund she is a key player in the mission to create and sustain high quality programs leading to housing sustainability, life skill training and access to resources for families impacted by homelessness. Her projects include developing a Parent2Parent Peer Support network, Hear Our Voices (HOV) podcast sharing stories about family homelessness in New York City and disseminating resources for families at risk to bring about change in the families with children homeless system. Ms. Jackson is also Co-chair of the New York City Fund to End Youth and Family Homelessness and a fierce advocate among many other service commissions.

Her motto is a quote by James Baldwin: These are all our children we will profit for or pay for what they become.