By Jordyn Davis | For The Birmingham Times
Candance Kemp, founder of Anitra’s Light Foundation, said her late daughter, Anitra Holloman, 21, a victim of the Five Points South mass shooting in September of 2024 would have been proud. Kemp’s foundation raises awareness by attending rallies for victims and families and brings awareness to gun violence.
“My baby is smiling at me. I know in my heart that she is. Me and [Anitra] did everything together. All I could hear her saying this morning was, ‘Mom, I’m so proud of you.’ And so I started Anitra’s Light Foundation to help children and parents who have lost their kids to gun violence or long-term incarceration. This is our next generation of kids and we want to show them some love, because that’s all they need,” she said.
On Wednesday, Kemp received $4,000 for the foundation as part of the “Flipping the Game: From Hustle to Enterprise” program launched this summer at Miles College that empowered adults in the Birmingham community to pursue entrepreneurship by transforming their informal hustles into viable, legal businesses. Kemp also received a $10,000 scholarship to attend the Fairfield-based Historical Black College and University.
Area teens and adults — like Kemp — received a combined $70,000 to launch more than 40 businesses through a 30-day community empowerment and violence reduction initiative led by the City of Birmingham, Miles College, and the Institute for Research in Social Justice in Action (IRSJA).
The initiative aimed at making the Birmingham community safer included “Flipping the Game”; “Rise Up Birmingham,” which engaged 50 teenagers and young adults in the Birmingham area to participate in a five-week, paid program focused on leadership and violence prevention and “Community Practitioner in Residence”, which offered adult residents and grassroots leaders a unique opportunity to receive intensive training and field-based learning.
One business owner, Natasha Stallworth said she was able to transform her business to include aspects of intense recovery for those suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“I’m an advocate for encouraging racial healing, because I think a lot of Black people’s trauma comes from very few regulations set in place after slavery,” she said. “I learned that the healing is so needed, so I offer a healing class on top of my college readiness and entrepreneurship programs. I encourage them to take that pain and suffering and strategize it so they can put their energy in an area of purpose. I teach them soft skills and different opportunities they can explore in the community,” Stallworth said.
Under the Rise Up program one student, Hizukiya Adley, said he was able to further his custom shoe-making business and learn different methods of calming an intense situation. “Our teachers were so nice and helped us learn new things about keeping a business running after you’ve started it. I also learned how to diffuse a heated situation, which is really useful,” Adley said.
Adley and other teenagers and adults walked across the Miles College Pearson Hall stage on Wednesday after completing the Rise Up Birmingham program, led by Miles, The City of Birmingham and the Institute of Research for Social Justice in Action (IRSJA).
Each student had the opportunity to engage in various leadership and violence protection trainings, focused on building custom business models and utilizing resources to lower violence.
The program was held with an array of leaders present including Mayor Randall Woodfin, Miles President Bobbie Knight and Uche Bean, director of the community safety initiative in Birmingham; Jacobie Williams, Founder/CEO of EverybodyWENS & President of One Hood WENS; Shadee Dukes and Khalil Tutt, co-founders of New Direction and Angelo Pinto, founder, Institute for Research and Social Justice Action.
