{"id":4183,"date":"2022-08-22T16:44:14","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T20:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/?p=4183"},"modified":"2025-07-24T13:27:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T17:27:23","slug":"jennifer-barrett-cox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/jennifer-barrett-cox\/","title":{"rendered":"Jennifer Barrett Cox, M.Ed. \u201910"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Jennifer Barrett Cox, M.Ed. \u201910<\/strong><\/span>, isn\u2019t at work, she\u2019s focused on two things: her family and her nonprofit. \u201cThat\u2019s all I do,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Cox\u2019s nonprofit is called Empower4Life, which she started to support kids living in shelters in Baltimore County. Cox had spent 10 years teaching health at a high school in the county. \u201cI found myself connecting with kids coming from difficult life situations,\u201d she says. Her school had lower rates of graduation and attendance, and many of the students clearly needed help.<\/p>\n

She discovered that the largest shelter in the county was right around the corner from the school and began to volunteer there. \u201cI wanted to see what life was like for kids living in shelters,\u201d she says. She served meals and helped clean and do laundry.<\/p>\n

Cox thought she could help kids even more if she went into school administration, so she came to Goucher to get a master\u2019s degree with a concentration in school improvement leadership. But soon after graduating in 2010, she realized school-based administration wasn\u2019t for her. \u201cI got turned off by things that I don\u2019t think impact kids, like standardized testing,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s when I started looking into becoming a PPW.\u201d<\/p>\n

A PPW, or pupil personnel worker, works with school administrations to give kids support. Things like \u201cif kids aren\u2019t coming to school regularly, if parents aren\u2019t being responsive,\u201d she says. \u201cI deal with a lot of kids coming out of incarceration who need to get back into school.\u201d Cox found her new position, still with Baltimore County Public Schools, to be a good fit for the skills she learned at Goucher.<\/p>\n

She still volunteered at the shelter. \u201cThese kids live in stressful, chaotic, cramped places with nothing to do,\u201d she says. Cox thought about her own childhood in Perry Hall, close to the shelter, which was filled with sports and Girl Scouts. \u201cThose things are equally important to school, to help build character and self-esteem. And these kids come home and have nothing engaging, nothing productive, nothing healthy to do. It broke my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

One spring break, Cox rallied a group of teachers to bring activities to the kids. They did arts and crafts and played basketball, and the kids loved it. Cox began to formalize the program, and, with the help of a nonprofit friend, officially started Empower4Life in 2015. Working with five shelters in Baltimore and Harford counties, the organization offers fitness and art classes, teaches kids about good mental health practices, and runs a four-week summer camp. They also have a program called Take Action Thursdays; requests come in from social workers and others during the week for basic items, and the group works to fulfill them. One time, a shelter had an urgent need for milk, and within 24 hours, Empower had delivered 300 gallons.<\/p>\n

Cox spends her days supporting kids through her job with the school system and her nights and weekends supporting kids through Empower, but to her, it\u2019s not work. \u201cIt\u2019s fun for me,\u201d she says, \u201cand it\u2019s our obligation to try to make an impact in our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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