Elise Jenkins Built Ella's House for Nashville's Student Moms

Jason: What if you found out you were pregnant in your last year of college? And what if every moms group that you walked into was full of women ten years older than you? And what if the odds said you were more likely to drop out than to walk across that stage? Well, Elise Jenkins was 21 and a senior at Auburn when she was faced with that reality, but she finished. Today she's making sure the women who come after her never have to choose between a diploma and their baby.

Jason: Welcome to You Matter Nashville, where we celebrate the people and stories that make our community so special. We believe that everyone has a story to tell, and more importantly, everyone here matters.

Mindy: We're your hosts, Jason and Mindy Hoover, and we're passionate about shining a light on individuals who are making a real impact right here in Middle Tennessee. This is about community, connection, and the incredible people who are making a difference.

Jason: Let's dive in as we uncover powerful stories and meet remarkable people whose journeys will inspire us all. Right here on You Matter Nashville.

Jason: Hey friends, welcome to You Matter Nashville. I'm your host, Jason Hoover, with my lovely co-host and beautiful wife, Mindy, and we are so glad that you have taken time out of your day to join us. Today we have Elise Jenkins. She is the executive director and co-founder of Ella's House, which is a Nashville nonprofit that helps pregnant and parenting college students stay in school and finish their degrees. Elise, welcome to the show.

Elise: Thank you guys so much for having me. I'm excited to be here with you today.

Jason: All right, I always like to share with our listeners a little bit about who is joining us on the show today. So it says here, Elise Jenkins was a senior at Auburn University when she found out she was pregnant at 21. She finished her degree, and her daughter, Ella Rae, arrived just days after graduation. Elise had people around her who made that possible, and she knew most young moms in her shoes didn't. So at 26, she co-founded Ella's House, named for Ella Rae, and opened its first home in 2022. Today Ella's House serves pregnant and parenting students across more than twenty colleges in the Nashville area, with free housing for new moms, support as they move on, and a community for any student mom who just needs her people. Ella's House started, in Elise's own words, "with me crying on the bathroom floor, terrified that it couldn't be done." Elise, we're so glad that you're here with us today.

Elise: Well, I'm excited to be here. Thank you guys.

Mindy: Well, Elise, take us back to your 21-year-old self. In college, like you said, you did have a support group or team that kind of rallied behind you, but tell me what was going through your head as a senior in college. Like, I just want to graduate. Tell me about it.

Elise: Mindy, that's a little bit of exactly what it felt like. I had just one semester left. I was so close, I could taste it. And this pregnancy came out of what felt like left field for me. And I remember feeling the full expanse of emotions you could possibly feel regarding a surprise situation. I was excited, I was terrified, I was sad, I was scared, I was happy, I was tired, I was probably nauseous. Anything you could have felt, I probably felt it. And so I just remember feeling like, I haven't seen anybody do this. And surely there are people who have graduated while pregnant or parenting, but I did not have a roadmap at the time.

Jason: Yeah, being in college, facing graduation, wanting to start your next chapter in life, and all of a sudden, like you said, it came out of left field. Just bam. That made everything take a different turn. And I'm sure it caused a lot of questions, a lot of insecurity. Just like the opening statement that you shared, crying on the bathroom floor, I can just imagine the emotions going through you. Those were hard, hard times that people just don't understand, and I don't, but I can just imagine.

Elise: Yeah, I think it's hard to understand unless you're in the situation. I think a lot of people can see pieces of their own story or pieces of friends' and family's stories and kind of imagine what it's like to be in that situation. But I do find that for our moms who are a part of Ella's House, something that's special is they have resources now, and other moms who can relate to exactly that same feeling.

Jason: How scary is it when you didn't have anybody to reach out to?

Elise: A thousand out of ten. The limit does not exist. I think there's the scariness of, I don't know how to talk to my school. There's the scariness of, I have to deliver a baby, and I didn't think I was going to be pregnant right now, so what does that mean? I hadn't read any pregnancy books or prepped at all. So I felt very scared in the medical sense. Scared for what my friends and family would think and how they would react and be or not be supportive of me continuing my education. So, scary on so many different levels.

Mindy: Yeah, I agree. And you know, we had the wonderful privilege of talking earlier in preparation for today. And like you, I had another chapter in my life before Jason and I had met. I got pregnant before my senior year and had my beautiful daughter between semesters, which I don't recommend. But all the things you just said. You're so scared to tell everybody. You're afraid your friends are going to drop you. I was so fortunate to have people in my life. One of my closest friends literally picked me up from my parents' house and was like, you're not dropping out, you're going to school, and I've already made an appointment with the head of the music department, and we're going to go sit down and have a meeting about the situation and get you graduated.

Mindy: Just looking back on all of that support system that I had, and how fortunate I was to have people not only be there but push me. You've worked too hard. You're going to graduate. We're going to make sure it happens. But that's not the norm. That is not the norm for most people. Most people's situations are, they may have a couple of people in their life that they can kind of lean on, but for the most part they're just out there struggling, going to school, trying to figure things out. How am I going to get daycare for my kids? There's a wait list. It's a lot to juggle. And most people's mothers were not in that situation, going to school and pregnant, so they don't know how to properly help.

Mindy: So having a resource where somebody can sit down with you and say, we can help you, even have a place to live, let alone try to help you find a daycare and get you set up financially to where we can get you across the finish line. Having that is just so, so incredible and so needed. And as we have found with so many different podcasts, it usually takes somebody going through it to know what is needed for the people around them, because your eyes are not open to what you don't know. So I love that you saw the need and tried to fix it. I applaud that. Thank you.

Elise: Mindy, thank you. It sounds like we need a lot more of your friend who stepped in. We need like a thousand of that friend. Because those are the people who make the change, I think, where moms believe they can do it. Just having people fighting in your corner.

Jason: When you found out, who was the first person you told?

Elise: I found out in my mom's house, on her bathroom floor. So she was the first person there on the scene of me crying on the floor. But the first call I made was to my now husband, at the time boyfriend, Zach, to let him know. Hey, surprise.

Mindy: Congratulations. Present.

Jason: I got your graduation present.

Elise: I remember him driving over to my mom's house and us sitting in her living room, kind of like, what do we do now? That was the conversation. And I'm certain that Zach and I both had no idea what the game plan was. I think we were both just kind of in shock and processing. So he was my first call, and shortly after that was the rest of my family, my dad and brother.

Jason: Probably very uncomfortable.

Elise: And then my college advisor was the next call, to say, okay, we've got to figure this out. I want to graduate, I want my degree. What's it going to look like? Have you seen it done?

Mindy: And so lucky that baby was like, hey, I'm thinking I'm just going to stay in here until after graduation, and didn't decide to make an early arrival or anything like that.

Elise: Absolutely. You know, she was eight weeks early, which we've now found, if you have an unexpected pregnancy, that's a predictor for early preterm births. But she waited until after graduation. So that was very nice. Thank you, Ella Rae.

Mindy: Mine decided to be about seven weeks early, so that tracks.

Elise: There you go.

Jason: It's the only time she was ever in a rush.

Mindy: Or early.

Jason: We love our daughter. She's just on her own time limit.

Mindy: She's on artistic time. That's what we call it. Artistic.

Elise: She grew up in the music department. How could she not?

Mindy: She did. Exactly. That's literally the issue.

Jason: If you can only imagine, with both of us being in music, I've lived a musical my whole life being married.

Mindy: Yeah.

Jason: It was funny, I've shared it before, but one time when we were in an apartment, the neighbors actually could hear her singing in the shower because it was connected. And they just told us one day, your daughter sings beautifully.

Elise: What do you want?

Jason: Anyway. Now, you were terrified. That's a given. What were you most afraid of?

Mindy: That's good.

Elise: That's such a great question. I don't think anyone's ever asked me that. To be honest, being a woman in the South, coming from a Christian upbringing, I had gone to a private Christian school. I was really afraid of what people would think and what people would say. Which, as an adult now, down the road, I realize should have been the least of my concerns. But as a 21-year-old, I think that hurts probably more than it should.

Mindy: Agree. I think carrying that shame, which is what it translates to, at least in my book. When you grow up in a very strict Christian home and community, getting pregnant was like the epitome of the wrong thing to do for a young woman. And I think it was so humbling for me to go to my home church and be pregnant and not be married. I can't describe it other than shame that I shouldn't have had.

Elise: Yeah.

Mindy: And later on, when you look back, you go, why did I carry that? Why did I carry that? But it's just the stigma that we, especially in the South, put on ourselves. It's like you can mess up any other way and it's fine, you can be forgiven, whatever. But something like that is a stigma you have to carry a little bit longer for some reason. I get that.

Elise: And I think as an adult now, what scares me is I never want that to translate to my daughter, for her to ever feel that. So I try to be careful in the way I share it, because it was never about her. You know what I mean? It's never about her. I'm so proud of her. She's amazing, incredible. I couldn't be more thankful to be her mom. And at the same time, you feel icky about how this is all playing out, and also so thankful for Ella Rae and what she's brought into all of our lives.

Jason: You had mentioned that you called your counselor and told your counselor that you're getting this done, you're making this happen. What was your biggest support from your village that you look back and say, if it wasn't for them or this, I wouldn't have been able to do it?

Elise: I think probably the encouragement of my friends and family meant the most. Unfortunately, during the pregnancy part, there's not a lot that other people can be helpful with in terms of physically helping. At least in my situation, I had the resources I needed to get to doctors' appointments. I had a part-time job. I was housed. Things were fine physically. I think emotionally was where I needed the most support, and that's where I was able to feel the most supported from my village. I think, unfortunately, my school at the time, and things have changed, hopefully, wasn't super equipped to help me get to that finish line. And I felt very on my own and kind of floundering through, how do I make this happen?

Mindy: I think so too. There just wasn't a lot of forgiveness for going to doctor visits and things like that. And I hope colleges are a little bit more accommodating for things like that, because you can't always schedule around it. Sometimes the doctor tells you when your appointments are. So it's not very convenient. I would hope that it's changed.

Elise: Yeah, we're lucky that now, under Title IX, pregnant parents are a protected class. And so a lot of our moms have been able to receive support that maybe they hadn't in the past, as far as being flexible with deadlines or appointments or missing a class. But it has taken some education on our part and some conversations with the colleges we work with to help them understand the best way to support moms.

Jason: So, going to college. One of the running jokes is that it doesn't matter what your degree is, because you're not going to use it anyway. I'm sure you weren't going to college to start a nonprofit.

Elise: And I wish I would have. There's the regret I have.

Jason: That being the case, what was your degree in?

Elise: My degree was in human development and family studies, and I focused on adolescent health.

Mindy: Well, my goodness. You kind of have a grounding in what you need to help these young women, and you didn't even know it. That's incredible.

Jason: She's actually using her degree.

Mindy: I know. Unintentionally. Look at that.

Elise: I know. I wish I would have taken a finance class, an accounting class. That's something I've had to learn on the fly a little bit. But I feel very blessed that my degree has helped inform a lot of how we're able to work things at Ella's House and the way we're able to show up for moms.

Jason: Right. So I love that you made that change, made the transition. I want to get into Ella's House and talk about it. Paint the picture for us about when that inspiration came to you. Was it a certain day? Was it a certain event? What was it that made you go, I need to do this?

Elise: I had been looking for ways to get involved with young moms here in Nashville, and hadn't been able to find anything that was specifically for young moms in school. We have a lot of incredible nonprofits, a lot that we partner closely with now, who work with vulnerable moms, single moms, moms experiencing homelessness, moms coming out of incarceration, all doing incredible things. And I wanted to try and find the moms that were kind of like I was, just trying to get through school, trying to be a great mom and juggle life along with that. And I couldn't find anything.

Elise: And so as Ella Rae started going to school a little bit more, she had been in the two-day, the three-day, and then she went to five-day, I said, I really am going to dig into this. Couldn't find anything. And so I sat down with my mom, who has a pretty extensive nonprofit background, and said, hey, this doesn't exist in Nashville. It actually doesn't exist a lot of places in the United States. Would you help me start something that would support pregnant and parenting collegiate moms, and we can help these moms get across the finish line? And she said, probably begrudgingly, because she was going to retire, yes, I would love to work with you. And that's how it started.

Jason: That's awesome that you had your mother to help you get that started. Does she still work with you?

Elise: She does, yes. You can see her on the website. You can see her if you come out to anything. Having walked through the parental side of what it looks like to support a student mom, and then having her nonprofit experience in the logistics of it all, has been so helpful, to have multiple perspectives within our staff of what it looks like to help support these mamas.

Mindy: Absolutely. And what I've gone through, having moms that were on that religious side and just so graciously accepted it and rolled with the punches, we're going to do this. That's incredible. And she just took it a step further: let me just help you with the nonprofit on the other side too. Let's just keep this going. Not something that either one of you thought would be in your future.

Mindy: But I just love it. I think it's really great that your mother has come on board and has embraced this whole thing. I think it forms such a love for other people in your position that you otherwise wouldn't have. You become protective of these women yourself. You want to help them and see them succeed, and you don't want them to fall into a statistic. Because what is the statistic? Do you know offhand, of women when they do find out?

Elise: Yeah. The statistic is one in five are pregnant and parenting. There's a 48 percent national average for parents that stay enrolled every year. Our statistic at Ella's House is 97 percent either stay enrolled or graduate every year.

Jason: That is awesome. That's amazing.

Jason: I always like to know the history or the backstory of the name. So we know Ella's House is named after Ella Rae. What about Ella Rae? Was there a certain reason for that name?

Elise: I wanted a double name. I was pretty convinced that I wanted a double name. My maiden name is Reinfeldt, and so I wanted something that had an R in it, because I thought that was cute. And I also have a really close relationship with my dad, and his middle name is Ray, spelled R-A-Y. And so I thought it would be sweet to name her after him.

Mindy: Very Southern of you, too, to have a Rae.

Elise: R-A-E, yes. So that's where her name comes from. She's named a little bit after my dad and a little bit after me just wanting a double name.

Jason: I love it. We kind of did the same with our son with his middle name. Combined two family names.

Mindy: Two family names, a maiden name and a family name.

Elise: I love when people do that.

Jason: It's funny, because now he has three last names.

Mindy: Each of his names is a last name. We didn't do that on purpose, but it's Cohen McCain Hoover.

Elise: Amazing.

Jason: So when you decided, I'm going to go for this, and started building or laying the framework and the foundation for Ella's House, share with us some of those obstacles that you encountered.

Elise: Yeah, I hate to put myself on blast, but I will for the sake of this podcast. First of all, I had no idea what I was doing. I had no nonprofit background or experience. I thought I was going to be doing forensic interviews for children who had been abused and neglected. So I was very much in a different lane with the skill set I had been utilizing. So even things as simple as registering our business with the state and nationally. The paperwork mistakes I made. I think I got five letters sent back from the state the first time we did it that were like, this is wrong, can you please correct this? They're so patient. Now I know how to do it. But simple things like that, just a learning curve. This is before ChatGPT. I couldn't just stick it in and get it done right. I had to learn myself.

Elise: But also, as we've grown, we've really had to look at what the needs of Nashville student moms are. I had an idea when I came in: this is what moms need, this is what support would be most helpful. And we quickly realized that there were needs I didn't have, or didn't immediately recognize, that were going to make a huge difference for our moms. For instance, diapers. I was in a place financially where diapers were not an issue for me. A lot of our moms are in a place where diapers are a huge expense. They're not covered under a lot of federal SNAP money. You have to have diapers to drop your child off at daycare a lot of places. And so that can be a huge deterrent for moms being able to go to work and school. That's something I didn't realize. So just learning as we go, taking feedback from moms on what's important and what's helpful to them, has been a learning curve, but also something I'm really grateful for, that people are willing to tell me what works and what doesn't.

Mindy: I'm glad that you've listened. Because you had your parents' support, and I had my parents' emotional support through it, but not financially. So I one hundred percent understand the diapers. I went without things that I needed for school just to go buy diapers. And that was a hard truth. So that being one of the top things, I get it. It's something your kid has to have. It's not like, I guess I'll go buy some diapers, they might need it. You have to have those. So what else, other than that, did you see as a setback for these girls?

Elise: We talk a lot about the big three at Ella's House. Our big three right now, which I'm sure a lot of Nashville is also experiencing, is transportation challenges. Some of our moms have cars, some of them use public transportation. Both can be unreliable at times, but both are necessary to get to work, school, appointments, et cetera. So, working through those challenges. Childcare is a huge one. We know the wait lists are long. The voucher just opened back up, but it has been paused for months and months. It's expensive, et cetera. And then housing. So we knew right away housing was going to be a big one, but I think the last five years we've also realized that childcare and transportation are two things we need to be prepared to tackle as well. And so we are tackling them as best we can every day, trying to make new partnerships and new solutions that work for our scholars.

Jason: How many schools do you work with?

Elise: We work with over twenty universities throughout the Middle Tennessee area. So we work all the way from Austin Peay down to MTSU.

Jason: Okay. And you opened the first house in 2022. Share with us a little bit about what's involved in that, getting that established, and then getting the girls, that whole flow.

Elise: Yeah, so our first house, we actually leased the tiniest two-bedroom bungalow, near Lipscomb University. It was like a New York-sized apartment. It was a little postage stamp. But we thought, let's start small, we'll get the kinks out and we'll get things rolling. Our first mom that ever found us, her grandfather was listening to the radio, and I happened to be on there chatting with the host, and he heard about it and knew his granddaughter was pregnant and attending school in Nashville and didn't have a great housing situation. So he sent her our way. She's now graduated, done with school, doing fantastic.

Jason: That's amazing.

Elise: We love to hear those stories. And then our next mom heard about us through word of mouth. And from there, we quickly had two moms and realized, my gosh, we're already out of space. We started looking for a bigger house to put our scholars in, and then started adding these resources like we talked about: diapers, grocery assistance, how can we get a partnership with mechanics, or help with childcare expenses on the front end while you wait for your voucher. So it went from really just housing with a listening ear to now we're providing counseling and diapers and this baby boutique and things I probably would not have dreamt of five years ago. But we're really excited to be able to give our moms the options.

Mindy: And therapy is so needed. So needed for everybody in America, it seems, but let alone somebody going through a pregnancy that's unexpected and alone. That's traumatic. And it's so important.

Elise: Absolutely. And we found that most of the schools have counseling programs that are great, but you only get so many sessions, and those counselors are used to focusing on perhaps more standard college issues. So being able to partner with people here who focus on that has been really lovely.

Mindy: Now, colleges used to have family housing, and you don't see that anymore. I don't think I've seen it in ten or fifteen years. Is that something that's permanently going away, or are those discussions that you guys have been having with universities, saying, hey, there's a dire need for this, and advocating for that?

Elise: I think, unfortunately, the trend is that they are going away. We've seen a couple, even in the past three or so years, get demoed for parking or just more on-campus dorms. Which is also important. Nashville housing is expensive, so having dorms is great. However, not having a space for our moms on campuses is really exclusive. And I think there's a world in which colleges could be more inclusive of student parents, whether they're student moms or student dads or student families. We've talked to some scholars who are married and unexpectedly, between first and second year of law school, had a kid, and suddenly everything's expensive. And I think family housing on campus would be such a great solution for that.

Mindy: I agree, one hundred percent.

Jason: Now tell us about your mentor program.

Elise: Sure. So all of our students are paired with mentors when they first move into Ella's House. And the goal for that is really to have another person in their corner. Kind of like Mindy was saying, she had her friend who pushed her and encouraged her. That is what we want for all of our scholars at Ella's House. And obviously the goal is that staff is in their corner as well, and we are those people for them. But having someone specifically dedicated to each mom, where they can call and say, hey, I had a really terrible day, or, it's beautiful next week, do you want to go for a walk? It's such an incredible way for our scholars to feel like the community backs them up. And also, we found it's a really great way for the community who wants to be involved with these scholars to form deeper relationships than just one-off volunteering. We've had a lot of wonderful women step up for this mentorship program, a lot of them who have experienced this themselves, which I think is really awesome.

Jason: Yeah, it definitely gives them more insight into what they're going through, what they're thinking. And having somebody there that truly cares makes a world of difference. It instills a lot more hope that, hey, everything's okay. This wasn't the way I planned, but it's life, and it's going to be a good life.

Mindy: Yeah. And especially for these ladies who don't have any family nearby, just having that female support that lives nearby and can check in on them. Just having that warm person to be able to confide in and talk to. I think that's just beautiful.

Elise: Yeah, we've been really thrilled with the program. And I think, looking at other places that are doing mentorship with youth, we all see how important it is with young adults or youth to have these kinds of mentorship programs. But I think it's easy for people to gloss over that a lot of our student parents are just newly adults. They're 18, 19, 20, 21. They are still young adults who need people in their corner.

Jason: Right.

Mindy: Well, shifting a little bit, can you tell us a little bit about Room to Rise?

Elise: Sure. Yeah, we are on a path to expand the services of Ella's House. We want to be able to house more women, and we are on a wait list that's too long for me to be comfortable with. We just need more space, and space in Nashville is hard to find. So we are currently undertaking our Room to Rise, perhaps more room for our moms to rise and achieve their goals, get their degrees. And so we're planning to be able to house twenty to twenty-four moms on our new campus.

Mindy: That's amazing. So what's it going to look like? How are you going to get there?

Elise: We are still in the talks of what exactly it looks like. We are in the early stages of what it looks like to get there. We've met with a lot of landowners, we've met with a lot of churches, we've met with a lot of places to identify some land that works. And then we will be building our dream Ella's House campus here in Middle Tennessee. Unfortunately, probably not super accessible for our MTSU or Austin Peay moms. But just like we started small with our postage-stamp-sized little bungalow, we're going to start with this and we'll go from there. Maybe check back in five years for next steps.

Mindy: I like that. You never know. You might be able to get a large home near campus, near MTSU. If anybody out there has a home near MTSU they just want to gift, or Austin Peay, right? Big things can happen.

Elise: We could have multiple locations. That's the dream, for sure.

Mindy: Just have somebody donate the house.

Elise: So yeah, definitely we are looking to expand, and this initiative will help us be able to serve more moms, and serve them, I think, with better dignity. Just a space that's specifically built for them. Because right now we are kind of hodgepodging things together, and it's working, but we could do better.

Jason: Sure. And how many do you house currently?

Elise: Currently we're able to house eight to nine moms. And then the rest of our moms, forty-ish at any given time, are community moms. So moms that either are on the wait list for housing with us or might not need housing. But you can imagine only being able to house eight. That wait list breaks my heart every time I have to call a mom and say, I'm so sorry, we are placing you at the end of the wait list and there are twenty people in front of you.

Jason: Yeah, that hurts. I'm sure, especially with your passion and background, I can imagine that hits different for you.

Elise: It does. I think it's a privilege to be able to be the one having the conversation, because I have, hopefully, the empathy to understand how much it stinks for the mom. But also, those are never fun days.

Jason: We talked a little bit about universities moving away from those types of housing. If you had one thing that you could wish for a university, or say to the universities, that would support and help these women, do you know what that would be?

Elise: Yeah, I think one of the things we do at Ella's House right now that I love is we work with our collective. We started a collective called Motherhood Collective. We work with over thirty-five different agencies in Middle Tennessee who serve moms. And every year we put together what's called the campus pregnancy protocol, and we drop it off to every college we work with. Inside of that is every resource an RA or somebody working on campus could need if a student comes to them and says, I'm pregnant. So housing, cars, counseling, food pantries, diapers, baby places. All of this stuff is delivered in a booklet form, but also digitally, to the campuses. I think that is amazing, and one of our staff members, Madison, heads that project up and does an incredible job making sure that campuses have the resources when a student comes to them.

Elise: I think what I would beg universities to consider is taking more data on their student parents, and really searching them out. A lot of universities that we've talked to have said, we don't have student parents, I don't know of anybody. If the numbers are one in five, they're on your campus. So I think being supportive of student parents is going to start with universities accepting that there are student parents on their campus, and really getting a read on what that population looks like at their campus.

Mindy: And actually facilitating. Like having a liaison that's specifically for family dynamics, and being a resource on campus. There's a person on campus for almost everything else you can imagine. Why isn't there one for student parent resources?

Elise: Yes. Yes.

Jason: So where does most of your funding come from?

Elise: Our funds, we work hard to keep pretty diversified. That's one of Susan's gauntlets she'll throw down, diversified funds, with her nonprofit background. So we work hard to have a good mix of individual donors, grant funding, and then some state and city Metro funding as well. But keeping that pretty spread out, because we know that things change. People's lives change. Maybe they're not able to donate the way they once were. The economy changes, and maybe those state and government grants change. So just keeping these things diversified so we are ready to pivot when needed has been important for us, and something we really strive to keep that way.

Jason: Now, are other people able to donate?

Elise: The general public? Absolutely. Yes. You can go on our website. You can go on our Instagram. Everybody can donate time, money, anything they want. Baby supplies. We will take it all.

Jason: Diapers.

Mindy: Diapers, yeah. Diapers, wipes, onesies.

Elise: Wipes. Yeah.

Jason: Man, I remember when we had our second one, going through that, and the diapers, my goodness. I couldn't believe the cost. He went through diapers too quick.

Mindy: Yeah, especially if your kid is allergic to traditional diapers, and we had to get the kind that was absent of everything, the Honest diapers and all, which are even more expensive. We're like, thanks. Appreciate it.

Elise: So much.

Jason: Now, you have a group called the 3am Club, right? Tell us a little bit about that.

Elise: Yes. Our 3am Club, we named, and y'all as parents will know this, for the supporters who are showing up for our moms any time of day or night. I remember with both my kids, sitting up in the middle of the night, feeding at 3am, going, gosh, no one else is awake right now. And you feel so alone. You're like, I have got to be the only one in the whole world who's awake right now. Which isn't true, but in my head, that's what I was thinking while I was rocking. And so it's named for our monthly and recurring donors who really step up for these moms in such a special way. They are kind of a bedrock of our giving, and donating recurring means that we can continue to plan out our services well in advance.

Elise: And I think it also gives the moms that we serve another group of people in their corner. We can say, hey, look at this huge group who, every month, recurring, is showing up for you. And maybe they're not a face you necessarily know, but they're thinking about you, they're supporting you from afar. So we have 3am Club members all over the United States, which is kind of amazing. We love when we get to see them in person, but we love even more that they're able to support our moms no matter where they live.

Mindy: Now, what's the minimum on that, that people can donate per month?

Elise: There is no minimum. You could donate a coffee a month. My coffee's ten dollars, which feels criminal, but maybe you get a drip coffee and it's five dollars a month.

Mindy: Hey, all of that compounds.

Elise: Absolutely. So there is no minimum, but people should join the 3am Club. It's so easy, and it makes such a difference.

Jason: And how can they do that?

Elise: Go online to our website, ellashouse.org, and there's a little tab at the top that says Join the 3am Club.

Mindy: It's easy. Everyone should do it. Just saying. Now, I know that you specialize in working with these college mothers, but being a former high school teacher, I know that there have been a lot of issues with teen moms. And a lot of people don't realize, even though they would never do this, there are families out there that will kick out their child if they got pregnant. And it's devastating, but it leaves a sixteen-, seventeen-year-old kid alone to raise a kid. What are you guys, or anybody that you're partnering with, doing that is helping these young ladies make that next step?

Elise: Yeah. I'm going to tell you a story first, Mindy, and then I'll answer your question. This will kind of illustrate your point. So we had a mom who reached out to us. She was 19 years old. She had just had a C-section, had gone home to her parents' house, and she called us hysterically in tears. First time we'd heard from her. Her mom had turned off the water because she didn't want her living with her anymore. With a C-section, it's super important to have that water, keep everything clean and healthy so you don't get an infection. She was panicked. She was 19 and could not get a hotel room, because there's a minimum age on that. She didn't have any other family in the area. All her family lived at the mom's house, and she did not know where to go. She had literally come home from the hospital that day, and was asking us if we thought it would be okay for her to go to the shelter with this kind of open wound. We moved her in that day, within like five hours.

Elise: But that's what a lot of these women are facing if they don't have family support. I'm too young to get a hotel room, maybe I don't have the funds, I can't live with my family, they're not supportive. What do I do? It's heartbreaking.

Jason: It is heartbreaking.

Elise: Our goal is to connect with teen moms as well, early on, so they realize that college is possible. But when the conversation is so intense that they can't even think about college at that moment, our first step is just, where can we find you safe, stable housing? So we are lucky to work with some partners that are working with teen moms, that are working with young moms who aren't necessarily wanting to go to college. And we are so thankful to be able to refer comfortably to those places. But to your point, Mindy, it's heartbreaking, and it is, once again, kind of an underappreciated thing that's happening in our society.

Jason: And I don't think most people understand the gravity of that situation, and what's going through the mind of that young lady. Because if you think about it, it's not just her. She's now responsible for this little one. She has, typically, no past experience. And when you said she called you up frantically, I can only imagine the horror that she was going through mentally, not knowing, what can I do? I've got my child that's relying on me, and I can't do anything. It's got to be one of the most hopeless feelings there is.

Elise: Yeah, I can't imagine being in that scenario, and I'm so thankful that she found us and was able to call us. But I can imagine there are moms that probably don't know about us and are in that situation, feeling really hopeless. And that's hard to think about.

Jason: Man. I know whenever you're responsible for your young one and you can't get help, or don't know where to get help. What little experience I had was trying to get help for my son. He was very sick, and I've shared it on other podcasts before, but I couldn't get anybody to help me. I won't go into the whole story. But that fear, and I did not realize how much it just engulfed me, that fear, until at that time our pastor made it up there to the hospital. And as soon as he walked in, out of nowhere, I just broke down. And I'm not one that breaks down. I didn't even know it was coming. But I'm sharing that because there's that deep emotion that's within them that, unless you experience it, you really don't understand it. And I'm not saying I understand it. That's as close as I can get to it.

Mindy: Yeah. Just having that physical support, though, of someone who cares. I think that's the point. Whatever your situation, when you feel completely hopeless in any situation, just having people there that care means the world when you feel hopeless. Now, you guys have student campus ambassadors, people that are on campuses that also help you with this ministry. I know we don't have paid faculty people that help, but I would love to hear what your volunteers are doing on campuses.

Elise: Absolutely. So we're thankful to have some campuses with really great staff, and they might be in the medical department or the counseling department, but they know about us. So I'm thankful for that. I'm like, we're getting closer every day. But our campus ambassadors are really important to us. And what we've seen a shift in this year is groups signing up as campus ambassadors versus single students. So we've seen sororities or Bible studies on campus take on Ella's House as their project for the year. And whether that's helping us with a special event, whether it's helping us table on campus, gathering supplies, these students are really showing up for their peers in a way that I think is really special. And I know when our scholars see these groups on their campuses, it means a ton to them to know, this campus is supporting me as well. It's not just Ella's House, but I have support here on campus from the students as well.

Mindy: That's really great.

Jason: That is wonderful. I love the groups getting together to do it. And going back to having somebody there, just knowing that somebody cares enough and is willing to gather time or money or what have you. That's the beauty of humanity. In a world right now where there are so many negative things, when people step up, volunteer, and do good things, like yourself starting a nonprofit, that's what brings hope back into humanity. What are ways that people can get involved?

Elise: Yeah, we have a lot of different ways. I try to make it easy. I know people's lives are busy. I'm a mom of two young kids. I get it. I feel like I'm constantly just racing around. But we try to make it easy for people to get involved in ways that make sense for them. So if that's joining the 3am Club, and that's the bandwidth you have, amazing. We also have people who volunteer, kind of like a meal train, to drop off meals for our Tuesday night dinners. Our moms come, they get dinner, there are volunteers there to hold babies if they need a break from holding a baby, and they just get time to fellowship with other moms. Sometimes we have somebody come in and chat about something educational, like baby sign language or what to do if your baby's sick. But sometimes it's just hanging out and eating and getting a minute to breathe. It's like a small group.

Elise: You can sign up to come babysit babies and hold babies. That's a fun one. A lot of our young ladies who are in college love to come hold a baby during the week. And we've also had a lot of sweet grandmothers come, because they have time during the day, to come hold a baby while mom takes a shower or runs an errand or studies a little bit.

Mindy: Which is everything.

Elise: Literally. I remember being like, somebody take this baby. So, special events, stuff around the house. If you have a big group, Madison, who handles all our volunteers, is fantastic at pairing groups with what works for them. So if you have a group of ladies who are really good at organizing, they can do organizing things. Or if you have a bunch of strong men, we can have you move furniture. We just tailor it to what you're interested in, so people can go online and find what they're passionate about, what suits them, and then we'll get connected and go from there.

Jason: Now, do y'all have events or any fundraisers throughout the year?

Elise: Yes, we have a lot of different events people can come be a part of. Two that are coming up in November. One is our Secret Supper Club. This is a really exclusive chef-driven event. It's at a secret location that's going to be announced twenty-four, maybe forty-eight if we're lucky, hours beforehand. There are only twenty-four seats at that. So we expect those to go really quick, but it's a way to connect with other people in Nashville who are passionate about this cause and get a really yummy, delicious dinner at a crazy location you might never have been to. We're also having a Holiday Makers Market. Those tickets are available online. It's free to come to, but when you come and shop for the holidays, a portion of those proceeds goes back to Ella's House. We've curated a really cool list of vendors, and we've also included some of our Ella's House scholars who are makers, who will have their stuff available as well. So that's fun. Get a group, come shop.

Elise: And then our big event is in February. That's called Night Circus, and that will be at The Factory in downtown Franklin. It's a huge gala. There's magic, there's mystery, there's not a chicken dinner. It's so much fun. There are games. It's just a really fun night to celebrate what Ella's House has done, what our scholars have accomplished, and to celebrate the people in the community who have made it all possible.

Jason: I'm interested in that one. Night Circus. Look, she's already looking it up.

Elise: You should come. It's really good.

Jason: Yeah, you may see us there. I love that you have many different ways that people can be involved. And the 3am Club, just to make sure, you don't have to get up at 3am. It's a donation. Side note, I joined a 5am club one time, and we had to meet somewhere at 5am, and that lasted about a month for me. I was done.

Mindy: Send your money.

Elise: Yes. We will not require that wake-up time of anyone. I wouldn't do it, so I wouldn't make anyone else do it.

Jason: They had even created an app. You wake up and you've got to hit it before 5am, and if you didn't, you'd lose points. I was like, man, this is great for morning people. I'm not a morning person. Anyway. So, glad you've got all this information on the website. What's that website address again?

Elise: Yes, it's www.ellashouse.org.

Mindy: Elise, thank you so much for sharing your story and being so vulnerable for our audience today. And thank you for showing your love for the young mothers of Middle Tennessee. It is much appreciated, and like I said, we're just so glad you were here to share.

Elise: Absolutely. Thank you guys for having me. I'm thrilled that this is a podcast that exists, that celebrates people who are doing awesome things, and I feel very grateful to be a part of it.

Jason: Well, we truly are grateful for people like yourself that are impacting others in our community, stepping up when you found a need, loving on these girls. And the thing is, you're not just impacting those girls, you're impacting that child. And from there, it's going to impact generations. So what you're doing is going to be long lasting. So thank you for taking that time, and thank your mother as well. She's probably won the Grandmother of the Year award whenever y'all got started.

Elise: She has.

Jason: And I'm sure she's fantastic. But thank you for your heart. Thank you for your love of these young women. Thank you for giving back to the community, because people like you make the community much, much better. We're just going to wrap that up here. And so, friends, thank you for listening. Thank you for joining us today. And if this conversation stirred anything in you, I encourage you to go on their website. Again, that is ellashouse.org. Spelled out, that is E-L-L-A-S-H-O-U-S-E dot O-R-G. We're going to have all the information on our website, so the links to give, even the 3am Club. You don't have to wake up at 3am, but you can donate. And many different things that you can get involved in. But thank you for your heart. Thank you for your love of our community. And we can definitely tell that this matters so much to you. And we are excited to see what you have down the road. Maybe in five years you'll have that building. Maybe three years. Who knows? But thank you, everybody, for joining us, and until next time, always remember that you matter.

Mindy: Thank you for joining us on this episode of You Matter Nashville. We hope you found inspiration in this episode and are reminded that no matter where you are or what you do, you matter.

Jason: If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to subscribe, leave us a review, and even share it with your friends and family. Also, stay connected with us on social media, and tune in next time for more incredible stories from the heart of our community.

Mindy: Until then, remember: your story matters, your voice matters, and most of all, you matter.