Meet a PJ Reader - Barbara Edwards Delsman

PJ profiles Barbara Edwards Delsman
Executive Director
The HOPE Program, Brooklyn, NY

The HOPE Program works to help New Yorkers transcend poverty and prepares them to find, keep and grow careers. Its mission is to help individuals living in extreme poverty achieve economic self-sufficiency and to inform practices by sharing their research and solutions.

What is your favorite quote?
Excerpted from the poem
“Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

The best part of nonprofit work is…
Working for an agency where we have so many positive outcomes and rewarding experiences. This is because most of our clients leave their lives of poverty and despair and become self-sufficient members of society.

Name three things you can’t live without.
Public radio, music from the 60’s, and books.

Who do you consider your hero?
My Uncle Leo, who used humor and compassion to make everyone around him feel comfortable, welcome, and valued.

Introduce an author you think people should read, and suggest a good book by him/her.
Jonathan Franzen, a contemporary American author who writes about families, their vulnerabilities and defense mechanisms. My favorite is his best-known work, “The Corrections”, a novel of social criticism and survival.

If you are interested in being profiled or know someone who would like to be profiled and who is a PJ reader, contact Cathy Harms at 919-573-4646 or charms@ajf.org

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