Meet Jennifer Lisson | The WHIT Program Inc. Founder and President

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jennifer Lisson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jennifer, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I saw a need, and I did something about it. Through my volunteer work as a CASA I saw a need to bridge an educational gap that children fall into by simply being in foster care. I found that only 62% of children in foster care graduate high school and only 2% go on to graduate college. That’s lower than any other grouping: poverty, homelessness, immigrant children or substance abuse. Our mission here at The WHIT program aims to change that!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

I knew in my heart there was a need to help this group of children, who even themselves, are silent about this problem,  and I was not going to take no for an answer. The general, society and communities aren’t aware of this issue because it’s not spoken about. The children themselves are silent victims. They don’t talk about their abuse, or their shortcommings. They don’t speak up and advocate for themselves, so I decided to do it on their behalf.

We had to keep being persistent in order to make this happen. CPS would not allow anyone not working with an approved program to have access to the fosters. So, we started our own program.

We started working in Tom Green County. Initially, CPS refused to speak to us, but we remained persistent and kept  knocking on doors at CPS until one opened. We eventually met with the head of foster care programs in San Angelo, and the head of education services for the region. We discussed what it would take to get CPS to agree to let us serve its foster kids. Eventually, we agreed that we would train our tutors on confidentiality, and they would have to pass an FBI fingerprint background check and be approved by CPS. This allowed us to finally get the approval from CPS to provide free tutoring to children in foster care.

I learned to never give up on something you believe in, keep knocking on doors, keep pushing, fight for what you know is needed. I saw it as a BIG problem (and gap). Maybe too big for one person to handle, but if you never take any action, the same thing will happen, and that is nothing. I now have a team who feels the same passion about this as I do. It’s an incredible group who saw the need, saw the difference that one person (tutors) can make just by believing in these children, and telling them that secret sentence, “you can!”

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
You may wonder about the name “WHIT.” WHIT stands for Weekly Hands-on Independent Tutoring. But in reality, it honors my daughter, Whitney, who tragically died at the hands of a drunk driver in 2011. Her caring heart and generous nature inspire us to take on this important work. She was constantly helping the people who aren’t as privileged as we are. My husband Jeff Lisson is absolutely crucial in making this work. He is a brilliant mind an knows the law. I refer to him on system mechanics and he’s very connected to highly educated and accomplished people. If he doesn’t know them, he will find them. This isn’t a one man show. It truly takes a team!

Website: www.whitprogram.org

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whitprogram/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WHITProgram/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jlttrain