March 23, 2021 For Immediate Release
Joni Holifield founded the grassroots organization HeartSmiles in 2015 after the Freddie Gray riots left many of Baltimore's youth feeling powerless and hopeless. In partnership with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Bloomberg Philanthropies, HeartSmiles operates a city-wide program teaching youth the fundamentals of leadership, entrepreneurship, and the importance of giving back. HeartSmiles was founded in 2015 by West Baltimore native Joni Holifield with a mission to provide exceptional enrichment and leadership development opportunities to youth in Baltimore's most under-served communities. In recent months, Joni has helped City Schools host collaborative virtual programming geared to helping City Schools students with virtual learning. She has also volunteered her program's services to the Elementary/Middle Alternative Program to benefit the mentoring and leadership of students.