Thank you Mae!
Since 2021, first as a volunteer, Mae Mims has given her expertise, passion, and hard work to Asheville Poverty Initiative’s Realty of Poverty Education Program, leading as coordinator and, as the role demanded, innovator and champion. Education about the reality of poverty requires a kind of teaching and learning that is first-hand, immediate and rooted in lived experience. Both crucial and difficult to understand, Mae embraced the challenges of poverty education with empathy, fully understanding the stakes and navigating them with grace, including the weight our amazing poverty educators are asked to hold in sharing their stories, and the impact their stories have on the lived realities of all of our unhoused and marginalized neighbors, building a bridge to understanding.
In addition to Poverty Walks and Panels, which Mae supported and made accessible to groups ranging from elementary-age children to college classes, she tirelessly sought to build the program’s reach with walks open to the larger public, and events revealing the humanity and creativity of marginalized neighbors. The Unlabel Poverty events she led and organized throughout the larger Asheville area honored and elevated the faces and voices of our 12 Baskets Community. This sparked important conversations without which the true expenses of poverty and the humanity of those who live well below the poverty line would have remained silent in the mainstream narrative.
Under Mae’s leadership, the education program expanded to include an advocacy initiative, leading a diverse team of folks who attended City Council meetings, wrote letters and championed issues and perspectives that often go unheard or are treated as insoluble problems. Her work on this culminated in a Downtown Resource Fair, a first-of-its-kind event connecting neighbors with resources and, more importantly, with each other. “Mae is amazing to work with,” says Adrian Schaefer, who worked closely with her co-facilitating the fair, “She brings dynamic energy to the room and manages to keep folks on task gently so we all accomplish our goals. She has great ideas and isn't afraid to dig in and make them come to life. Every worthy organization needs a Mae!”
Mae’s fearless efforts to grow, support and expand the reach of the Education Program provided a foundation that uplifted Asheville Poverty Initiative’s core mission to be more than a food resource organization; rather, a site for the kinds of encounters and conversations that build community and understanding. We believe community is crucial to a reality in which all humans are treated with dignity and respect, regardless of the resources they have or lack, regardless of their circumstances. Mae’s commitment to this mission serves as a shining example, and we are grateful for the time, energy and love she poured into the hard and necessary work of creating a beloved community. As her position with Asheville Poverty Initiative comes to an end, we celebrate her contributions and her new endeavors in her own small business, Heavenly Hive.
