Funded Partner Spotlight: Braiding With A Twist
For Braiding With A Twist founder Marlo Jenkins, her years between the ages of 11 and 17 were the hardest. Money was scarce in her family. Sometimes she went hungry, which made it hard to concentrate in school. Some nights she heard gunshots, which made it hard to sleep well in her home.
While she was able to move beyond that hard time as an adult, earning her GED and then a bachelor’s degree, she found herself searching for a way to help girls experiencing the same kinds of struggles she did in her youth.
“The idea for Braiding With A Twist came to me in 2019. I was thinking about how to help young teens be able to be self-sufficient, which was something that I never had growing up,” she said. “The ages between 11-17 were my toughest years. I wanted to be able to give back to those teenagers, wanted to give back to the teens that looked like myself.”
She launched the group in 2022, using money from the sale of her book White Girl to cover the costs.
Braiding With A Twist offers girls ages 11-17 a 10-week program. During the program’s first six weeks, the girls learn how to do box braids, knotless braids, and scalp braids to crochet hair, and produce a braided wig valued at $370.
Week seven focuses on financial literacy, which they do in partnership with Regions Bank. Week eight is all about self-care, which is critical to managing stress and mental health. Week nine is about health and how to maintain it, and week 10 is the students’ graduation.
“A few moms called me after our last session and let me know that they daughters are doing each other’s hair, which saves the family money, and getting better and better at it,” Jenkins said. “I’ve had other girls offered part-time jobs at a salon. I’ve got 300 girls on the waiting list. I’m always thinking about what I could be doing to help them.”
In 2024, Braiding With A Twist received a $243,036 grant from the Foundation in collaboration with Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital. In 2025, the group received an additional capacity-building grant, which Jenkins wrote herself after learning from previous work with a contractor.
“I’m really looking forward to the CCAT (Core Capacity Assessment Tool) process. I’m looking forward to that to see how it could help us,” Jenkins said. “Right now, I do the majority of everything, and I’m not sure which direction to go in to grow. Once we get that report and are able to sit down with our mentor, it will help us see gaps and better understand what direction to go in.”
Braiding With A Twist needs assistance or partnership in two key areas: providing food for the girls, who are largely food insecure, and offering health instruction during the 9th week of the program, which is offered four times a year.
To learn more or get involved, visit their website at https://www.braidingwithatwist.org/.