A Conversation with Aja Jester
Leader of Thriving Connections discusses importance of building community
Aja Jester, leader of the Thriving Connections program and a lived experience consultant, is the featured guest for September’s Heading Home Podcast.
Thriving Connections is an initiative of the South Central Community Action Program. TC supports families in poverty through building a community of intentional relationships among families and their allies. Anyone interested in being an ally or supporting TC in other ways can contact Aja at ajester@insccap.org.
Our wide-ranging conversation also touches on Aja’s personal journey that brought her and her six children to Bloomington. Her insights help support Heading Home of South Central Indiana, where Aja serves as a lived experience consultant. In that role she helped launch Heading Home’s Lived Experience Advisory Council, which met for the first time in August. You’ll learn that among her many other community roles, Aja is an elected official, representing District 7 on the Monroe County Community School Corporation board.
This episode also highlights the new Streets to Stability initiative to house unsheltered residents, and invites listeners to a Sept. 29 Utilities Assistance Roundtable that Heading Home is co-hosting in partnership with United Way of South Central Indiana.
Listen to the conversation with Aja here.
The monthly Heading Home Podcast, hosted by Executive Director Mary Morgan in partnership with WFHB, explores the realities of homelessness and housing insecurity through honest conversations, lived experiences, a solutions-oriented perspective, and a bias toward positivity.
