SHANDA HARRIS

Shanda Harris is a woman of color with 4 children that she raised in a low-to-moderate income community. Shanda is a concerned parent who has dealt with - and still deals with - being a mother of an incarcerated/formerly incarcerated child. She now advocates for all -- especially our youth/young adults that face mental health issues, gun violence, drug addiction and abandonment on a day to day basis -- which has led her to a journey in entrepreneurship. Shanda has started several businesses over twenty plus years. She's now a proud owner of Shirl The Pearls’ bar, restaurant, and hotel establishment. After much time spent running her operation, she decided to focus on new ideas, and became the Founder/President of a non-profit organization called Team G.R.O.W (Great Resources of Wisdom) 6 years ago, operating in the Hill District Community. Shanda has devoted herself to connecting with families in the community through an outreach of love, education, togetherness, and trust. Being a mother and seeing other mothers go through some, if not all, of the struggles she went through and still faces today, makes her work hard to reach families through Team G.R.O.W’s programming opportunities, which show others how to gain and keep skills that will help build self-esteem and self-sufficiency that will benefit them for a lifetime.